In 1957, Japan’s Toho Studios went the deluxe route to make a science-fiction spectacle, a full 20 years before Hollywood realised a special-effects budget would turn a lowly B into a franchise blockbuster. If Godzilla was its Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, The Mysterians was its War Of The Worlds — a forest fire, an earthquake and a giant robot aardvark (?) are the first strikes against Japan by the Mysterians: PVC-suited alien leeches who are here in a burrowing saucer to make off with our cutest women for breeding purposes.
It’s solemn and silly, with too many earnest scientific-military discussions, but it pulls out all the stops when unleashing destructive weaponry, melting tanks, bizarre futurist décor, panicking hordes and kicking the baddies off the planet.