Battlefield Earth (2000)

Being a huge fan of science fiction movies I am used to seeing productions which are not the best quality. It is hard to make a good sci-fi movie, especially when it involves aliens and requires special effects and heavy make-up. Usually one aspect or another of such a movie isn't so great, especially if the move doesn't have a huge budget. I am used to all of this, but I still wasn't prepared for the terribleness that is Battlefield Earth. It's a movie in which everything form acting to plot to editing is really, really bad.Let's take the acting. Seeing the names of John Travolta and Forest Whitaker one would expect to see performances which are at least decent. Here both the actors are terribly overacting their parts and making what was supposed to be big bad aliens look like parodies of the Klingons. I'm not sure whether it was entirely the actors' fault or if the screenplay just didn't give them enough to work with, but seeing such good actors do such poor job is really sad.The plot is similarly bad. The protagonist has no character besides being good. We don't know anything about him and I found it impossible to care about him. The antagonists on the other hand are just evil and driven by greed and cruelty. The plot is not only really generic, but it takes big leaps without stopping to show how the characters feel about the changing circumstances. Even the design of the alien race is lazy and seems to be a rip-off of the Klingons.Special effects in the movie made me want to laugh and cry at the same time. They look like something out of a low-budget television movie and not a production which was released in movie theaters. Or they look like they were made in the 1980s and not in 2000. Either way, they are truly pitiful and make the movie look even more like a parody.Even the editing of the movie is poor. I suppose the cuts between the scenes were meant to be interesting, but they are annoying, especially considering the fact that the same effect is used over and over again until it becomes unbearable. In addition to this, the movie often goes into an inexplicable slow motion, which doesn't seem to serve any purpose at all.To sum up, watching this movie was an ordeal for me, even though I've seen a considerable number of not-so-good science fiction productions and I'm willing to forgive a lot if a movie has anything interesting to offer. I can honestly say it's one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Cross my heart and hope to die.

This has to be the low life movie in an actor's career. John Travolta plays the character that is a cross between his character in Saturday night fever and an alien he was trying to be funny but boy was his acting horrible and he was not funny at all. The main character in the picture seem to always be running someplace and most of the time was in slow motion. It's hard to believe that no one else has made any type of reviews or comments on this movie it is just horrible the CGI is pretty good but the acting left a lot to be desired. I would have to say this is probably more of a comedy due to the poor acting.

How does a movie like this even get made. The shots are all slanted at 45 degrees. the production design looks like crap, and the CGI is GOD AWFUL! John Travolta is WAY over the top in this movie. These aliens are supposed to be so advanced and smarter than us but they are all dumb ass'. One of the dumb scenes is the food scene. John Travolta wonders what food that human like the most. They assume that they like rats but the humans chose rats because they were starving. Honestly I could write so much for this but I want to keep it small. I do have to talk about the end where the aliens planet is blown up by one small bomb. Yeah the writing and story is that bad! Please stay away from this movie.

Now I'm not a person who likes all sorts of bad movies. For instance I think that "Dragonball: Evolution" and the American version of "Death Note" were disasters. I don't just like all movies, so hear my thoughts on this one.There are a bunch of high reviews here for this movie. A small percentage of people actually like this movie and I happen to be on of them. If you have the correct expectations and you're a hardcore Sci- Fi fan, then you may sincerely be one of the people can enjoy this.WHAT TO EXPECT: This is a low-budget post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi with over the top script and acting. It's done more in an old-school style instead of going for realism like movies nowadays (for instance Nolan's Batman trilogy, which tries to be realistic).As a huge Sci-Fi fan, I liked the movie because it has what I wanted form it: Futuristic visuals and a post-apocalyptic story. Visually I enjoyed the alien spaceship designs and certain environments (such as the alien colonial base and city ruins) even if they were low- budget. The post-apocalyptic story is interesting, it follows one the most known Sci-Fi novels. Personally I haven't read the novel, so can't comment on that much.The first 5 minutes leaves the worst impression (acting and script wise), but it got interesting after the aliens come in.BOTTOM LINE. HERE IS THE KEY POINT: I wasn't bothered by the acting or the script BECAUSE... Being a Sci- Fi fan, the post-apocalyptic story and futuristic visuals made this into an enjoyable experience, even if the script and acting isn't what you would call Oscar worthy. That's why some people really like this movie. Most people are extremely disappointed with the acting, dialogues and cheap visuals. So much that it's considered the worst movie ever. Based on my review, if you think you can enjoy it for what it is, give it a chance.