here you go The War of the Worlds was written long before our present time. So what they pictured to be a "futuristic" alien was different than what we perceive as extra terrestrial life. Although not that much.
To answer your question, one of the things that are similar would probably be the reaction that the civilians had to seeing a space shuttle falling out of the sky.
Another thing would be the civilians running away from the creature, because we usually run away from things we do not understand.
