Battlefield Earth

Rating:
Summary: Finding the 1 star/5 star ratio interesting...
Review: While reading several of the 5 star ratings, I've come across a trend.

1. They say that they've read the book but fail to state that the film throws the book contents out the window. I read the book and loved it. I saw the movie and was not amused.

2. They speak of how good it was considering its low budget. Hello!!! I cost nearly 80 million dollars to make!

3. They say that those who hated the movie are not open-minded enough to suspend disbelief. As well, they accuse viewers of being swayed by the negative media. As to that, I am far from easily led. I admit to enjoying The Avengers, The Postman, Waterworld, Event Horizon, etc. In no way am I swayed by the critics. Battlefield Earth was just bad. It deserved every negative review it received.

4. As for the criticism that those who did not enjoy the film were not sci-fi fans, I can only shake my head. If they didn't enjoy sci-fi films, why did they fork over their hard-earned money to go see a sci-fi film on opening weekend?

Several negative reviews on this site go into great detail as to the problems with Battlefield Earth. I can not argue with any of them. To state otherwise would be a lie. After reading the book years ago, I was very excited about finally seeing it on the screen. When I finally saw it, I was sooo disappointed. Every element of the book that gave the story some credibility was stripped from the film. The book took over a year for the uprising. The movie condenses this effort in a little over a week.

I'm also a fan of post-apocalypse films. This has got to be the friendliest post-apocalyptic environment ever. All you have to do is find the light switch and everything is just like it was 1000 years ago.

If you are looking for an interesting, unusual sci-fi or imaginative film, check out Dark City, City of Lost Children, Pi, Run Lola Run, Six String Samurai, or What Dreams May Come.

Heck, before watching BE, you might feel better cringing through Police Academy 5. There is nothing to be gained from Battlefield Earth at all. People who rave about this film have done nothing but lower their standards and expect others to do the same. Sorry, I can't do it.

It is a film like this that makes me miss the guys from Mystery Science Theater 3000. The only thing missing from BE, was an intro stating, "We've got movie sign!!!"

Wait for it to come out on cable, check it out, then wonder where all these 5 star reviews are coming from. Either they have the mentality of a 6 year old or in love with the underdog (no matter how mangy it may be). For all the brain-washed 5 star folks, I'd like to recommend the Pokemon Movie. That should be on an equivalent intelligence level.

By the way, a hatred for Scientology did not wreck this movie. It wrecked itself. -Jeff!

Rating:
Summary: Was this supposed to be entertaining
Review: It is hard for me to stress how bad this movie was. It is long and boring. Being titled battlefield earth you would think this movie would have some decent action. But it turns out the only battle is some weak 15 min. fight at the end. This movie was also hard to belive. I mean the species that took over earth and most of the known galaxy seemed utterly stupid. I highly advise you not to see this movie.

Rating:
Summary: Goofy, Spectacular Fun!
Review: Forget that some parts are admittedly corny, implausible ,unscientific, poorly acted or otherwise objectionable. Of course it steals from many other films, but all in all, this is great to look at. If you view it in a Saturday morning cartoon kind of way, it is extremely entertaining. The Psychlos are one of the most repugnant races in Science Fiction. There hasn't been a hammier villain than Travolta since Max Von Sydow in Flash Gordon. The special effects are panoramic and truly spectacular.

I found many similarities with Independence Day, but frankly, that one almost put me to sleep, while I couldn't wait to see what they were going to try to pull off next in Battlefield Earth. Try to forget that you are a sophisticated, savvy and cynical viewer of the 2000s. Go back to the good old days of playing with action figures or toy soldiers in the sandbox and you'll get your money's worth out of Battlefield Earth.

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie
Review: This is a very good movie that I saw and I walked out of the theater thinking I've got to get this on DVD when it comes out. See it it is a really good movie.

Rating:
Summary: This is possibly the worst movie of all time.
Review: If I could have given this movie a negative amount of stars, I would have. I read the book, which was wonderful, and hoped that the movie was somewhat like it. What I found was that they had taken five characters out of fifty, had two parts in the movie that correspond with the book and that the people who wrote this had the nerve to title it after a great book. This wasted my time and was a horrible dissapointment. The plot was so asinine and the characters were totally without substance. If you enjoy movies with some plot and substance, skip this one.

Rating:
Summary: Technology fans will hate this one...
Review: I am a Star Trek fan, and I have got to say that this movie didn't seem to be researched at all. I think that I would have found an old Buck Rogers film to be better than this one. There are certain things that can't be done in a movie, if you want an INTELLIGENT audience to enjoy it. What burned me most is that in less than 7 days they taught a group of men, who just a few days ago were hunting with sharp sticks and rocks, to fly Harrier jets quite efficiently, with ONE flight simulater I might add. From what they knew about the technology, they shouldn't have even known how to turn it on. I know which movie I will say is the worst I have ever seen. Don't waste your time. They have violated ALL the rules in this one.

Rating:
Summary: You want plot holes? Here you go.
Review: #1 Johnny Goodboy used a Psychlo learning machine, and learned "Euclidean" Geometry. I guess the psychlos were fans of the ancient Greeks.

#2 The tribes lived in caves in Denver for 1000 years, but one spoke with a heavy British accent.

#3 They had no system of writing any more, but after using the learning machine that taught him Pyschlo, Johnny knew how to read English

#4 It took the psychlos 9 minutes to defeat the combined armies, navies, air force, marines of the USA, China, Russia, and England etc... but it took 9 minutes for a dozen cavemen to defeat them?

#5 If the psychlos were so smart that they had a learning machine, then how come they couldn't learn English, but needed to teach Johnnie their language? Also, the ancient teacher from another alien race spoke to Johnnie in English.

#6 The Styrofoam creatures at the mini golf place looked mighty nice after 1000 years. I guess styrofoam really doesn't biodegrade.

#7 The Psychlos have advance mapping capabilities that allowed them to detect a tiny bit of gold from a earthquake in the rocky mountains, but they couldn't find Ft. Knox in 1000 years. It took cavemen a few days to figure that out.

#8 The library of congress is topped with the capitol dome.

#9 The Psychlos fought a war, albeit a short one with humans with aircraft, yet thought dogs were smart and humans were unable to operate mining equipment.

#10 The Pyschlos taught the most rebellious human to use their flying equipment, which is dumb in and of itself. How did they beat us in the first place? But then, he sneaks off in the craft for a week, cruising to Ft. Knox, Washington D.C., and Ft. Hood, Texas, and they don't notice it or track it with radar.

#11 In Ft. Hood Texas, the rebels arrive 1000 years after humanity was decimated, to find that the power was still on. I guess the military paid their electrical bills way in advance. Not only was the power on, but there were harrier jets with full gas tanks, missiles, and a flight simulator that was still functioning and turned on when they arrived. Oh, and there was a nuclear bomb left out in the open for them to grab too. How convenient.

#12 The rebels, aside from Johnny did not get the learning machine experience, but he was able to train them to read English in seven days. He got them enough training time each in the flight simulator for them to learn battle tactics and to fly advanced military aircraft to beat the evil aliens in battle. Let's see. 10's of thousands of air force personnel who trained for years and years were vanquished by the Psychlos, but 3 dozen hillbillies with a week of training in English, battle tactics, and flying were able to destroy them without breaking a sweat.

#13 When Johnny is shot with a pyschlo radar gun, he goes through 5 or 6 plate glass windows without getting a cut.

#14 The night they defeat the aliens, Johnnie's hair is all thrashed around and going this way and that, after a hard night of battle, he emerges with clean hair that is nicely braided in front.

#15 The books in the Denver library were still very readable after 1000 years of exposure to atmosphere.

#16 The buildings still had glass in the windows 1000 years later.

#17 Cars were slightly rusted, but still had their original paint job from 1000 years ago.

#18 Cars still had air pressure in their tires after a millenium of disuse.

#19 The nuclear bomb had no casing, but the rebels didn't show signs of exposure.

#20 The humans instead of mining the gold, got bars of it from Ft. Knox. I was surprised that John Travolta's character noticed, but Johnny said that they melted it down into bars for them. Yeah, from what foundry near by?

#21 Johnny was tortured by the Psychlos, testing if he could survive for 4 minutes without oxygen which they didn't breathe. He runs through the place, and there are several fires burning despite the lack of oxygen. I guess the laws of chemistry are suspended in the 31st century.

So...the guy who said the film had no plot holes apparently possesses quite a few holes in his own thinking. This is not the kind of stuff on which you base suspension of disbelief - this is inexcusable tripe from talentless filmmakers (and a hack scifi writer who was the laughing stock of his generation) aiming only to cash in on the success of numerous superior films. And since when is scifi poorly received in the press? Movies like "The Matrix," "Star Wars," and "Pitch Black" all received well-deserved accolades. The reviews for "Battlefield Earth" have been resoundingly negative not due to any religious bias but due to the simple fact that it's an ineptly filmed, poorly acted, incoherent, derivative attempt to milk genre fans of their money.

But, judging from the dismal box office receipts, it's nice to see that the proposed sequel will probably never happen. Thank God.

Now go watch some real scifi flicks, and hey, go read some books by Heinlein, Campbell, or Bradbury, a group of writers who each possessed more talent in their pinky fingers than L. Ron Hubbard exhibited through a career propelled by some of the worst prose ever produced. Scientologist or not, the guy just plain sucked.

Rating:
Summary: FUHGETTABOUTIT!!!!!
Review: THIS FLICK IS BY FAR THE WORST MOVIE THAT THIS REVIEWER HAS EVER WITNESSED! FROM THE OPENING SCENE TO THE FINALE THE MOVIE WAS A COMPLETE BOMB.JOHN TRAVOLTA MUST HAVE NEEDED A PAYCHECK AS HE SHOULD PAY "US" FOR WATCHING THIS DRECK! 12.5 MILLION DOLLARS OPENING WEEKEND RECEIPTS ARE A TESTIMONY TO HOW HE CAN OPEN A FILM, BUT THIS ONE ...........TERRIBLE AND THAT IS BEING NICE. AFTER SEING A GREAT FLICK LIKE GLADIATOR THAN VIEWING THIS I GUESS I AM A BIT TOUGH. NO I'M NOT THIS FILM IS THE WORST!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: An Unfortunate Departure from the Book.
Review: The unfortunate departure from the book was a disappointment. I knew going into the theatre that the movie wouldn't even compare to the book. How do you make a movie out of a 1,050 page book? It isn't possible. But the screenwriters could have at least staid true to the part they portrayed. The main character, Johnny Goodboy Tyler, had his heroism painfully degraded in the movie. I didn't feel for his character as I did while reading the book.

John Travolta is a fantastic actor and played Terl, the Security Chief of the Psychlos, very well.

Barry Pepper and Roger Christian were also very good in this movie.

The makeup and costumes were not at all what I imagined from the book.

In the end, I found the movie to be a one-timer. It was worth watching one time, despite the fact that I was saddened by it's departure from the book. If you watch this movie and are remotely moved by it, you should pick up the book.

Lastly, this movie doesn't have ANYTHING to do with Scientology, so don't let that keep you from giving it a try.

Rating:
Summary: this is like a bad star treck episode
Review: Let me put it directly: I walked out of the theatre after watching about two thirds of this mess. What the hell was Travolta thinking here? THe script is so bad-it is boring, contrived, and disgusting at times-it makes otherwise good actors look really stupid. There is no entertainment value here at all. This isn't even one of those good bad movies either. It is just isn't fun to watch. The human characters don't even deserve to be called two-dimensional. enough said.