I'm not trying to use the "of course it's bad" as an excuse for the quality. I'm saying that this film feels like a low budget genre film that doesn't have the time or resources to be perfectly polished and so I can forgive (and, yes, even enjoy at times) the things that aren't perfectly executed (just like I do with the old genre films that clearly inspired this).
Granted, I don't really know how low the budget was, or how rushed production might have been, but the fact that it FEELS like that type of movie is enough for me to forgive its flaws. And I'm more willing to forgive those flaws (just like the old 50's movies) b/c this movie is still lots of fun & doesn't get all pretentious trying to be higher brow than it really is (just like most of those 50's movies). It's cheap thrills. I knew that going in & got the entertainment I was hoping for. And I'd argue that it was pretty well done cheap thrills...
As a side note, I used THEM! for my example b/c the insect-like aliens living in the desert reminded me of it. But if THEM! is on too high of a pedestal to be dragged down to this level

, you could replace it with any other low budget 50's scifi movie that you can admit isn't exactly "great cinema" but you still enjoy plenty.