Reviewed by Joe Soria

In the last year, we have seen large amounts of creativity being put through the Science Fiction film genre. You have the unbelievable film that brought a lot of interest into it like The Matrix and the amazing look of the Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. In the last year, I have also seen some of the worst bombardment of anti-intelligence Sci-fi films like the wretched wasteland of projection photography also titled Wing Commander and the putrid Virus. Now add to that second list an all time classic in garbage Battlefield Earth.

Battlefield Earth is an adaptation of a classic novel by  author/ Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. It is a story of a 9 foot tall, slow walking, retarded looking race called the Pshcylonians who have conquered Earth in order to enslave the people and mine it's valuables. The point of the film is that they are they think they are a superior race to the human animals or man-animals (that's what they call the Earthlings) but Humans have a special quality inside that helps us overcome other races. There really isn't too much to the movie besides some recurring accessories that the people must wear like weird nose coverings that allow them to breath outside their home atmosphere.

This movie is the true epitome of awfulness. Blame for this film goes mostly on the script. No originality, terrible dialogue, all the old Sci-fi clichés mixed together and the movie doesn't even give the audience some good eye candy.

Listening to the words come out of the actors mouths was like someone sticking little pins into my eardrum one by one until it popped. If you do see this film (which you definitely should not), look out for the use of the word "leverage" about 20 times. It's like a "hidden", symbolic keyword. Someone show this guy a thesaurus because he must have never heard of one. He also uses  the ingenious term "man-animal" a lot, another stupid term that should never be used again in a film. 

The rest of the blame goes on the actors. Without their support for the project t probably wouldn't be made. I don't see how anyone could think that this is a great film to get involved in. I guess it must be money but monetary rewards have their limits. 

John Travolta is a putrid villain. His performance in Face/Off was ok but Broken Arrow was terrible. Barry Pepper is a good actor in a bad situation. As an actor, this film and his character Johnny are equivalent to a vast wasteland of worthless, meaningless dialogue. His part might as well have been an ape sitting in front of the camera repeating the world revolt over and over again. I also have no idea what an excellent actor like Forest Whitaker was doing in this pitiful role as Travolta's lackey. His character was just another way to use the word "leverage".

This film exemplifies what should not be done in a film. Battlefield: Earth is a film that cost $100 million dollars but didn't deserve that kind of budget. They were some decent sets and the special effects weren't terrible but they weren't a positive factor of the film. There were no positive factors to the film. Extensive make-up jobs used to attempt to create a more believable alien character but they ended up looking completely ridiculous. The aliens also walked like clowns on stilts in slow motion. The aliens swagger was as if Travolta convinced all the aliens that they were in Saturday Night Fever and that they should act like it. Any attempt at art through cinematography/editing became sideways scene cuts and slow rotating camera shots which just added to the cheap and unworthy look of the film.

If I had directed this film, I would probably have petitioned to get my name off of it. Director Roger Christian must not have done too much directing because this film had strayed from any possible positive path that could be done in film.

John Travolta's labor of love became a dulling of the senses. A new torture method has been created by Hollywood, it's called Battlefield: Earth. 

Rating: 1/2 of 4 Stars
Reviewed: Joe Soria
Running Time: 121 Minutes
Rated PG-13 for intense sci-fi action.