It was ok but I rather prefer 1956 version. The dialogues are messy and there are some incoherencies through the movie scenes that produce a feeling of being lost several times (they get off from a taxi in the middle of the highway and suddenly they are at San Francisco city hall?).
The special effects are very well done and the music is also the other strong feature of this film but, the sound and the dubbing, are the most horrible things that my ears had suffered (yes, suffered) in horror movies from a long time. Totally absence of foley effects on almost all the picture, when they were, it was with bad timing or without synchronization with the picture. It amazes me that is Ben Burtt (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, E.T., Dark Crystal ) the professional behind this aspect of the movie.
The dubbing by the cast is over-forced and with a total lack of feeling in some scenes.
I didn’t read the book but the film, among the one from 1956 has some key scenes that I can imagine that are directly extracted from there because they are depicted identically in both movies.
I prefer the ending of this one but mixed with the one of 1956 and, as a final appreciation, the contribution of Kevin McCarthy was very surprising and funny.