Battlefield Earth

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Battlefield Earth Review

We've seen a lot of alien invasion movies come out over the past few years, but when's the last time we saw a really cool movie about aliens actually running our planet?

Not since the original PLANET OF THE APES has such an interesting premise been given such major attention, as John Travolta takes the first half of L. Ron Hubbard's famous sci-fi novel and turns it into this summer's first big science-fiction popcorn ride.

PLOT
It is the year 3000, and our planet is being manhandled by evil Psychlos alien beings. Security chief Terl is the meanest sonnova-bitch of them all, ruling with his arrogance, power and blackmailing skills. It isn't until a peasant man who goes by the name of Jonnie Goodboy Tyler takes a stand that the few surviving humans decide to rally in the hopes of defeating their gigantic oppressors.

CRITIQUE
Fun cheese. Despite starting off like a bad Star Trek episode, this film eventually graduates to a higher level with great special effects, some really slick bad-ass aliens, an intriguing premise and a good flow of loud, campy fun.

Don't bother seeing this movie if you're expecting a film similar in nature to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. This one definitely asks that you bring along a bag of farfetchedness, with many of your likely questions relating to the plausibility of a handful of human beings fighting an entire alien race.

But if you consider the pure arrogance of the Psychlos, and the way in which they underestimate and even misdiagnose many of the humans, it becomes a much easier pill of reasoning to swallow.

I personally had very few issues with the story, which I found to be interesting and fast-paced enough to keep me entertained.

I had an initial problem with the alien beings, their accents and their exaggerated laughs, but all that seemed to disappear about 20 minutes into the film, as I got more and more used to their world.

I also loved the fact that the aliens were some real bad muthas! I mean, these guys were nasty boogers! I dug on them completely, and was even rooting for them to stomp our dumb human asses...!

Overall, the movie played like a 2-hour sci-fi comic book with many a loud bang, an overly obtrusive score, great scene transitions and some of the better special effects of the year.

You truly felt like this was the end of the world as we knew it, and I certainly didn't notice any part of my fair city of Montreal in any of the proceedings (the film was shot on location here).

This film is not to be taken too seriously, with many melodramatic human moments sappy as hell (one scene seemed like a carbon copy of Mel Gibson's infamous BRAVEHEART sequence "...fight for our freedom!).

And I also could have done without the umpteen slo-mo shots of Barry Pepper running down Matrix-like hallways, but in the end, the film was fast, furious and just a good ol' time at the theatres.

Now whether or not you end up liking the film, I think we can all agree that this is certainly an admirable turn for Travolta. Both he and Whitaker chew right into their dirty, grungy roles and truly become these unconscionable alien beings.

So if you're looking for a cool, mindless, special-effect laden film starring a couple of bad muthas, this puppy is made prime for you. This movie is loud, sorta campy, over-the-top and certainly not super-tight in narrative.

But overall, the energy of the film is slated to "fun" and the last 20 minutes are especially wild. So don't take it all so seriously and enjoy the ride!

Little Known Facts about this film and its stars:

I was lucky enough to meet and interview John Travolta for this film, and here are a few tidbits from that meeting:

1) Other than the fact that L. Ron Hubbard wrote the novel on which this movie is based and is known as the founder of Scientology, there is nothing in the film which connects the two.

2) A sequel for this film is already slated to begin production in Montreal, most likely next year.

3) John is interested in directing one day, although it will probably be in a limited capacity, and definitely about something personal, most likely an adaptation of his own book, "Propellor One-Way Night Coach".

John Travolta's wife, actress Kelly Preston, makes an appearance in this film as one of the female aliens named Chirk. She's the one with the extra-long tongue swirling about.

Barry Pepper was born in Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada. He had a few small roles in bigger films over the past few years, including parts in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (8/10), ENEMY OF THE STATE (7.5/10) and THE GREEN MILE (4/10).

Most of this film was shot on location in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Director Roger Christian was art director on the 1979 movie ALIEN, and set decorator on the 1977 sci-fi classic STAR WARS.

The film is actually based on the first 500 pages of the novel, with a few moments from the second part of the book also thrown in.

RATING: 7 /10 --> Good movie
Review Date: May 1, 2000
Director: Roger Christian
Writers: Corey Mandell and J. David Shapiro
Producers: John Travolta, Elie Samaha and Jonathan D. Krane
Actors:
John Travolta as Terl
Forest Whitaker as Ker
Barry Pepper as Jonnie Goodboy Tyler
Year of Release: 2000

This article was kindly contributed by Berge over at Jo Blo's Movie Emporium. Copyright remains with Berge's site.

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