A `Battle' to Avoid by Homer Yen (c) 2000
To watch `Battlefield Earth' is to wallow in misery. It is one of the most ludicrously conceived efforts in recent history. It has a clumsily told story, insipid dialogue, shallow characterizations, ugly scene transitions, no evidence of dramatic arc, headache-inducing sound effects, and a resolution that is completely implausible. Worse, there's the promise of a sequel. Why?! Save your money. Some films go quickly to video. This one, however, should go straight to the Sci-Fi Channel's `Mystery Science Theatre.'
In the year 3000, Man has become an endangered species. Most of humanity (called ‘man-animals') was destroyed generations ago in a battle against a race of plundering aliens (called Psychlos). Survivors have either taken up shelter in caves or were enslaved to mine Earth's resources for the rest of their lives.
The aliens are a menacing looking humanoid species that stand nine-feet tall, who resemble inbred Klingons. Dimwitted as they are tall, their culture is predicated on power, extortion, and getting ‘leverage.' Travolta, the leverage-using star, plays Terl, the conniving security chief that oversees the mining facility on Earth. Much of the movie is spent showing us examples of Terl's petty machinations. He routinely employs deception and then punctuates his statements with maniacal laughter. But one thing is certain; he hates being stationed on Earth. When the home planet informs him that he will be spending the rest of his life on this planet, he begins to devise his latest plan.
He will select a group of slaves to secretly mine out a gold ore site. It's not clear how this benefits Terl, except that it makes him richer in a place where he has no use for it. The scrappy Jonnie Goodboy Tyler (Barry Peppers) is selected as the slave group's leader. A Psychlo knowledge machine gives him the mining know-how. But the machine also teaches him other things such as the Psychlo language, the principles of our founding fathers, Euclidean geometry, and the location of Fort Knox. This enlightenment just doesn't prepare him for the mining assignment. It also prepares him to organize and stage a massive revolt against their captors. `We're going to blow up their home world,' he says. `But first, we need a few more supplies.' In days, he and his comrades evolve from cave dwelling, loincloth wearing, rat eating slaves to fighter pilots and nuclear weapons experts. By now, the audience is laughing as maniacally as Terl.
The media have been working overtime to let the public know that John Travolta's labor of love is a piece of sci-fi drivel. Numerous journals have called it an ill-conceived idea stemming from blind hubris, arrogance, and poor planning. And after watching this movie, you'll wholeheartedly agree. This is a terrible film that is illogically constructed, tediously acted, and frequently begs the question: Why was this ever made? At a price tag of $90 million, this film will be remembered as a gigantic folly, assuredly becoming `The Avengers' of this summer. Both films were unforgivable and this promises to suffer the same speedy fate and subsequent indignity.
In addition to the universally pejorative reviews, there's another bizarre element to the `Battlefield' saga. This film would never have been made if not for the star power of Travolta, who for over a decade, had been trying to persuade studios to bring the story to the big screen. The controversy is that Travolta is a Scientologist, and `Battlefield' is based on a 1982 novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the religion's late founder. This led some to believe that `Battlefield Earth' would amount to Scientologist dogma, laden with subliminal messages. But the story is so poorly told that any message, subliminal or otherwise, is totally undetectable. If the audience got anything out of this film, it was this: we are not too unlike the Psychlo leader. Like Terl, the audience felt imprisoned, dreaded their situation, and looked for any opportunity to leave. Could that be the Scientology message?
Grade: D
S: 1 out of 3 L: 0 out of 3 V: 2 out of 3
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