@Strannger18 said:

I remember when I first saw this film upon release, I noticed that the scene where the martian soldier is carrying the translator machine whilst chasing some people. He is clearly trying to zap the people, and is shouting out taunts which the translator machine interprets "Stop come back, I am your friend". This meant that humanity never understood what the Martians were saying in the first place, and that they mis-interpreted their initial greetings as friendly in nature. The scene where the general greets the Martian ambassador in the desert now makes more sense when you conclude that the Martians were in fact demanding the surrender of Earth to Mars (in which the humans mis-interpreted as a message of friendship). When the hippie released the dove, they saw it as an assassination attempt by the humans and began destroying everything in sight. And afterwards the Martians began to use this form of treachery against the humans in the form of assasisnation attempts on the House of Representatives, then later the US & French president.

Has anyone read the novelisation? And does it shed any more light on this theory?

The movie was based on/taken from a 'trading card' series that was created in 1962 (see link). It wasn't adapted from a novel/book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Attacks (trading card series info)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Attacks! (info about the movie)

Wow they are really sadistic and evil. They actually took those cards and made a story out of it. All together about Mars blowing up and that's why they attack.

Yep. But to me Mars Attacks! is more of a comedy/spoof of 'alien' movies from the 1950's.

It's a great spoof. The translator worked fine. They just had a sick sense of humor. There were thousands of clues you might have picked up on, but a few notable ones would be that they laughed at the president's attempts to make peace when he wasn't around (and one making the chicken gesture, clearly mocking the president's conciliatory speech), and then pretended to take things seriously just long enough to kill more people. They thought it was funny. They were cruel. Another good scene is when they offer peace with France, and then kill everyone.

If they were in fact being honest, and being mistranslated, what would be the point of them killing everyone in Congress, after walking in so casually? What would be the point of telling the French they were going to conquer them, and then kill them? Why would they extend a hand to shake hands with the president, and have that hand be the thing that kills him? Why would they see that grandma wasn't paying attention, then roll in a giant gun and set it point blank at the back of her head? These are all the acts of a sadistic cruel species who thought destroying humanity was funny. There was no translation error.