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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Battlefield Earth
Overwhelming dislike
Based on 33 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 100 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Sci-fi
Written by:
L. Ron Hubbard (novel)
Corey Mandell
J. David Shapiro
Directed by: Roger Christian
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 12, 2000
DVD: January 16, 2001
Running Time: 121 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for intense sci-fi action
Starring John Travolta, Barry Pepper, Forrest Whitaker, Kim Coates, Sabine Karsenti, Michael Byrne, Christian Tessier, and Sylvain Landry
In the year 3000, after the alien Psychlos conquer Earth, killing most of the humans so that they can strip the Earth of its resources, one man comes out of hiding in search of other surviving humans and hoping to overthrow the aliens.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Bandido
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark
It's a lock to pile up the honors during Hollywood's annual awards season next spring (at the Golden Raspberries and the MTV Movie Awards).
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Scientology or not, the movie is a battlefield bummer that makes you want to revolt.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
It should have warned us that logic was also hitting hard times.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
An underlit, overlong, underwritten and overloud albatross of a movie.
Boston Globe Jay Carr
So heavy and lifeless that you keep waiting for those three little front-row kibitzers from "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" to appear at the bottom of the screen to start goofing on it.
USA Today Andy Seiler
The script, based on a novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, is deeply dumb, depressingly derivative (ripping off "Planet of the Apes" the most) and just plain nonsense.
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Shot after shot photographed at wobbly, off-center angles for no particular reason, weigh every action sequence down with super-slo-mo in lame imitation of "The Matrix" or end every single scene with a vertical wipe.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Just a lumbering, poorly photographed piece of derivative sci-fi drivel, full of grunting extras scampering around in animal pelts and more dank, trash-strewn sets than I ever care to see again.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Goes from being tediously terrible to downright gigglesome.
Variety Dennis Harvey
Yet the overall look, though derivative ("The Matrix," "Blade Runner," "Waterworld," etc.), rates as Battlefield's one non-guilty pleasure.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
The story's broad strokes are painfully clichéd and its details make no sense at all.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
A ghastly, unappealing mess that lacks a single absorbing character, engaging story line or entertaining snippet of dialogue.
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
It's bombastic, chaotic, plodding, visually dreary and patchily written.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
A sluggish, soporific dud, the dreariest big-budget science-fiction adventure since "Dune."
San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
If filmmaking has ever been less thrilling and more disengaging, I'd like to see it.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Let's cut to the chase: We're talking "Ishtar of the Apes."
Read Full Review >Film.com Robert Horton
The film is Travolta's baby, but indifference and boredom is everywhere.
Read Full Review >Newsweek Ted Gideonse
The dialogue is inane, the acting wooden, and Roger Christian's directing choices are a lesson in sci-fi film cliché.
Read Full Review >TNT RoughCut J. Rentilly
The only danger in seeing this film is in busting a gut at its unintentional hilarity.
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
With this kind of epic ineptitude -- hell, the flick is set in the year 3000 -- you go for "worst of the millennium."
Film.com Sean Means
In the pantheon of cinematic train wrecks, from "Ishtar" to "Waterworld," set a place at the table for Battlefield Earth.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Simply put, Battlefield Earth is the worst film I've seen in over 10 years, and believe me, that's saying a lot.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Robin Rauzi
Compounded by a dated visual style, patched-together special effects and ludicrous dialogue, Battlefield Earth is a wholly miserable experience.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Rita Kempley
A million monkeys with a million crayons would be hard-pressed in a million years to create anything as cretinous as Battlefield Earth.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
It may be a bit early to make such judgments, but Battlefield Earth may well turn out to be the worst movie of this century.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Schickel
The worst movie in living memory.
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
One of the darkest, ugliest, most uninvolving and incomprehensible major-studio fantasies I've ever seen.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
A picture that will be hailed without controversy as the worst of its kind ever made.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 2.6 (out of 10) based on 100 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
george gave it a5:
After all the brutal reviews I expected BE to be the next Plan 9 on a big budget. Derivative, absolutely - and that's really its worst problem: for all the money and hoopla it looks and sounds like every other sci-fi schlocker, right down to the lighting, sound fx, etc; Travolta should never have cast himself in the lead - he's TRAVOLTA, and you can't get past that; at least duds like DUNE tried to create something visually unique. But hey, I've also defended ISHTAR - another movie undeserving of such universal derision; bad? Yep; the WORST? Not even close; if you're looking for TRUE PAIN then test yourself with Roberto B's PINOCCHIO.
kid block gave it a0:
Geez why people give this a higher rating which means they should be put into a mental institution if they like this film. Cause this movie sucks as hell because if poor plot and poor effects in this film.
Ben E. gave it a1:
This is possibly the worst movie ever made, but perhaps slightly better than Ben & Arthur.
John D. gave it a0:
Not one character was appealing. I enjoy science fiction a great deal but this reminds me why 99% of the time the movies are never done correctly or are able to be funded. Any made for tv movie would have been much better because at least you could blame a lack of funding, but this fails on such a large scale that its imeasurable. Never thought Id ever feel sorry for an actor before but Travolta this was just sad. Its his own fault though.
Stephen C. gave it a2:
Better than I thought it was going to be and I can still only give it a 2. It's shamelessly pandering to the same people that Scientology does, the not so smart segment of the population. Besides being a not very good sci-fi story in the first place it is also a bad adaptation of a bad story that is badly acted and badly directed. The best thing I can say is some of the acting is so bad it's laughable, especially Mr. Travolta.
Anon gave it a0:
The most clichéd science fiction piece I have ever witnessed. Absolutely terribly written and the acting inspired no emotional reaction.
David D. gave it a10:
Best bilingual scifi movie of all time In a country where bilingual English/Spanish signage is scoffed at by the illiterate provincial masses, I don't expect a movie as brilliantly bilingual as BattleField Earth to have been embraced. Just as I am ahead of my times for my ability to speak Chinese, so BattleField Earth is ahead of its time in presenting the inhabitants of Psyclo as non-native English speakers who need to tech their enemy their language before they can communicate with him. That aspect was misunderstood by the uni-lingual American masses. In a world where only 7% of the people speak English as their native language, I find it insulting to see SciFi movies where Romulans and Naboo-ians speak perfect English. The "cultural elite" often praise themselves on watching foreign films with subtitles, yet the same people scoff at the best bilingual scifi movie of all times - BattleField Earth. BattleField Earth gets 2 thumbs up from this critic.
