5/13/2000
Battlefield Earth stars John Travolta as Terl, Barry Pepper as Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, Forest Whitaker as Ker, Kim Coates as Carlo, Sabine Karsenti as Chrissie, Richard Tyson as Robert the Fox, Marie-Josée Croze as Mara, Kelly Preston as Chirk.
Battlefield Earth is John Travolta's tribute to L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. L. Ron Hubbard was a prolific writer of science fiction. This film should be named Planet of the Apeliens. It also stars a cast of tens. The money for this film went into special effects. However, for all of its short comings, it is true to sci-fi story telling. The names of the characters are a bit distracting. The film does not go off on tangents like romance, religion or other subplots found in bad movies.
Battlefield Earth takes us to a post apocalyptic Earth, where the Psychlos have conquered the Earth in nine minutes. Men are left in scattered pockets. Caves and forests provide cover for a meager lifestyle and a way to evade being harvested by the Demons. Jonnie Goodboy Tyler leaves to see these demons for himself. After entering what is left of a shopping mall, he is captured and is face to face with the Psychlos. Just like the Ape movies, men are considered inferior and untrainable. However, Terl has a scheme to mine gold using trained men. This is why the Psychlos are on Earth. The rest is what makes good sci-fi. Jonnie Goodboy Tyler is put in front of Psychlos mind training machine and learns about the Psychlos and the former people of Earth. He then proceeds to conquer the Psychlos and free mankind.
Some of the events are not plausible, even by sci-fi standards. After thousands of years equipment still works and where are the power sources? But this film is OK sci-fi, but not great.
I give it 3 out of 5 rats: