Both are good! Ignoring the tacked-on framing device to justify a sudden happy ending, I do prefer how the ’50s movie introduces itself, with Bennell coming back to town where people have already been replaced, hearing people talking about their loved ones disappearing and not believing them. Things already in place and unsettling and he can’t see it, versus the ’70s movie showing someone close to Driscoll getting replaced immediately. The people in the ’70s one are also much more obviously behaving weirdly. I really do like the tension in the ’50s one of the swapped people still behaving outwardly pretty normal and their loved ones just insisting that they aren’t.
They movies do converge plotwise more as they go on and the ’70s one does have Jeff Goldblum and Spock in it so that’s cool. It also looks really good. The effects are great. Well, other than the dog man face thing. I didn’t even parse initially that it was meant to be anything other than a dog in a mask, becuase it is clearly just a dog in a mask. I also don’t like the reworking of the dog scare bit to be a moment of disgust rather than a moment of empathy.
Good movies 👍🏻