Oh no... they might invade earth... and get their butts kicked

[WingedSerpent]

I was thinking about this when reading information about the new Harry Potter movies. The story includes dark wizards invading the normal world.  Well, even with their powerful spells, the armies of the world still outnumber them.  And a solder can fire off several rounds while a wizard is casting a spell.

A fight might go something like this
Wizard lifts wand to cast spell. "Abra-cad...
Military figther using a gun *BANG**BANG*BANG*

Military fighter is the deadliest warrior.

[AndyC]

Underestimating the primitive humans has been a staple (or perhaps a cliche) of science fiction literature for a long time. We could probably come up with a huge list of books and short stories in which an advanced alien race shows up, often in the process of expanding their empire, and finds humanity to be an anomaly in a galaxy of relatively docile, cautious and conscientious beings, who are slow to change and accept authority readily when it's imposed on them. And we proceed to shock and appall them with what humans are capable of, and their nice, stable alien order gets turned on its ear.

But as standard a plot as that is, those stories are usually a lot of fun to read. Harry Turtledove's Worldwar and Colonization series probably took the idea the furthest. It was also well done by Niven and Pournelle in Footfall.

For an older book that does a nice job with the theme, I'd recommend Pandora's Planet, by Christopher Anvil. I like that one because humans gladly join the invaders' empire, then totally wreck it just by doing what we do. The main idea there is that the aliens aren't as smart as us, but they developed space travel precisely because they weren't full of ideas. It gave them greater focus. When somebody came up with a good idea, everybody recognized it and supported it. Then they find a race that is just full of ideas, quite adept at pitching those ideas, good or bad, and constantly competing with each other. Humanity turned out to be the bad guys, destroying the perfect society of those poor, naive invaders from space.

[Jim H]

In the original book, the aliens were rocketed to earth by some sort of cannon, and they actually constructed the tripods on site. 

Also, Tron: Legacy does this.  The bad guy in the film is planning to invade the "real world".  With one ship and maybe a couple thousand guys, at least that's all we see.

[Trevor]

Another one is "the energy being" in Horror Express who kills many people by sucking their brains dry and then gets killed by....... an exploding train. 

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

Another one is "the energy being" in Horror Express who kills many people by sucking their brains dry and then gets killed by....... an exploding train. 

Now there's a title I haven't heard in a while. And talk about irony...the mnster had all those nice brains for lunch and then had his dining experience ruined by a trainwreck. I tell ya' some monsters get all the luck...

[Trevor]

Another one is "the energy being" in Horror Express who kills many people by sucking their brains dry and then gets killed by....... an exploding train. 

Now there's a title I haven't heard in a while. And talk about irony...the mnster had all those nice brains for lunch and then had his dining experience ruined by a trainwreck. I tell ya' some monsters get all the luck...

 

Go to Submitted Reader Reviews and you'll find my review of it. 

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

Another one is "the energy being" in Horror Express who kills many people by sucking their brains dry and then gets killed by....... an exploding train. 

Now there's a title I haven't heard in a while. And talk about irony...the monster had all those nice brains for lunch and then had his dining experience ruined by a trainwreck. I tell ya' some monsters get all the luck...

 

Go to Submitted Reader Reviews and you'll find my review of it. 

Will do.

In the meantime, another monstrous menace that was cut down to size were the Neon Maniacs.  Horrible creatures that appeared unstoppable, until one of them was hit with water, only to melt away.   

[snowman]

Signs...they come to the Earth which is covered with more water than land yet that is their Achilles Heal.  That friggin movie bugs me on so many levels.

Now you know why Hollywood is into making remakes. When the do come up with an original script its so dumb as to defy logic.

[snowman]

In the meantime, another monstrous menace that was cut down to size were the Neon Maniacs.  Horrible creatures that appeared unstoppable, until one of them was hit with water, only to melt away.   

The same in the Day of the Triffids.  However, if I remember correctly, in that case of the Triffids it was salt water that was their undoing.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

In the meantime, another monstrous menace that was cut down to size were the Neon Maniacs.  Horrible creatures that appeared unstoppable, until one of them was hit with water, only to melt away.   

The same in the Day of the Triffids.  However, if I remember correctly, in that case of the Triffids it was salt water that was their undoing.

You are correct, sir! Salt water killed our dear Triffids and the day was saved as the path for another corny B-movie was cleared, and Hollywood made a mint off of em'!   

[Trevor]

In the meantime, another monstrous menace that was cut down to size were the Neon Maniacs.  Horrible creatures that appeared unstoppable, until one of them was hit with water, only to melt away.   

The same in the Day of the Triffids.  However, if I remember correctly, in that case of the Triffids it was salt water that was their undoing.

You are correct, sir! Salt water killed our dear Triffids and the day was saved as the path for another corny B-movie was cleared, and Hollywood made a mint off of em'!   

And the great Ted Moore BSC - South Africa's first Oscar winner - did the photography.

[Jim H]

Saltwater?  Really?  The book ending is much better - characters just leave, pretty open ended...  But in the book people are the main bad guys not plants.  Reccomended by the way.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

Saltwater?  Really?  The book ending is much better - characters just leave, pretty open ended...  But in the book people are the main bad guys not plants.  Reccomended by the way.

Hmm. never knew there was a book.  Plant life also got the best of the human race in perhaps one of the most ridiculous movies ever, The Navy vs. The Night Monsters, where we were invaded by a marching army of, if you can believe it, tree trunks!  Now here was a movie.

[Raffine]

Saltwater?  Really?  The book ending is much better - characters just leave, pretty open ended...  But in the book people are the main bad guys not plants.  Reccomended by the way.

Also in the book the Triffids aren't Killer Veggies form Outer Space. They were created by humans for their tasty oil production. They escape from the Triffid farms when most of mankind goes blind from the meteor shower.

The book is great. It was adapted fairly faithfully first as a BBC radio serial, and then as a BBC tv mini-series.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

And then  we have our good old friend, The Blob.  A nice little story about a glob of cosmic grape jelly that winds up on Earth, having lunch with the locals until he winds up getting frozen by a fire extinguisher.