Battlefield Earth (film): Difference between revisions

The film version of [[L. Ron Hubbard]]'s [[Science Fiction]] novel ''[[Battlefield Earth (Literaturenovel)|Battlefield Earth]]'' was released in the U.S. in the year 2000, directed by Roger Christian and starring [[John Travolta]] as Psychlo leader Terl (he originally wanted to play the part of the book's hero, Jonnie "Goodboy" Tyler, but that role eventually went to Barry Pepper). Travolta had wanted to do the film for a long time, but had trouble securing money for it because of studios' apprehension to bankroll the film due to its connections with the [[Church of Happyology|Church of Scientology]]. He later poured most of his own money into the project and signed on as a co-producer, and the rest...well, is history.

After MGM and Fox Studios turned down offers to distribute the film, it was eventually picked up by Franchise Pictures, a company known for helping stars rescue their troubled pet projects. To this day,{{when}} it has yet to gross 30 million USD--its budget was 44 million.

Has''Battlefield Earth'' has the dubious honor of winning the [[Razzie]] for Worst Movie of the 2000s.

* [[Adaptation -Induced Plothole]]: While the original novel isn't exactly regarded as a masterpiece of plotting, the film still introduces various plot holes and problems of its own. Perhaps the most glaring is that the Psychlos somehow missed Fort Knox altogether in the film, whereas in the novel it was one of the first locations they hit.

** Gold is apparently the rarest and most valuable material in the universe. Aside from the [[You Fail Economics Forever|economics fail]] of assuming gold has intrinsic worth (it's largely valuable because our ancestors liked shiny things, actually), there are dozens of rarer elements. Not only does gold have no intrinsic worth, but the reason for its economic strength is both because [[EverythingsEverything's Sparkly Withwith Jewelry|people like shiny things]] and because of how practically useless it is. Back in the day when societies were using metals like iron and bronze for important things like weapons and armor, a soft metal like gold was worthless except for decoration and, eventually, currency.

* [[Big No]]: Most of JonnyJonnie's lines involve him [[Large Ham|violently expressing his grief]] over someone/something.

* [[Braids, Beads, and Buckskins]]: Suspiciously clean buckskins (Travolta didn't want the movie to look too grimy), for the first act, anyway. The Psychlos, though [[Card -Carrying Villain|irredeemably evil]], are nice enough to give the man-animals jumpsuits after capture.

* [[Call a Human Aa Meatbag]]: The Psychlos typically refer to humans as "man-animals."

* [[Call a Smeerp Aa Rabbit]]: It's not surprising that the Psychlos have Euclidean Geometry. What is surprising is that they call it Euclidean Geometry.

* [[Chewing the Scenery]]/[[World of Ham]]: All the villiansvillains.

* [[Exact Words]]: Terl promises JonnyJonnie he wouldn't kill a prisoner destined to die... only to give the gun to a subordinate and have ''him'' do it. As he put it, "I only said ''I'' wouldn't kill him."

* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: JonnyJonnie delivers his stirring speech about how humanity has enough problems "without having to fight each other over food" having just beaten the crap out of someone over food.

* [[It Works Better Withwith Bullets]]

{{quote| '''Terl:''' If you [[I Just Shot Marvin in Thethe Face|rat-brains knew ANYTHING about firearms]], you'd know that you '''[[Did Not Do the Research|never store loaded weapons]]'''!}}

* [[MotifsMotif]]: Nauseating camera angles, lurid blue or purple coloration, people dressed like cavemen hooting like howler monkeys.

* [[Never Say "Die"]]: The Psychlos are really fond of the word "Vaporize", though. Even though their guns don't actually vaporize anyone.

* [[Slow Motion]]: Roughly a fourth of the film consists of slow-mo shots of Psychlos lumbering around shooting at people, JonnyJonnie running away from Psychlos shooting at him (complete with [[Bullet Time|Matrix-esque]] clouds of debris and shrapnel), or JonnyJonnie mourning somebody's death

* [[Token Romance]]: JonnyJonnie's girlfriend gets about four scenes in this film. All we know is that she left the village against her father's wishes.

* [[Translation Convention]]: While the Psychlos are in private, their language is translated into English, but when the humans are the focus, it's left untranslated. It gets a little weird once JonnyJonnie learns the language and is speaking both in the same scene and "translating".

* [[Villain Ball]]: Held by the Psychlos' leader, Terl. Teaching your slaves [[Instant Expert|everything to know about your civilization in an instant]] can only end badly, ''especially'' if you're supposedly doing it to help [[Take Over the World|conquer their planet]]. Introducing your pet human to inspiring documents from the American Revolution will only make things worse. Holding your pet human's girlfriend hostage just [[ItsIt's Personal|makes things personal]]. Abusing your henchman only serves to set up the [[Mistreatment -Induced Betrayal]] in the final act. And not launching an all-out crackdown when the man-animals rebel and attack with air support... not a good idea Terl doesn't even notice {{spoiler|an exploding collar JonnyJonnie straps to his arm in a melee, and proceeds to amputate his own limb when he triumphantly hits the detonator.}} His ([[Dull Surprise|non]])reaction shot is priceless. He appears to read the [[Bizarro Universe]] inversion of the [[Evil Overlord List]], telling him exactly what to do ''wrong''.