SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

MovieManChuck 0/4 BOMBI've seen a lot of films I couldn't stand. I've seen a lot of films that bored me four-fifths to death. In all of my cinema experiences spanning across a century of filmmaking, I have never seen a movie fail so miserably in comparison to Battlefield Earth. I am not alone in my hatred of my film, nor am I the first... it has the awards to prove it if you don't believe me.In a movie, you need to be able to escape into (or at the very least care about) the events happening on screen. Battlefield Earth is more disconnected from its audience than any movie I've ever seen. 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. The only similarity to a comic I could find was the 2-Dimensional delivery, replete with ridiculous looking CGI. What results from this excersize is a good migrane and the realization that there is no vision behind the camera. Christian has much more learning to do in this department, as he was previously a second unit director for Star Wars Episode I, doing transition shots.As far as "acting" goes, try 5 Golden Razzies. John Travolta, playing the lead Psychlo, takes home the decade's worst preformance. Our hero Jonnie Goodboy, as played by Barry Pepper, transitions between incompetent and preforming highly advanced mathematical equations. His violent and very primitive outbursts at his superiors, and his rocket science caliber mind around his own race of "man-animals" is all but a lazy portrayal of a character to whom you are apathetic.The screenplay is either complex to the point of confusion, or downright silly. None of the characters are even proportioned enough to hold up the choppiness of it all. I still want to know how the man-animals imploded an entire planet with one well-placed bomb. Maybe this will be reconciled in a follow up movie.In the movie, someone says to Travolta's character: "But when you die and go to hell, it'll be a step up from this place". That proves to be the seminal line of the film. Even if you don't make it "up there", you won't have to co-exist with Battlefield Earth forever.

ajricks 2.4 seemed a bit harsh for a rating but it just was bad writing all over. It might have been sub-par there but was pretty funny in some parts. Stoopid humans. At least the actors owned their roles and the effects were decent.

Nimaaa Before watching this catastrophe I assumed the low score had something to do with Scientology. I thought surely people are giving it a lower score because it's based on Scientology. But now I'm shocked that it doesn't have a score of 1!!! Who in their right mind gave this a score higher than 1?

alexmpw In theory, a film about Battlefield Earth shouldn't be as bad as this. I've read parts of the book, and I'd give it a 6 (it's interesting, but it's pretty gaudy, cheesy and pulpy, and I seriously dislike the Scientology aspects Hubbard fitted into his book), but this...Firstly, the cinematography's ridiculous, namely the overuse of Dutch angles and the silly tinctures that the film uses (why did they use purple and orange so much?). Secondly, the acting's borderline Manos, especially from the actors for Tyler and Terl (Barry, John, you're lucky you survived this). Thirdly, the place women hold in the film is like something out of the most misogynistic '50s films, not a 2000 SF film. Finally, the plotting is preposterously patchy in how inconsistent and erratic it is (how would Tyler be allowed access to a rapid-learning machine, etc.). Mystery Science Theater 3000 could really shred into this one.I tried to approach this film objectively, much like how I approached the book objectively. And much like the results of the latter, this film is just a pulpy mess. I tried to riff it, which is my general coping mechanism when watching such a bad film, but 20 minutes in, I gave up. Save your standards. Try to stay away from this film.