Battlefield Earth

Plot synopsis:
In the year 3000, Earth is a desolate wasteland. The Psychlos, a brutal race of giant humanoid aliens, have ruled the planet for a thousand years, and use human slave labor to strip its minerals and other resources. A few tribes of humans live in freedom in remote, hidden areas, but after ten centuries of Psychlo oppression they have abandoned any hope of regaining control of their planet. Jonnie Goodboy Tyler (Barry Pepper) rejects this universal hopelessness and leaves his tribe in the Rocky Mountains on a journey of exploration with a nomad hunter named Carlo (Kim Coates). Both are captured by a Psychlo raiding party and transported to a slave camp in the ruins of Denver, Colorado, the Psychlos' principal base of operations. A massive dome over the base protects the Psychlos from Earth's atmosphere, which is toxic to them.
At the camp they meet Terl (John Travolta), the Psychlo security chief, and his deputy, Ker (Forest Whitaker). Terl is stranded permanently at his remote Earth outpost due to an unexplained incident involving "the Senator's daughter". He plans to bribe his way back to the Psychlo home planet by mining gold in areas of high radioactivity. Psychlos avoid such areas because radiation reacts explosively with the gas mixture that they breathe. Terl selects Jonnie to lead the mining operation. Jonnie acquires a comprehensive knowledge of human history and literature in a Psychlo rapid-learning machine, and is particularly inspired by the Declaration of Independence. He defiantly declares that one day, humans will overthrow the Psychlos and retake their planet. An amused Terl boasts that the Psychlos conquered all of Earth in only nine minutes during the 21st century. He gives Jonnie a party of slaves and a Psychlo flying shuttle and orders him to find gold.
Jonnie locates a plentiful supply at the long-abandoned Fort Knox. He also discovers an abandoned underground military base with working aircraft, weapons, and fuel. While they are supposed to be laboring in the mines, Jonnie and his followers plot a revolution, and use the military base's flight simulators to train themselves in aerial combat.
After a week of training, the rebels launch their attack. In a suicide mission, Carlo flies his Harrier jump-jet into the Denver dome, destroying it and suffocating the Psychlos inside. Jonnie captures a teleportation device and uses it to teleport a dirty bomb to the Psychlo home world. When it detonates, the radiation it releases reacts catastrophically with the Psychlo atmosphere, destroying all life on the planet. The humans have retaken Earth, but face an uncertain future. The sole Psychlo survivors are Terl, who is imprisoned inside Fort Knox in a makeshift cell of gold bars; and Ker, who joins the victorious humans in their challenging project to rebuild their civilization.

Tags: comedy, murder, stupid, cult, violence, good versus evil, satire, suspenseful, sadist

Review:
Start with an L Ron Hubbard novel (your first mistake) featuring a completely plagiarized dark-skinned, war-like and hairy alien culture with wrinkly foreheads (if this sounds like Klingons to you, I thought so too!), and add unfortunate Barry "can't get a break" (or maybe it should be 'cant pick a script') Pepper and all you need is Travolta himself - playing the arrogant, merciless, slightly effeminate and quite under-sized leader of the alien colonists.
Finally, stay true to the idiotic gibberish you based the film on in the first place, and you've got the makings of a rolling-on-the-floor comedy.In fact, opening night, in a packed theater, people started laughing out loud about 20 minutes into the film and never really stopped.
Halfway through the film more than half the crowd was actually interacting with the film, asking "Mr Worf, where's Commander Riker?" and asking troublesome questions about how many hundreds of years gas would remain viable in the gas-tank of a Harrier.If you need to know about the plot - it's this simple - Earth has been conquered by an amazingly stupid group of Klingon-like aliens, and the remaining humans live in a large domed slave labor camp where they are taught that their sole purpose is servitude because they are stupid, weak, etc.
This movie makes you wonder why on IMDb we are forced to give a movie as dreadful as this a minimum of 1/10 when it quite rightly deserves a vote of 0/10.In all my life I have never seen such rubbish!The alleged "acting" unbelievable.What was John Travolta thinking when he made this pile of .........
Since there was nothing on screen to indicate why it had cost that much, my brother and I have also worked out how the budget was allocated:* Travolta's salary, plus assorted managers and hangers on: 40 million.* Special effects, film, sets, costumes, makeup and hair extensions: 25 million.* all other salaries: $4,999,888.* script: $112 and change.Though that still doesn't begin to explain the end result.
All that being said, I cannot hate this film like some other movies, and I think it's because no one thinks it's good.
I firmly believe that Battlefield Earth is the worst movie of all time.
It's painful to watch, it makes no sense, and watching John Travolta, Barry Pepper, and Forest Whitaker act in this movie was like watching Goofy.
The aliens have weaknesses that make even the non-rocket scientist in the audience wonder "how did these guys survive long enough to conquer anyone?" The next question I found myself asking is this, "How long would certain things (books, computer-dependent machinery, combustion engines) last and still be of any use to anyone?" Too many things you see in the movie are simply beyond belief.
really huge.* travolta doesn't even try.* the most elaborate dialog revolves around the sentence 'grumble mumble'.* special effects are the worst ever, because they pretend to be serious.* costumes and characterization make space: 1999 look excellenti could go on and on and on, but i'm beginning to feel sick just for having to think about it..
My  candidate for worst film for the new millennium: atrociously awful  Travolta vehicle (who is totally to blame for his co-producing this pet  project due to his Scientology ties) in bringing L.
Ron Hubbard's cult  sci-fi novel to fruition is just one God-forsaken mess from start to  finish in what feels like the ultimate Ed Wood film with a dire need  for the gang from MST3K to show up and provide apt ridicule: Travolta  stars as 9 foot tall alien Terl, a Psychlo who commands his rampaging  race in wiping out mankind in the year 3000 with only rebel Pepper out  to thwart his nefarious plans of mining gold for his own just rewards.
I don't think it will matter too much to point out everything that is bad about this film, but the acting, the dialog, the special effects, the plausibility of the cave people's quick learning development, and of course, the hair extensions will just have to suffice.I would have given the movie a 1 out 10 rating, but I did laugh at the movie quite a few times and that should be worth something, I think.
I thought the critics were exaggerating when they said how bad it was but they weren`t BATTLEFIELD EARTH is one of the worst films released by a major Hollywood studio.
First, a summary of my old first review:Battlefield Earth was on TV together with another movie that I wanted to watch.
All the scenes looked the same, the action scenes were bad, the dialogue was horrible, and for some reason the movie almost made me feel nauseous.
So, eventually I stopped switching channels and watched the other movie.Now, after having seen it in its entirety, I'm feeling relieved that the rating I originally gave was fully deserved.
The entire movie feels like an episode of a bad sci-fi TV show from around 1990, stretched to almost two hours.Funny enough, I found a perfect explanation as to why Battlefield Earth made me nauseous the first time I watched it.
Travolta does a decent job but fails to drag this film out of the abyss.The special effects probably looked OK back in 2000, except for the 'blaster' shots which would only have managed to awe an audience in 1980.
But even the other effects look very dated now, it's hard to believe that movies like The Matrix are even older than Battlefield Earth.
There is an obvious reference to the 'falling through glass' scene from Blade Runner at the start of the movie, but it is filmed so poorly that it was more like an insult to BR than a homage.Now, by far the worst thing about this movie is its plot.
However, the actual ending was ten times worse than the most preposterous thing I have ever seen in any other movie.
Mind that the rest of the movie will make you hurl, but if you enjoy laughing at ridiculousness that wants to take itself seriously, it could be worth it.The only thing that is remotely OK is the musical score, but only when considered on its own.
A plot by one of the Psychlos to outsmart his bosses (who have deserted him on earth by turning down his bid for a transfer) opens the door for Jonnie to learn a great deal about his new masters and gradually he becomes the last real hope for mankind.Being a film critic must be a hard job to do at times.
With Battlefield Earth, I must concede that it is a pretty bad film  but maybe not as bad as the many critics all said, although it would be easy to just keep kicking it in the same way as everyone else does.The film does have some very basic ideas that offer potential but these are squandered with a script that bulks out with bad dialogue, poor story development and an overall poor delivery that makes it a film that is certainly a mess, if not 'the worst film of all time'.
Whenever we are asked to accept that planes would have survived intact over 1000 years, or that anyone could learn to fly them in a matter of days then it is really asking too much if it also expects me to take it 100% seriously at the same time.The film has clearly had money spent on it, and it isn't that the effects look bad, it is more that they feel over-designed.
It is hard to describe and maybe I'm doing it badly but to me the film looked like the alien future's of a thousand sci-fi movies, not an alien future that exists outside of late night TV and, as such, it was even less engaging.
Pepper was a very strange choice for such a big role and, try as he might, he cannot get past the absurdity of the whole thing and he comes across as part of the silliness, taking his character way too seriously for the material  but I suppose he was only matching the mood of the film.
The effects are not awful, they just feel like generic, overdone sci-fi fare with little or no imagination  a big surprise when you consider that the director was nominated for an Oscar for Alien and won one for Star Wars for the very discipline of art direction!
If you don't already know, Battlefield Earth is considered the worst movie of all time.
You would want to watch this if you're with your friends and you like to make fun of terrible movies.
The fact that after I had watched it I felt disgusted and frankly scared that a film like this could be made in the first place made me dig a little deeper into the films background.After doing a bit of research I came to the scary conclusion that apparently this piece of cr*p that is this film is actually taken seriously by Scientologists, not unlike Christians with regard to the Bible.Yes, ladies and gentleman, people actually believe this happened - the awful storyline, the 2D characters and the ludicrous mindbendingly stupid conclusion is taken as the word of god.So now I feel terrified that this 'cult' has the influence to finance and convince Hollywood to waste so much money.
I do have to say the Hollywood does produce some god awful flicks, but none so highly publicised or with such big names starring in them.So avoid this like the plague, don't give distributors any excuse to produce anymore copies of this rubbish and don't waste another second of your life actually watching it.I give it -10/10.
The acting in this movie is terrible, the plot sucks, and the special effects look like Industrial Lights & Magics table scraps.
I'm one who thinks you can learn more about film from bad movies than good ones, and if there is any thuth to that, every film student's thesis should be written about Battlefield Earth.You don't just wonder what they were thinking.
The only good thing about this movie is that I never have to see it again.By far the worst film I have ever seen..
Ron Hubbard is REALLY good, then they should leave well alone and not spoil it into a visual farce.i will give the benefit of the doubt that the actual book has a more comprehensive plot and that this movie is trying to cram in too much into a few scenes.but really, it's the worst movie i've seen in a long while, ('Crow II' being the last one); even ID4 had light relief from Will Smith's wise-cracking or even good contrast interplay between Agents J & K.B.E. didn't even have good FX going for it; the planet explosion was the lamest and can't even match Star Wars from 1977 or even Star Trek (3?) - when the Genesis Effect took place.as far as heroes go, "Johnnie" (??!!) isn't exactly Braveheart, but how do you reconcile humanity reverting to cavemen and still have libraries intact, not to mention Fort Knox and Fort Hook(?) all within a hop, skip and a jump away - when the Psychlos(!) aren't looking...Jay Leno wasn't kidding when he said it was "bad" - sadly i had to see it for myself to know just what he meant.save your money and just laugh at it when it hits video stores or even on TV..
A bad movie, with bad special effects, bad costumes (the villains are KISS clones with snot plugs in their nose) bad characters (the hero is named "Goodboy" so you know he is the hero, and bad acting (Travolta switching accents, and most other actors look like they were wishing they were not there).
Those were the first words I uttered upon leaving the theatreI can't beleive I went against the advice of every critic in america and the advice of two of my close and wasted money on this inane, purile, stupid movie.John Travolta was about as convincing as a villain as my cat is as a dog.
The individual churches would buy the book by the case to pump up the sales figures and they're using similar tactics to make this movie look like it's a legitimate film.
Even the music was pretty generic.The only thing that keeps this movie alive is the beautiful visuals as it was detailed to look exactly like the book it was based on (I've never read it, but you get what I'm saying, right?).I've never seen any of Roger Christian's films, but I've seen worse and this movie is no exception.
Thus, I always thought that the trashing this movie has received over the years was probably undue - more of a snowball effect than a true reflection of the actual film.
Oh, and look out for the effect of one atomic bomb on the Psychlo home planet.In short, I wouldn't call this a bad film.
Since there is no legitimate effort to get you the viewer involved, the other problems in this movie are really glaring.Director Roger Christian opts to shoot 95% of the scenes in Battlefield Earth with extreme (and I mean extreme) dutch angles to create the feel of a comic book.
Of course almost everyone who has ever watched a film will be aware of this, since it has become universally known as a bad movie.
This film is abysmal and is the reason why there needs to be a 0 rating on IMDb. There is not a single redeeming feature to the entire production: the credits are crap, the music is terrible, the acting is bad, the dialogue is forced and uninteresting, the special effects are not that special (this movie came out 7 years AFTER Jurassic Park and the effects in that are 1000 times better), the costumes are just ridiculous Mad Max rip offs, and the plot makes no sense whatsoever.
Stand up for their rights!" (Sorry, couldn't help it) Long story short, in 7 days (seriously, SEVEN days) Pepper and a handful of humans learn how to fly harrier jets that have been sitting for 1000 years and are perfectly clean and shiny with absolutely no rust - not to mention the fuel that has managed to stand the test of time!
I cannot believe that Travolta would allow himself to be in a movie like this after he read the script.
This film makes Mission to Mars actually look like a decent movie and it was pretty bad too.
Travolta has definitely become blinded by hubris to produce and star in such an awful film such as this, and dragging Forest Whitaker down with him...This was the first movie I've gone to in a long while expecting it to be bad, and boy did I get my money's worth.
So many pointless characters and so few relevant plot-points, stupid costumes, bad lighting, bad make-up, no continuity, and completely unimaginative aliens, who look and act just like humans (even the bartender runs up tabs for his customers) dressed as cheap Klingon extras at a Star Trek convention!
Caught right in the middle of this mess is John Travolta, who shamelessly promotes this film across the world along with his bogus religion $cientology...This movie is good for a couple laughs and maybe for some kids, but nothing else.
Very rarely do screen adaptions match the appeal of the book, but Battlefield Earth's concoction of idiotic characters, plot holes, bad acting, and lapses in logic came from ineptness and not from any demands of the film medium.With this one film director Roger Christian has shot to the top of my "Really Bad Directors List", easily replacing the likes of Michael Bay and Simon West.
This is the worst movie I have ever seen, and I waste of my time.DON'T EVEN WATCH IT TO MAKE FUN OF IT'S HORRENDOUSNESS.
I love watching films where zombies or aliens or alien zombies are killing precocious teens by the dozens, but I just couldn't get into BE, not even for the sake of dear camp.Oh, sure, it's a laugh, but it takes a dedicated afficionado of bad movies to sit this thing through.
Ron Hubbard's Scientology theories in it, except possibly that the bad guys are called Psychlos as some sort of nod to his dislike  of psychiartry.The horrible thing is that might have made the movie better..
(By the way, it appears these weapons were never used...no wonder the aliens only needed 9 minutes to conquer the planet.)John Travolta, who labored long and hard to bring this story to the screen (it's based on a book by Scientology founder L.
The dialog is dumb, the effects are pretty bad (by and large), the plot is about what you'd expect, and the entire thing is roughly the equivalent of smearing dog feces onto film and putting it through a projector.People often neglect to mention costumes in a movie, and not being a costume person I suppose I do the same, normally.
What was this even about like DA fudge here are reasons why this movie sucks and there's no spoilers nope no spoilers anyway don't even watch it.Five reasons why battlefield earth sucks 1.
The characters : the characters are terrible really bad they are unfunny and I believe they are mental like why the heck are these people but john travolta character was the worst character of all time Yes his character was terrible and unfunny.
5. Acting : horrendous they act like clowns they are not even trying and john travolta my man he is ignoring his roles and he is pretty bad in this movie he just sucks.Take my word guys don't even watch this crap it is known like one of the worst movies of all time and they are so damn right..
It's the good Guys against the bad Guys, and if that has any relation to Scientology, so does pretty much all books and movies.
It is movies like this one that almost buried John Travolta in the 80s.