MovieChat Forums > Battlefield Earth (2000) Discussion > It wasn't that bad !

It wasn't that bad !

posted 16 years ago by microbit
106 replies | jump to latest

Well, for years I've had the conviction that BE is so bad to not bother with it.
(it looked quite bad judging from the trailer).
But hey, I finally gave it the benefit of the doubt and - providing you're willing to 'plough' through the first 40 mins - it wasn't all that bad really.
I wanted to have an informed opinion, so I could substantiate the "why" next time it's a topic somewhere.
So it was a bit of a shock to find that this movie was quite OK. Perhaps some dumb stuff here and there, but overall it entertained me.
And that's what counts : it entertained. I've started watching movies that were raved on about sooo much and that turned out to be complete dissapointments.
Battlefield Earth couldn't possibly dissapoint since I was only wathing to confirm its banale content.

I'll be urging people to give it a chance at least, next time it's mentioned in a conversation........

[–] greasychicken13 15 years ago

I agree with the OP, it's not THAT bad, but it is still bad.

Things that pissed me off.

Editing. Overall the editing seems to be the single most aggravating factor in this movie. There are entire scenes that have no point in the plot, and why they were included baffles me. Also, there is a 5 to 10 minute stretch around the middle that is edited so poorly that honestly had no idea what was going on (jumping from one scene to another, seemly unrelated scene). Althoguh there are a lot of issues with this film, had it been edited in a way that allowed me to follow the plot, and remove the half hour of filler, we'd be good to go.

Slanty? Why is the entire movie filmed at a slant? Was this due to terribly poor tripods or whatever it is they use to steady these cameras? I mean common! Some have complained that these made the movie unwatchable. I think you get over it after bout 10 minutes, but it just seems unnecessary.

I'm Acting! I'm not sure why the bad dudes are so ridiculously overacted in this film. Aren't they the most experienced actors in here?

CRAP! Why is this word in every awkward piece of dialogue? Because they did a search and replace of *beep* rather than actually write an appropriate screenplay to get a kinder rating.

Things that really aren't that bad.

The story itself, though full of plot holes had the ability to be a fun sci-fi action movie, if not a good one. If you ignore the links to Scientology (and I for one know jack all about it) The story is good to go. Just get some bad ass (like Reb Brown) to play the lead and 'get to tha choppa' for the whole movie.

So ya, it's a bad movie, but it's really not THAT bad. They made an effort (except for the editing) and it could have been pretty cool int aht 80's action sort of way.

[–] Tony_Hedlund 15 years ago

First of all; You can't watch this movie thinking it to be a serious movie, think of it as "Fun with John Travolta!" - That scene where he and Forrest Whittaker set out to find the humans favorite food by letting them think they escaped... Just so that they can use it as leverage against them since they think they can't be taught anything about mining for gold...

That was hilarious! The rest is pretty much entertaining, if you ignore the rest of the movie.

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[–] Tony_Hedlund 15 years ago

If you're searching for bad movies btw, try endure "The Mangler 2.0" - Now, that's a BAD MOVIE! You might get better satisfaction by kicking a bee-hive while being naked, soaked in sugar-water, take a bath in lye, having sex with a meat-grinder!!!

In my opinion; It's the worst movie THAT I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!
I saw that like 8 or so years ago, and I haven't seen anything even remotely close to as bad as that one!!! Not that I've tried to find anything, but...

I watch movies pretty much close to every other day, so I watch a great deal every year, and have done so for the past 11 years...

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[–] ichabod81 15 years ago

I seriously don't understand people who claim this film to be the worst movie ever made.. it's WAY too unintentionally funny to be the worst. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.. now THAT was a TRUE piece of s***.

[–] duuuuumb 15 years ago

its not the worst movie ever, i think people are just following a fad. I actually enjoyed it, i had no clue about its Scientology (or ron hub) relation when i viewed it in theaters, and i was not able to build a negative opinion about this movie before i watched it, since i never heard about it until i saw it.
i thought it was comparable to any other space alien fantasy type movie, they are all cheesy at points, but also fun to watch.
I watched it again on dvd just to see if my opinion changed, and i honestly couldn't find any reason to dislike this movie.

[–] Tony_Hedlund 15 years ago

A-frakken-men to that. Now that was a pile of dung in itself!!!

I said so to a friend of mine, and he's one of those guys that watches <any> movie as long as there's a good-looking girl in it, he loved it. I was not surprised. It was as credible as Crouching Tiger, hidden dragon, if not possibly worse!

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[–] GreatWhiteApeofBarsoom 15 years ago

It WAS that bad. It was overblown, disjointed, ridiculous, cliched, and insulting to the intelligence. The only redeeming thing I can say about it is that I saw Gladiator the day I saw this and then theaterhopped to watch this steaming pile of dung. Even with that, I paid too much to see it.

[–] tsw453 15 years ago

About the part of crap. I saw this like 10 years ago and don't remember. But I read The Invaders Plan and all curse words were bleep, bleeping, bleepard. Did L Ron Hubbard not believe in cursing? I am assuming it wasn't changed at all and probably written that way in the book. Is that right?

[–] smirre44 15 years ago

I agree with OP, the only way it could have been worse would have been if the budget hadn't been as big as it was. Other than that... Hello! It's the brain child of the father of Scientlogy. Nuff said.

[–] cello22192 15 years ago

I didn't care about scientology then and I don't care about it now, so this has ZERO affect on my feelings about this flick.

Besides some far fetch scenes, I agree with the OP, this movie is not that bad. Heck, I thought the computer virus part of Independence Day was just as bad as any improbable scene in B.E. It was actually worse because the "virus" was KEY in the destruction of the aliens.

The story itself is pretty damn interesting. Aliens defeats mankind in mere minutes, rules planet earth for a 1000 yrs just to get annihilated by the native inhabitants SOLELY due to arrogance. This is classic if you ask me.

[–] microbit 15 years ago

Hey Cello22192,

Glad to read your comment on my OP :-)
And I certainly fully agree/relate to your comments :

> Heck, I thought the computer virus part of Independence Day was just as bad
> as any improbable scene in B.E.
> It was actually worse because the "virus" was KEY in the destruction of
> the aliens

Too right !
That virus saga was the most mindnumbingly stupid thing I ever saw in an SF movie... We'll just suspend disbelief and ignore the fact that to produce a virus that can devastate any OS so badly requires _very_ intimate knowledge of an OS and its framework, OK.
But to use nothing but a Mac, a parallel port and plant a virus like that is beyond pathetic. In context -- (re-introduce disbelief.. :-), Apple didn't even support its own iTunes SW for years on Mac, but hey - an alien OS virus through a plain parallel port, no problemo... geez... Why don't all the whingers about BE being so bad dedicate endless columns to that, at least it's 100% well deserved....

Oh, btw, I found the reference to this ID4 virus abortion quite funny too in the Stargate SG-1 episode "Politics" (IIRC) where Daniel Jackson retorts to Kinsey (Ronny Cox) - "Ok, I guess we'll just upload the virus to the mothership when the Goa'uld get here" - a well deserved stab ... :-)

Cheers,
Kris

[–] zrouse03 15 years ago

Yeah, thats what alot of these idiots fail to realize...

It isn't going to win any awards..., its not even close to being anywhere near the top of a sci-fi alltime list

but it isn't nowhere near as bad as everyone is making it out to be. Entertaining is all that matters, and this movie does that easily.

[–] cruzzy2004 15 years ago

it really wasnt, i saw it when it came out, i honestly enjoyed it. but...i wasnt really analytical when i was 12

[–] hwatney 15 years ago

Here is the key to this movie:

If you try to take it seriously you will be sorely disappointed. This is one of the worst major studio releases of the last decade.

But if you watch it as though it is meant to be FUNNY, you will have a grand old time. It was hilarious. Comedy genius. I laughed, I laughed so hard I cried and then I laughed some more because I soiled myself with absurdity.

I salute you, John Travolta. Mel Brooks couldn't have put together a better piece of madcap hilarity.

[–] Beastgirl2 15 years ago

I haven't seen the whole movie, but I saw parts of it a long time ago, and I thought it was a comedy. I thought it was supposed to be funny! Now I'm really confused and tempted to watch it when I have extra time.

[–] jwong71091 15 years ago

hwatney on Wed Jan 20 2010 09:44:32

Here is the key to this movie:

If you try to take it seriously you will be sorely disappointed. This is one of the worst major studio releases of the last decade.

But if you watch it as though it is meant to be FUNNY, you will have a grand old time. It was hilarious. Comedy genius. I laughed, I laughed so hard I cried and then I laughed some more because I soiled myself with absurdity.

I salute you, John Travolta. Mel Brooks couldn't have put together a better piece of madcap hilarity.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am glad you found Battlefield Earth to be funny

The only problem is that John Travolta, who is a Scientologist, wanted this movie to be made as a great tribute to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, who wrote the sci-fi novel on which the movie was based.

If Battlefield Earth was supposed to be a great tribute then unfortunately it ended up being an unintentionally funny and badly made movie that caused about $44,000,000 to produce

I would assume that Mr. Travolta was pretty disappointed or embarrassed about this

If you go to Wikipedia for this movie you would see that Mr. Travolta really wanted Battlefield Earth to become a great science fiction classic like Star Wars and instead this movie ended up being a really bad "joke" to most movie viewers

[–] valkyrie9453 13 years ago

You guys are missing the mark. I think you'll find that most (if not all) of the people who hated this movie had read the book first.

[–] CapnKaos 13 years ago

No, I don't think so.

I never read any of L. Ron Hubbard's fiction even in my younger days when I had devoured the entire Sci-Fi section at my local library. Those books were untouched.

Once or twice I almost picked up the first volume at this used-book store I frequented but wound up getting something else. Funny thing is it's down the street from the local Scientology centre (I'm not calling it a church. That's an offense to actual churches).

Then back in 2002 I finally saw the movie and it was horrible. John Travolta's overacting, the Dutch Angles, the screen wipes for every. single. transition. the clunky dialogue, the logical problems with the story and the list just went on and on. It was unintentionally funny however.

But many people said that the book was so much better and I needed to read it. So I managed to find a copy and I found it to be one of the most worst books I ever read. The dialogue was terrible, the characters strictly 1 dimensional and had plot holes large enough that even a rat brain could see them. L Ron Hubbard was simply not a good writer. He got his start in pulp where you were paid by the word and it shows in this work. He padded the book with excess dialogue that was simply not necessary.

Eventually I just gave up and returned it to the used book store I purchased it at. That book has the dubious honour of being the only book I have ever returned, sold or given away.

[–] tomgjcromwell 15 years ago

This movie was awful. From the ridiculous cave man stuff, to the thousand year old fighter jets, to the crazy camera angles and coloured lens filters. It was bad.

[–] 15 years ago

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