The worst sci-fi flick ever made?
A thousand years in the future, Earth has been taken over by a towering alien race called Psychlos, who have enslaved humanity with the intent of stripping the land of all resources. Other humans hide in the wilderness, living a primitive life. However, one “man-animal” (Barry Pepper) spurs a movement to free the planet. John Travolta and Forest Whitaker play chief-security Psychlos.
Based on L. Ron Hubbard’s book from 1982, “Battlefield Earth” (2000) is post-apocalyptic sci-fi that mixes “Planet of the Apes” and “Logan’s Run” with a little “Terminator” and some “Star Wars” dogfighting in the last act. It is notorious as one of the worst movies ever made, at least those with a healthy budget. The nitpicking has been so out of hand that Roger Ebert even criticized the font chosen for the opening titles (rolling my eyes).
The truth is, it’s not close to being that bad. Unlike the similar “The Lost Future” (a low-budget flick from 2010), the pace is a little too frenzied, no doubt because the script tried to cram the first half of a 1000-page novel into a 2-hour film. Despite this, it’s not like the story’s unintelligible, although it needed to flesh-out the heroes further in order to make it more compelling. Some complain about the use of Dutch angles, but this is barely perceptible and, besides, they give the movie a unique vibe. Then there’s the cavil about the constant double wipes to change scenes. Seriously? Who cares? No one complains about the wipes in “Star Wars.”
Sure, Travolta takes a hammy approach to his Psychlo character, as do other Psychlo cast-members, but that’s part of the fun. You’re supposed to roll with it. There’s a glaring wink of amusement to the proceedings. So anyone who says the movie’s “unintentionally” funny is clueless.
One of the biggest real problems is the absent of any significant female characters. There’s Sabine Karsenti as Chrissy, but her role isn’t that big and she’s underused. Meanwhile Kelly Preston has a long-tongued cameo as Psychlo Chirk, but that’s it (not counting peripherals). The remake of “Planet of the Apes” came out the next year and had enough sense to include Estella Warren in a fairly prominent role; the same thing with “The Lost Future” with Annabelle Wallis, not to mention Hannah Tointon and Eleanor Tomlinson.
To the film’s credit, a certain scene in the last act prefigures a (more) memorable scene in Abrams’ “Star Trek” nine years later. I’m not saying this is a great movie, it has its issues, but the over-criticism is unjustified and reminiscent of the ridiculous response to the well-done “Heaven’s Gate.” Perhaps due to the links to Sciencefictionology, the knives hit the sharpening stones well before it was ever released and once the buzz got out that it was a bad film a feeding frenzy ensued.
The movie runs 1 hour, 58 minutes, and was shot in Montreal, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and several other Quebec locations. Additional stuff was filmed California.
GRADE: B-/C+
