A losing battle

Published in The Orlando Sentinel on May 12, 2000

Partners in slime. John Travolta and Forest Whitaker are evil aliens who lord it over the lowly earthlings.

Human interest. Barry Pepper stands up for Mother Earth.

What sort of western would Jesus have written? Could Abraham have come up with a decent horror story?

Did Muhammad have what it takes to concoct an appropriately tear-jerking romance novel?

We may never know how these great religious figures might have fared as pulp-fiction scribes. But we do know that L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, wrote a best-selling 1982 science-fiction novel.

And now -- thanks to the perseverance of Hubbard's fellow-Scientologist, Pulp Fiction star John Travolta -- Battlefield Earth (or the first half of it, anyway) has become a major motion picture.

So how bad is it?

Not awful, but pretty bad. A third-string Planet of the Apes meets Star Trek, Battlefield Earth is a largely uninspiring sci-fi adventure with a Swiss-cheese plot. And, incidentally, if its themes have any direct connection to Scientology, that certainly got by me.

Set in the year 3000, the film (which opens today) paints a gloomy, dystopian picture.

Earth has been conquered by brutal aliens known as Psychlos, who behave and even look something like Star Trek's Klingons -- before their historic detente with the Federation, that is. Most of what's left of the human race is enslaved as "man-animals" to the Psychlos, much as humans lived under simian domination in Planet of the Apes.

There are also small pockets of humans living in free, if fearful, primitive tribes. Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, played by Barry Pepper, is one of these tribal humans.

Early in Battlefield Earth, Jonnie leaves the relative security of his tribe and is promptly captured by the Psychlos, who have established a gold-mining operation on Earth. His unusual intelligence is soon noticed by the alien chief of security, a gargoyle named Terl, played by Travolta (who also co-produced the film).

Outfitted with paw-like hands and, often, a repulsive-looking breathing apparatus, Travolta attempts to play Terl in a deliberately broad, scenery-chewing style. But, finally, he's too naturalistic an actor to take off in the sort of role that someone like Tim Curry or John Lithgow could have played in his sleep.

Pepper, like much of the rest of the cast, is acceptable in that running-jumping-shouting-fighting action-picture way.

Cast as Terl's calculating right-paw man, Forest Whitaker (Ghost Dog, The Crying Game) is, like Travolta, too naturalistic for his over-the-top role. But Kelly Preston (Travolta's real-life wife) has a hilarious, high-style cameo as a Psychlo whose tongue is long and strong enough to tie a cherry tree in knots.

Speaking of tongues, director Roger Christian -- who was second-unit director on The Phantom Menace -- neatly finesses the film's language problem: Both the Earthlings and the Psychlos are heard speaking what sounds like English, although they don't understand each other.

But the action is often confusingly staged, and the special effects aren't special enough to propel the film over its bumpier spots.

The script -- which Corey Mandell and J.D. Shapiro adapted from Hubbard -- takes place on two levels. While Terl attempts to out-maneuver his Psychlo superiors, Jonnie tries to band the slaves together to bring the whole alien empire to its knees.

You have to put up with some all-too-convenient gimmicks (high-speed "learning machines," etc.). And the movie raises far too many narrative questions:

Why does Terl give the captive Jonnie so much room to move around?

Wouldn't the Psychlos have to have found a way to compensate for their special vulnerability?

If the Psychlo leaders don't trust humans to mine gold, why do they keep them around at all?

And what, exactly, was Terl's master plan, anyway?

Hubbard and the filmmakers, you might say, ask us to accept too much on faith.{spcbal}

Write to Sentinel movie critic Jay Boyar at The Orlando Sentinel MP-6, P.O. Box 2833, Orlando, Fla. 32802. Jay's reviews air at 7:35 a.m. Fridays on 90.7 FM (WMFE). His e-mail address is jboyar@orlandosentinel.com

Posted May 10 2000 7:02PM