|
|
|
Battlefield Earth
*
Rated on a 4-star
scale
Screening venue: Odeon (Liverpool City Centre)
Released in the UK by Warner Bros on June 2, 2000; certificate 12; 118 minutes;
country of origin USA; aspect ratio 2.35:1
Directed by Roger Christian; produced by
Elie Samaha, Jonathan D. Crane, John Travolta.
Written by Corey Mandell, J.D. Shapiro; based on the novel
by L. Ron Hubbard.
Photographed by Giles Nuttgens; edited by Robin
Russell.
CAST.....
Barry Pepper..... Johnny Goodboy Tyler
John Travolta..... Terl
Forest Whitaker..... Ker
Richard Tyson..... Robert the Fox
I sometimes get angry, looking at the smug cynicism
of organisations like the Golden Raspberry Awards and www.thestinkers.com,
which exist to discuss bad movies. After a while they forget about their
purpose, and just rip into everything they can, regardless of the quality.
It takes a movie like "Battlefield Earth" to remind us why they were formed
in the first place; it's a big-scale disaster that brings back memories of
all the shoddy space-opera crap that came out when I was a kid in the 80s.
Watching those grainy tapes in the early days of VHS, I wondered what the
same crappy special effects and drab colours would look like on the big screen.
Now I know.
"Battlefield Earth" is based on
a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the new-age religion Scientology,
but if the book contains any moral messages or symbols, then they've been
lost in the transition to the screen, in favour of dimensionless sci-fi.
The story takes place in the year 3000. An alien race, the Psychlos, has
taken over Earth, and man is an endangered species. The few humans who are
not enslaved in manual labour camps roam the countryside, hunting for food
and making weird noises, like cavemen.
The hero of the movie is one of these Neanderthal
chaps, Johnny Goodboy Tyler (Barry Pepper), who announces, in his own grunting
way, that he is going to find the Psychlos, arrange a revolt against them
and reclaim the planet. When his plan gets underway, Johnny comes to the
attention of Terl (John Travolta) and Ker (Forest Whitaker), two chiefs of
staff in the Psychlos' security command. They try to stop him by keeping
him busy, having him mine gold for them in some kind of secret corrupt
operation.
Humans grumble, aliens snarl, and then there's
an action climax that attempts to rip off the Death Star attack in "Star
Wars" but looks more like an Atari game. Throughout everything, plot holes
and contradictions abound. At the start of the movie, everyone has to wear
breathing apparatus resembling big lines of snot, because Earth air is
unbreathable -- people are even executed by being deprived of their tubes.
Next thing you know, Terl comes up with his idea of having humans mine for
gold, because they don't need breathing apparatus. Eh? How about the fact
that the Psychlos are obviously a bunch of incompetents who can be defeated
by rebellious cavemen, and yet they apparently conquered all human armies
in nine minutes? Why doesn't Terl have a clue about human levels of intelligence
or behaviour patterns, when he has a computer programme full of details about
our languages, history, biology and technology? Why does Terl want to mine
gold, when it is a worthless substance to the Psychlos? Why does Johnny seize
Terl's gun, make a rousing speech about how human comrades should fight for
freedom, then return the gun and go back to work??
The production values are just as inexplicable.
Travolta and Whitaker are virtually unrecognisable underneath pounds of rotten
makeup, they talk like drunkards telling jokes, and they wear codpieces that
restrict their movements. And everything is seen in tilt shots or slow motion,
through a pall of bluish mist that makes everything look grubby. Although
special effects have improved dramatically in the last twenty years, those
in "Battlefield Earth" are a throwback to worse times -- the soundtrack is
made up of distorted echoes, and the visuals are a collection of blurred
model shots and weird-looking props scattered around cheap
sets.
The movie is so outrageously, spectacularly,
unbelievably bad that we stare at it with some sort of appalled curiosity.
It fails on so many levels that it's fascinating, although not so much that
I'd sit through it again. Remember all that "Who Shot JR?" merchandise? Maybe
one day they'll also have T-shirts and bumper stickers declaring "I SAT THROUGH
BATTLEFIELD EARTH!"
COPYRIGHT© 2000 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
2000 Reviews
(alphabetical)
2000 Reviews (by star
rating)
Archive of all cinema reviews
(alphabetical)
Review Archive
Index
UK
Critic main page
|
|
![[Image]](http://www.ukcritic.com/posbanr2.gif)