That's generally because a book is not constrained by time or budget. The villains are two Psychlos named Terl (John Travolta) and Ker (Forest Whitaker). The few humans that are left are either hiding out or kept in cages like animals by the Psychlos. He and his men simply go to Fort Knox, break in and steal gold. Terl downloads knowledge of science, mathematics, and the Psychlo languange into Tyler's mind to make him useful. The plot. I was never one to pay much attention to critics, I always liked to watch and decide for myself but even I couldn't resist being strayed from any interest by the aura of disdain that surrounded this movie back … They come up with a plan to use the "man animals" to mine the gold for them. But in the film, it just seemed like a good way to end the film on a good effect and within two hours. Based on L. Ron Hubbard's science fiction book, this story takes place in the year 3000. Jun 1, 2013. Updated: 7 Oct 2020 9:02 pm. He can only do this, though, by playing Terl's game and rallying the other humans to unite. As Terl toys with his new personal slave, Tyler plots to destroy the aliens and restore the human race to it's former glory. As you would expect, there were some impressive visuals in this film. Dec 21, 2013. An alien race, the Psychlos, have controlled Earth for a millennium and have all but wiped out the human race. It seemed like a big time rip-off of the final scenes of The Matrix. In the year 3000, man is no match for the Psychlos, a greedy, manipulative race of aliens on a quest for ultimate profit. The people around me were going, "Huh?" Battlefield Earth Review . It was a nice touch. Jonnie Goodboy figures out a way to avoid slave labor in the gold mines. in Books ... BATTLEFIELD EARTH , a book that even has its own website here, was written by L. Ron Hubbard back in the early 80’s, less than a handful of years before he died. WHAT'S IT ABOUT? 1 / Audio . The sound was also cranked up through much of it leaving the audience I was with half deaf. Very obvious bluescreen work. Finally, the ending, though identical to the book, seemed a little too convenient in the movie. Why Diablo Immortal's Alpha Was a Hell of a Good Time, Bungie's Halo Player Files Archive Is Going Offline Next Month, Battle.net Has Had a Major Overhaul for the First Time in 8 Years, How Chris Evans' Captain America Can Return to the MCU, A Way Out's Josef Fares on Why He's Making Games in a Genre He Had to Invent, Resident Evil Village: First Gameplay Reveal Showcase Announced, Things Ghost of Tsushima Doesn't Tell You. The race of Psychlos has conquered the earth. Latest Videos Articles Reviews Images. Within the first 5 minutes of the film, we're thrust into the story without time to get our bearings. They believe mannequins in an old department store were humans frozen by the angry gods. My first gripe is the directing. The characters are unkempt and have rotten teeth. 1 / Video . Jonnie eventually gains the attention of the evil Psychlo security officer Terl, played by John Travolta, and his assistant Ker, played by Forrest Whitaker. In the book, it has more impact because you're given more backstory. With John Travolta, Forest Whitaker, Barry Pepper, Kim Coates. It's just a dumb, fun adventure. Under that scenario, you believe they have a chance. 2000 – 117 minutes Rated: (for violence). They come up with a plan to use the "man animals" to mine the gold for them. It was like Tyler used the knowledge as he would any other tool for bashing in a Psychlo's head. I always thought they were much more alien in appearance based on the novel. There is a moment here when the Psychlos' entire planet (home office and all) is blown to smithereens, without the slightest impact on any member of the audience (or, for that matter, the cast). Bearing the marks of a movie made to defraud a German production company, Battlefield Earth overdoses on Dutch angles and slow-motion shots. Wenn man an die grössten Film-Flops der letzten Jahre denkt, dann ist ' Battlefield Earth ' meistens einer der ersten Filme, die einem in den Sinn kommen - und vollkommen zurecht, denn wie kaum ein anderer Film wurde der Science-Fiction- / Action-Film von Regisseur Roger Christian nicht nur von den Kritikern regelrecht durch den Dreck gezogen, sondern wurde auch vom Publikum weitestgehend gemieden. There wasn't a lot of choreography among it all. The good people of Nag End-On-Sea can rest easy: we've found someone to play King Rat in this year's Christmas panto. He also composed a soundtrack to the book called Space Jazz. Review of Battlefield Earth. Previous Next. They were equally knowledgeable in science, mechanics, and the Psychlo language. Led by the powerful Terl, the Psychlos are stripping Earth clean of its natural resources, using the broken remnants of humanity as slaves. Posted: 10 Feb 2000 8:00 am. This one is like the train crash in "The Fugitive." Again, I was ripped out of the moment because I was cracking up. The visuals are grubby and drab. What Terl says when his slaves hand him smelted bars of gold is beyond explanation. It was little things like this that came up over and over. I'll get more into this later. The book also gave me much more insight into the background behind the characters, the situations, and the story as a whole. The gold is near uranium and the radiation from it causes their "breath gas" to explode. I won't say too much here, but I guess the buildup in the book made it seem more reasonable and logical. When Terl was seething with anger or kicking someone's butt, it was what I envisioned Terl as being. One scene really made me laugh, though. The plot. Whitaker pulled it off well. We encourage you to read our updated PRIVACY POLICY and COOKIE POLICY. Its eventual destruction was impressive as well. The soundtrack sounds like the boom mike is being slammed against the inside of a 55-gallon drum. As I already said, I read the novel and really enjoyed it. For example, the humans believe the ruined cities were left by the gods. One scene in particular near the end had the Psychlos shooting at Tyler as he ran away. Breathing tubes hang from their noses like ropes of snot. For example, in the book, the humans take several months to train and prepare for their attack against the Psychlos. It is the year 3000. Comments; Shares. Sometimes I find it more impressive to see the action happen in real time rather than dragged out. Lots of great movies have squalid heroes. The direction is laughably bad (seriously, having a dutch angle on almost every shot is NOT narratively fitting, nor artistic), piss-poor acting, along with an equally terrible script, dated VFX, even for 2000, and the Star Wars-esque transitions, my God, was that distracting. It was a bit of a mixed bag. For such a key part of the film, it should have been handled in a more believable way. "Battlefield Earth" was written in 1980 by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. The film contains no evidence of Scientology or any other system of thought; it is shapeless and senseless, without a compelling plot or characters we care for in the slightest. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. Their costumes look like they were purchased from the Goodwill store on the planet Tatooine. This movie will never be considered a top sci-fi film, but hopefully you'll get some entertainment out of it. But let me catch my breath. You’d be hard-pressed to find any real 'Battlefield Earth' fans out there. Terl and Ker have discovered a recently uncovered vein of gold, but they are unable to recover it. . As for John Travolta as Terl, I wavered between liking his performance and cringing from it. (Library books are dusty but readable, and a flight simulator still works, although where it gets the electricity is a mystery.) The visuals are grubby and drab. The role required a physical actor with a fighting spirit, and Pepper did just that. Ugly, campy, and poorly acted, Battlefield Earth is a stunningly misguided, aggressively bad sci-fi folly. I watched it in mounting gloom, realizing I was witnessing something historic, a film that for decades to come will be the punch line of jokes about bad movies. (Come to think of it, that was a third of the film.) One human named Johnny (Barry Pepper) decides to fight and take his planet back. Fight scenes should have some sense on continuity rather than stringing chaotic scenes together. Entdecke die Filmstarts Kritik zu "Battlefield Earth - Kampf um die Erde" von Roger Christian: Es gibt Filme, von denen es heißt, man müsse sie selber gesehen haben, um glauben zu … Some of the performances were good. By Scott Chitwood. The ruins have held up well after 1,000 years. Battlefield Earth; Battlefield Earth Review. After discovering ancient ruined cities, he is soon captured by a Psychlo slavemaster and taken to their domed mining base. . Battlefield Earth may as well be called, Dutch Angles Earth, or Rat Brain Earth. Apr 1, 2018. Image . Previous Next Hide Grid. Terl and Ker have discovered a recently uncovered vein of gold, but they are unable to recover it. Start your review of Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000. But when the characters seem noxious on principle, we wonder if the art and costume departments were allowed to run wild. Some movies run off the rails. I think they must have been using a one legged cameraman to film Battlefield Earth because pretty much every single shot in the film leaned to the left or to the right. Previous Next Show Grid. Virtually no time was taken to set up what was going on. This movie is awful in so many different ways. Battlefield Earth has become something of a legend. Jonnie Goodboy Tyler (called “Greener” by his friends) is essentially a Y3K caveman. On top of that, there seemed to be endless slow motion scenes of things either blowing up or someone flying through glass. In the book, if I remember correctly, other humans besides Jonnie were trained in the learning machine. Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 is a 1982 science fiction novel written by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology. As for makeup effects, the Psychlos looked decent, but I think they could have been better. It's the year 3000 A.D., and the Earth is lost to the alien race of Psychlos. Therefore, things in the film that might make perfect sense to someone who read the book might go right over the head of someone who didn't read it. Not awful, but pretty bad. The TV Homages of WandaVision are an Amusing, Unfulfilling Distraction, On the Disempowerment of Promising Young Woman, Entertaining 30 Coins Examines Depths of Evil with Style. That made it a bit more believable when they quickly picked up on how to operate machines and weapons. "Battlefield Earth" is like taking a bus trip with someone who has needed a bath for a long time. Then the movie's subtitle unscrolls from left to right in the kind of "effect" you see in home movies. It totally ripped you out of the narrative. Let me start out by saying that I read the book long before the movie came out and I enjoyed it. The characters are unkempt and have rotten teeth. It would have been able to be closer to the book. The Psychlo homeworld also was a cool, purple-tinted cross between Blade Runner's L.A. and a twisted version of Coruscant from Star Wars. Letterman fans laugh at that line; did the filmmakers know it was funny? . Forest Whitaker as Ker and John Travolta as Terl. It then cuts to a shot of a group of Psychlos carefully walking across a flat surface trying not to fall over on their stilts. A third-string Planet of the Apes meets Star Trek, Battlefield Earth is a largely uninspiring sci-fi adventure with a Swiss-cheese plot. In the year 3000, Earth has been ruled by an alien race, the Psychlos, for a millennium. In the film, the cavemen grunt, then jump into a harrier and fly into battle. Write a review. I mentioned earlier that having read the book gave greater insight into what was happening on the screen. Of course 'Battlefield Earth' is celebrating its 20th anniversary in this craptastic year. The gold is near uranium and the radiation from it causes their "breath gas" to explode. His character is a little dim witted, gruff, opportunistic, and a bit of a yes-man. Two decades later, the legacy of Battlefield Earth is defined by cast and crew apologies, critical reviews that feature olympic-level insults, and a 3% Tomatometer score. In the film, the cavemen have 7 days to find weapons, get harrier jets into working order (after how many decades? Terl downloads knowledge of science, mathematics, and the Psychlo languange into Tyler's mind to make him useful. . Anyway, the scene was done in slow motion with things exploding all around Tyler. Earth has been destroyed and taken over by aliens called Psychlos. The hero, named Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, is played by Barry Pepper as a smart human who gets smarter, thanks to a Pyschlo gizmo that zaps his eyeballs with knowledge. I know slow motion is supposed to trigger an "oooh" or an "ahhh" reaction in the audience, but it became tedious. Our hero is thrown in with another group of humans who are used in the mines. 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