Picture Buck Rogers with dreadlocks
By Gene Wyatt staff, The Tennessean published: May 12, 2000
Sorry, sci-fi fans, but 'Battlefield Earth' is a total wasteland
Battlefield Earth, John Travolta's expansive new movie, is based on the first part of the late L. Ron Hubbard's 20-year-old science fiction novel of the same name.
Hubbard, of course, was the founder of the Church of Scientology. Travolta is one of his most visible disciples. Over the years, he has taken plenty of heat from people who ridicule his adherence in an organization that has been accused of disciplining dissident members by leaving snakes in their mailboxes, among other eccentricities.
That sort of exaggerated and possibly untrue charge shouldn't interfere with the right of anyone, even a personable and marvelously successful movie star, to follow his own path in matters of the soul. If only for Travolta's sake, many will want Battlefield Earth to be a success.
The book itself is promising. A reading of the first couple hundred pages (after all, it is a very long book) shows a good deal of style and skilled plot development. If there is a proselyting message, I missed it.
Unfortunately, very little of this shows on screen. Battlefield Earth is not a good movie.
Hubbard's story is good Buck Rogers stuff, not to be confused with 2001: A Space Odyssey or even work of considerably less merit. But there is a palatable plot. Most of this disappears on screen.
The time is 3000 and the world has been conquered by a race of Psychlos, strange antagonistic folks who are 9 feet tall and have atrociously bad teeth and weird eyes. Also, they are dreadlocked.
Human beings, for the most part, are consigned to predatory bands that wander through ruined cities and theme parks. There is one good guy, Jonnie Goodboy Tyler (Barry Pepper), who is smart enough to tune in on some of the Psychlos technology and find out what is going on.
Travolta is the principal villain, Terl, a security chief. As if that wasn't bad enough, he has a scheme to enslave the humans to work in his private gold mines.
As a villain, Travolta must have an evil laugh. This turns out to be far more laughable than evil.
An idea of the quality of the story: When the enslaved humans produce the gold they have supposedly mined, it is in the form of bullion bars they have stolen from the ruins of Fort Knox.
Does Terl have a clue? Wait and see.
The Basics: Set in the year 3000, the story pits surviving humans against a ruthless invading race of aliens. A vastly disappointing movie starring John Travolta, Barry Pepper and Forest Whitaker. Based on a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, Travolta's religious mentor.
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Rated: PG-13, for profanity and violence; 1 hour, 57 minute
Star Rating: 1 star
