By JASON KATZMAN For the Colorado Daily
It might take me a week to come up with five other movies I consider to be worse than "Battlefield Earth," John Travolta's new sci-fi flick based on the novel by L. Ron Hubbard.
Travolta plays Terl, who's the leader of a race called the Psychlo. He's the Chief of Security on planet Earth in the year 3000, a thousand years after the Psychlos took over the planet. His race of people is 10 feet tall, bad tempered, and constantly talk about corporations and profit much like the Ferengi on "Star Trek," although they resemble Klingons in temperament.
The so-called hero of the film is Jonnie Goodboy Tyler (Barry Pepper), who's captured by the Psychlo and made a slave. Naturally, he doesn't like this much, so he plans a revolt after the Psychlo naively teach him their language, how to fly their ships and operate their equipment. Like most alien races, the Psychlo believe they're superior and have become extremely overconfident.
According to what I've read, director Roger Christian was recommended for this project by George Lucas because Christian was the set decorator for "Star Wars." Let's just say that doing set decoration does not appear to qualify one to direct.
This film is as poorly constructed as anything in recent or long-term memory. Undoubtedly, this has something to do with the script, whose dialogue does actually sound like it was stolen from one of the lesser "Star Trek" episodes. Almost every shot in the first hour (I stopped counting after that) was placed at an angle for no apparent reason. There were transition scenes that appeared to have no connection to the movie whatsoever. And finally, the action was so disorienting it inspired nausea.
Basically, the movie was made so Travolta could ham it up as this conceited alien. Barry Pepper is weak and puny as a character and weak and puny as an actor so that he doesn't outshine Travolta in any way. It's embarrassing to see Forest Whitaker appear in the film as Travolta's assistant after such an inspiring role in "Ghost Dog."
There have been some concerns about this film being a messenger for the Church of Scientology since L. Ron Hubbard was its founder. I don't think cult-followers need worry unless they're concerned for the health of some members they know. If those Scientologists are fans of film, they may consider "Battlefield Earth" a call to mass suicide.
Battlefield Earth - F
