SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

vicallo2 This movie inspired a lot of movies later (maybe one of the most famous was ET), but by far, this one continues to be better. More intrigue and adventure, and less drama.

john_vance-20806 I didn't see this as a kid, but in my 50s,when it appeared as some Saturday afternoon movie.A combination of an alien creature with atomic bombs, multi-staged rockets and communist threats kind of threw everything into one basket so this was probably a stretch even when it was made. Add to that making the main protagonists a group of children muddied it up even further.The acting was pretty good. Since I knew Russell Johnson only as the Professor, it was fascinating to see him playing the ugly, tough guy role he was known for. Michel Ray was too dreamy-eyed and hammy, even for a kid. Jackie Coogan was fun and Peggy Webber adorable. The science, on the other hand, was pretty bad but that's to be expected. As others have noted, it was way too preachy and pie-in-the-sky. The alien was interesting but not particularly compelling.Overall not a bad way to spend 90 minutes on a slow day, but if it's sunny outside, let it go.

Dan Cross I can't understand the low rating this interesting film has on IMDb either! I just watched it for the first time, and I found it very entertaining, compelling, atmospheric, and ahead of its time. The most interesting aspect of the film is not the cold war intrigue but the war between the old and new generations. The children (with the guidance/power/control of a growing, glowing alien brain) rebel against their military-industrial complex parents. The parents attempt to fight back, resorting to physical violence against their own kids twice in the movie. In the end (mild spoiler alert here) the kids get the upper hand. One of the most interesting lines for me comes at the admittedly heavy-handed preachy ending (what 50's sci-fi film would be complete without a pedantic lecture about the dangers of man and science going too far?). But here, the leader of the rebellious alien-allied children says something about how ALL the children of the world joined together to oppose the military buildup. "You mean all the children in Russia and Prague too?" says one of the military leaders. And this, a full 10 years before Prague spring and the Democratic Convention Riots. Someone saw the youth revolt coming!It's a great looking film too. The landscapes are so bleak and eerie, and the children's faces are so interesting and ambiguous. So much is done with silent looks in this movie! And forget about whatever silly TV shows you might have seen the actors in, the performances are good. Russell Johnson (aka, The Professor) is a great physical actor here, and Jackie Coogan (Uncle Fester) is good too. The best performance though is the leader of the children, Michel Ray, who is impressively understated and subtle for such a young actor. This is a smart, well made movie, much better than Invaders from Mars (which has a rating on IMDb exactly twice as high as The Space Children). I say you should definitely give it a chance.

zetes This film has an abysmal 2.7 rating on IMDb. It's not really that bad, but it is a pretty big disappointment coming from a director who made The Incredible Shrinking Man the year before. This is a smaller, less ambitious film for sure. A meteor lands in a cave on a beach and its alien essence possesses a bunch of children (I think - it's kind of vague what kind of influence the thing has on the children) who then help it stop their fathers from launching a nuclear warhead into space. It's pretty cheesy, but not badly acted for this kind of movie (the kids in particular are far from awful). The sets are very cheap looking. At one point a flashing light causes the shadows of the actors to appear on the matte painting of the sky in the background. It's more forgettable than detestable.