RATING: 1/2 star out of 4 stars
'Battlefield Earth' a sci-fi disaster
By Karen Hershenson Contra Costa Times Published: Thursday, May 11, 2000
THE GREAT THING about "Battlefield Earth" is that you can leave at any time. Go ahead, get that soda, call your mom, and when you return you can jump right back into the ridiculously simple plot.
Substituting for story are a steady stream of gizmos and gadgets, explosions and echoes. The camera tilts annoyingly, and when all else fails, the characters whoop like banshees.
John Travolta has insisted that his appearance in this sci-fi fiasco has nothing to do with his devotion to Scientology, but how else to explain it? The film is based on a 1,050-page novel by the late L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the controversial religious sect.
The actor optioned the book in 1984, and has had to let go of playing the feisty young hero as the years dragged on. Instead, he sinks his canines into the anti-hero, a big, bad alien named Terl with a sadistic sense of humor and a cunning mind.
The year is 3000, and he belongs to a gargantuan species called Psychlos, with long tangled hair and glam-rocker boots. Some of them have green glowing eyes, and they need tubes inserted into their nostrils to breathe oxygen. After a pathetic nine-minute battle, they enslaved humans, placed an Astrodome over the planet, and are pillaging resources like fiends.
But wherever there are exploited humans in movies, a hero emerges to save them. Those lucky Romans got Russell Crowe, but these poor suckers must make do with "The Green Mile's" Barry Pepper, as a fierce primitive named --- get this --- Jonnie Goodboy Tyler. Sounds more like a country-western star than a savior of civilization.
Both actors hurl themselves into the roles; Travolta with a campy edge that provides some comic relief, while Pepper's approach is more full-throttle earnest. But no performance in the galaxy could salvage this disaster.
The movie has all the trappings of post-millennium sci-fi --- daring space-vehicles careening through crumbling CG cities, and the very latest in costume technology. Amuse yourself with these, because the screenplay by first-timer Corey Mandell makes about as much sense as reading a 1,050-page novel by L. Ron Hubbard. It plops us into a futuristic reality without explaining how we got there, and provides few clues to the chaos that ensues.
Director Roger Christian is no help. Schooled at the knee of George Lucas, he brings the same overwrought choppiness to this movie as his mentor did to "Star Wars: Episode I --- The Phantom Menace," on which he served as "second unit," whatever that means.
The problem with that film, and you can multiply it by a thousand here, is that the narrative has been completely overshadowed by special effects. When those drop off, you've got nothing but hideously sarcastic Psychlos to amuse you, and humans forced to eat rats.
Forest Whitaker, probably paying off some debt incurred while co-starring with Travolta in "Phenomenon," serves as Terl's obsequious right-hand man. Rounding out the cast are a couple of gratuitous females: one a primitive who looks like she stepped out of a Tweeds catalogue, the other a Psychlo babe with an obscenely long tongue.
By the time the excruciatingly long video-game-inspired climax plays out, it's clear you have just witnessed the biggest folly of Travolta's career. And I am including the "Look Who's Talking" movies in that statement.
