WATCH THE SKIES! ended up as a mixed bag. I'm glad the science fiction films of the 1950s, both superb efforts like THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN or B-Z grade stuff like TARANTULA! or THE DEADLY MANTIS, are getting their due, but the topic was SO broad that an hour was not nearly long enough to do the genre justice, especially since the last quarter hour became an extended trailer for Spielberg's WAR OF THE WORLDS. Great to see those scenes especially in comparison to the 1950s version, but other wonderful films got passed over simply for lack of time.
The four talking heads used throughout were James Cameron, Ridley Scott, George Lucas, and Spielberg (with narration by Mark Hamill). They're marvelous directors, but I didn't need them to tell me the plots of the films being shown. I could have used less of them and more film clips with Hamill's narration.