Rating: 
Summary: Damn You, John Travolta
Review: Hi, my name is Dan and I have suffered through a traumatic experience. While at a friends house, I turned to this movie thinking it would be a likable enough diversion. Man, was i wrong. It was awful beyond the point of so bad its good. I never thought a movie could ever be painful, but Battlefiel Earth was. I have since checked myself into rehab.
Rating: 
Summary: Guilty pleasure all the way.
Review: Battlefield Earth is a bad movie, but it's also a highly enjoyable one. With mostly terrible acting (the exception is Barry Pepper), overstylized direction, and a mind-bogglingly dumb script, the film actually manages to be quite entertaining. It's stupid, but it is undeniably fast-paced and fun.Basically, the film is about a group of cavemen in the year 3000 who fight back against their alien oppressors. It has the makings of a sci-fi epic, and while it has the look of one (the post-apocalyptic sets are often grand), it's obviously hampered by the script. So, what we do get is an entertaining sci-fi action film with a good dose of (un)intentional comedy. The action scenes aren't actually very good, but the use of slow motion and the constant shots on tilted angles along with the use of "epic" music give a certain kitsch value you're unlikely to find elsewhere. I'm not going to argue this as a good movie, because it really isn't. It's not so much underrated (unlike Mission to Mars, which actually is a smart film with a not-as-smart but still riveting finale) as it is a film that I recommend at least one viewing because you have to see it to believe it, especially if you're a fan of sci-fi, action, or big-budget blockbusters. All the elements are here for a movie to watch with your friends. You have the mostly impressive special effects, the hulking ruins of cities like Denver and Washington, D.C., the big "souped-up action scenes", the nasty villains, the likeable and courageous hero, as well as a perfunctory romance which is actually never mentioned in the reviews I've read but is quite evident. I'm sure director Roger Christian was trying to appeal to the female audience with that, though it's still quite repelled by the sight of John Travolta as a 9-foot tall alien with a head the size of a watermelon. I wouldn't feel very bad about renting this film to watch it at least once. Just realize it's a stupid movie and that you shouldn't take it the slightest bit seriously. You're more than likely to have some fun from it, like I did.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as bad as you might think
Review: I had trepidations, to say the least, after reading comments on Amazon, but for $ 15.00, what the heck. Yes, it's dumb. Yes, Travolta looks silly. But the visuals are good -- really good. The hard part is trying to figure out if this was a serious effort, or if it's tongue in cheek. It isn't great, but it sure isn't the worst movie ever made.
Rating:
Summary: One of the worst movies EVER. Travolta should be ashamed.
Review: The first hour of this movie was the audio-visual equivalent of licking an ashtray. Afterwards, I settled into a state of shock that this piece of garbage was released. Whatever you do, DO NOT RENT OR BUY THIS MOVIE. Doing so does nothing to hold the industry accountable for this insult to moviegoers everywhere. If you are one of those people who subjects him/herself to pain just to see what it feels like, wait for this to come to TV. They should institute a negative star rating policy just for this movie. The fact that the average rating for this truly awful film is higher than 1 star frightens me. Those who promoted this movie should be indicted ... Travolta should be ashamed.
Rating:
Summary: An improved version of the awful theatrical release
Review: I watched this DVD today, with some trepidation since I found the movie almost unbearable at the theater. I am a huge fan of the book and the deviation from the book by the screenplay was inexplicable, kind of like the butchery done in "The Firm". Hint to Hollywood: If you make a movie from a best-selling book, don't let a screenwriter hack it to bits; maybe the author knew what he was doing when he wrote it. Most of the plotholes and logical inconsistencies pointed out here in other reviews were dealt with in the book. Many of them are still present in the movie, but this is not the version shown in theaters. The DVD cover states that it has been edited, and it has, to good effect. I'm still trying to pin down exactly what was cut/re-edited/added, but overall I enjoyed the movie twice as much on DVD. Maybe because I have lower expectations now or because it's on a smaller screen, but if you hated it in the theaters you may want to try it again. And please don't compare this with Lynch's "Dune". No amount of re-editing will ever put BE on my top 10 list.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome DVD experience!
Review: I got the DVD when I was in the US recently. There was no problem with the Region 1 encoding. I have a DVD player that is zone free and it played the DVD perfectly. So obviously the studio didn't use the Region specific encoding on this title. As for the movie, it was very enjoyable. I am a real fan of SF, both books and movies. As far as the "old guard" science fiction writers from the golden age of SF in the 40's and 50's, my favorites are Robert Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard and Isaac Asimov. As far as movies are concerned, my top picks would have to be Blade Runner, The Matrix, Fifth Element and Independence Day. While Battlefield Earth is not in the top 3, it was very good SF. Unfortunately, all these movies (even the almost holy "Blade Runner") are so full of plot holes and impossible science that you really have to let go of reality in order to enjoy them. For example, let's start with Independence Day: 1) The mother ship, 1/4 the mass of the moon, pulls into geostationary orbit around Earth. Without ever firing a shot, the gravitational effect would cause catastrophic tidal waves and other potentially cataclysmic effects for Earth. 2) At the end of the movie, the alien ships are destroyed and plummet to Earth. The impact would be so huge (and considering there are many of these ships) that it would probably be enough to wipe out life on Earth, as a single comet probably wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. 3) Shall we discuss The Matrix. Let's start with any plausible explanation of why they need to leave the Matrix only through old fashioned phone booths. Since the Matrix isn't really real, they should be able to manipulate better exits than this. But as a plot device, once you accepted its absurdity, it made the movie more interesting and exciting. 4) Who exactly is the Evil being in the Fifth Element? Is this some type of anti-Christ deity whose only job is to attempt destruction of Earth every few thousand years? Don't even try figuring this out, there's nowhere to go. I could go on and on. Actually, Battlefield Earth had a core of realism completely missing from some of these other movies, while I must admit that the movie skipped over some important explanations evident in the book. The basic thing I like was the concept of the alien invasion. 1) Unlike Independence Day, there was no pretense that the technologically backward humans could even hope to put up a real fight against the advanced alien invaders. 2) They invaded Earth to mine it of resources (metals). All surveys of the known universe show that heavy elements like gold are relatively rare, especially if you're trying to find them on planets and not in the center of a star, where we might suppose that even advanced alien races would have difficulty extracting them. 3) The aliens used drones with poison gas to wipe out Earth's population. This is clearly a lot more efficient than the city destroying alien spaceships of Independence Day. 4) The aliens wanted to use the humans as slaves and had to teach them a minimum of advanced technology in order to do this. Well of course our own history of slavery proves that the slave masters are willing to educate the slaves to a limited degree if it makes them more efficient slaves. 5) The human slave took the minimal eduction offered by the slavemaster Psychlo and took the initiative to learn more than he was offered. Well, once again history is full of examples of slaves who taught themselves to read etc. 6) The technology which defeated the aliens was their own technology. Unlike Independence Day, where we are asked to believe that there is some way to link a Microsoft Windows based laptop to the alien mothership computers (please!) here we see that no Earth technology is involved in the fight against the aliens - only their own technology used against them. I could go on, but the point is that it was at least as believable as some of the top SF movies of all time, and actually the concepts were more rooted in real physics than many other SF movies. As a last note, the DVD had excellent 5.1 channel (Dolby Digital) encoding, no artifacts and overall great quality. I recommend this to all.
Rating:
Summary: whatch if you only want part of the story
Review: i can't believe what they did here! i have read the book and i loved it. so i figured i would watch the movie. it was one of the worst mistakes i have ever made when it comes to entertainment. this movie starts at like page sixty of the book changes some of the things around(like how the people got the gold, how terl dies, etc.) and ends it at about page 330. this wouldn't be too bad except that the book is over 1000 pages long! they left out over two-thirds of the story! and those are really important parts. so if you really want good entertainment read the book. if you want a short thrill that destroyes a great work of sci-fi, watch this. it's your call.
Rating:
Summary: Where did it lose reality for you?
Review: The movie was fun and refreshing, the dvd is excellent. I was disapointed in the sci fi fans that didnt give this movie a chance, most of the people that shot it down hadn't even seen it.
Rating:
Summary: the worst piece film to ever taint the screen -total rip-off
Review: i dont understand how this film made it to the big screen or to dvd...it is the worst film i have ever watched in my entire life (and i've seen pretty lame ones in my time). i dont know what caused the poor film...was it the infusion of some religious subplot into it, or just poor film making. i have always loved travolta, but becuase of this film, i have vowed never to watch a movie by him again in protest - i feel robbed.
Rating: 
Summary: Buy This One
Review: The movie was fun on the big screen but I think the DVD has more to offer. If you like old-fashioned sci-fi with 21st century special effects, you'll want to add this one to your collection. I agree with another viewer who said the DVD is crisper & clearer than the movie. At the great price Amazon is offering this DVD for, it is a good buy.
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