Battlefield Earth

	Review by Howard Anderson © 2001 Howard Anderson

Story

In the year 3000, there are no countries, no cities... Earth is a wasteland. And man is an endangered species.

A millennium ago, vicious Psychlo aliens swept down from the skies and wiped out Earth's entire defense force in nine minutes. Now, the handfuls of surviving humans are either used as slaves, stripping the mineral resources from the planet for use by the Psychlo race, or hiding out in remote mountain villages, primitive and cut off from the rest of humanity.

One of the most powerful figures on this new Earth is Psychlo Chief of Security Terl (John Travolta), a brilliant and monstrous alien who believes he was destined to conquer galaxies.

What he does not know is that one human, Jonnie Goodboy Tyler (Barry Pepper), is about to put a kink in his plan to exploit Earth's human slaves for his own personal gain. A hunter who sets out to make life better for his people, Jonnie is captured and made to work as a slave in one of the Psychlos' mines. It is here that his journey really begins - a grand adventure that will lead him to discover places and things he never knew existed.

Terl holds every advantage, with the massive strength of invincible Psychlo machinery and the vast Psychlo empire behind him. Jonnie is an insignificant animal to Terl, but he is about to turn the tables, and unleash his unfailing hope in a final showdown for the future of Earth.

Review

There are some films that I can't for the life of me understand why they tanked at the box office, like "Starship Troopers" for example. And then there are films that were quite clearly destined to end up as flops, like "Batman & Robin" and "The Avengers," the ultimate king and queen of that hill. But then there's a third category, where you've got a film that's mediocre at best, which then goes on to become a true box office champion in every sense of the word. I can think of no better example for that last one than "Independence Day", and all though I enjoyed the destruction and mayhem in that film just as much as the next guy, I still found most other things about it to be fairly weak.

Roger Christian's adaptation of L. Ron Hubbard's "Battlefield Earth" is in my mind just as good a film as "ID4" ever was, and its even got a better story going for it. But yet Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin's blatant rip-off of everything from H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" to the TV series "V", went on to become one of the ten biggest earners in box office history, while John Travolta's pet project since the early eighties fell flat on its face when it premiered on May 5th of last year. I also want to make it perfectly clear that when I finally sat down to see "Battlefield Earth", I was all set to completely and utterly tear it apart afterwards. I wanted to join in on the lynching party and have my fun as this sci-fi blasphemy was deprived of its last iota of life. I wanted to idily stand by and watch with obvious delight on my face as the noose tightened around its celluloid throat. I figured I might even take a piss on its grave afterwards, but then the damnedest thing happened. Believe it or not, but the film actually isn't that bad. It's not without its flaws, obviously, but no matter how critical an attitude I tried to assert in myself, I still couldn't help but think this film deserved a lot better than what it finally got. "Battlefield Earth" is for the most part a fun, thrilling and exciting ride, but it does have problems, most of which could have been avoided if the filmmakers had stayed truer to the source material.

John Travolta is a riot to watch as Terl, and so is Forest Whitaker as Ker. They both have fun with their characters and they play wonderfully off each other. One of the things I think most people failed to understand during this film's theatrical run, is that the Psychlos are a bunch of megalomaniacal, ever-scheeming, back-stabbing morons. With an emphasis on morons. Which goes to show you that too much power in the hands of an imbecile is a very dangerous thing, indeed. George W. Bush, anyone? Director Roger Christian also mentions in the Audio Commentary that the Psychlos are the dark side of human psychè. Barry Pepper also deserves mentioning as Jonnie "Goodboy" Tyler, and so do the two oh so luscious Psychlo babes that we get a few short but priceless glimpses of, one of which is played by Kelly Preston. Oh yeah!

Despite the good and bad sides of "Battlefield Earth", the true star of this show is Patrick Tatopolous and his out-of-this-world creature, set and costume designs. They're just about awesome enough to make you wanna forget whatever flaws the film may possess, and instead just enjoy the on-screen spectacle. The fx are without a doubt among the best offered up by last years big-budget studio films, and I can only speculate that the sole reason for "Battlefield Earth" not being among the nominees for Best Visual Effects, is because it failed to make a killing at the box office, and that, I think, says a lot about the integrity of the Academy Awards. The great talent and workmanship behind a film can't be judged solely by that film's financial performance, but I guess that's greek to most members of the Academy. Anyways, the bottom line about "Battlefield Earth" is that I actually had a really good time watching it, but I do feel that it certainly went astray at times, especially during the off-the-wall climax, but then, I've seen far worse in other films.

Image

This is another terrific transfer from Warner Bros. that will surely leave you speechless as you gaze upon its perfection. The incredible work carried out by Tatopolous and his crew are done the utmost justice by this stunning DVD presentation, and the amount of detail put into the designs are displayed here in all their glory. Framed in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, I simply couldn't detect a single blemish at any point in the film. The colors, which are used richly and with a very wide palette, remained strong throughout, without any signs of smearing or any other problems. This is reference quality all the way on all levels.

Sound

When the walls start to tremble even before the opening titles have appeared, then you know you're in for a seriously active and powerful Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. And that is exactly what you get here. The directionality is enough to make your head spin, and the bass is strong enough to level cities. Like with the merciless rumbling of the Psyochlo transport ships as they hover overhead, sounding every bit as menacing as they also look, with generous amounts of bass being fed not only to the LFE channel, but to all five speakers. This soundtrack will surely bring a smile to the face of any audiophile. Most impressive!

Features

Marked as a Special Edition, this Warner DVD lives up to its name. There's an Audio Commentary with director Roger Christian and Patrick Tatopolous that is very informative and easy on the ears, with Christian doing the most of the talking and offering a lot of musings and additional background info as to the origins the shots and so on. The Behind-the-Scenes Documentary "Evolution and Creation" is a great 16-minute glimpse at the making of this film, giving you some nice interviews and stories. The Storyboard Montage is a fun little extra, with a bunch of sequences intercut with their storyboard counterparts, spiced up by some cool music playing in the background. The John Travolta Make-Up Test gives you a 2-minute look at the visual origins of Terl, and is really a short promotional featurette. The Creative Visual is another 2 and a half-minute featurette, showing you nothing that you haven't already seen in the longer documentary. There's a Teaser Trailer, the Theatrical Trailer, 2 TV Spots, some information on the "Battlefield Earth" novel, as well as the standard Cast & Crew Bios.

Overall Opinion

Is "Battlefield Earth" a great film? No, probably not, but this is a film that is meant to be pure entertainment, and as such I feel the film actually delivers. Like John Travolta said: "It almost reminds me of Pulp Fiction 3000. It's weird that way. It delivers." And that's exactly what "Battlefield Earth" is meant to be: a shameless piece of pulp fiction sci-fi cinema, and not "Lawrence of Arabia." And there's another little aspect too that I've got to mention. I love the original "Planet of the Apes." I also love that whole post-apocalyptic movie theme, and finally I was given a film that showed me some awesome-looking ruins of our great cities, instead of just endless desert scenery with a couple of scattered car wrecks lying about. A guilty pleasure, maybe, but if you're able to see "Battlefield Earth" for what it is and just have a good time with that, then this film may surprise you. Oh, and the DVD kicks serious ass!