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Battlefield Earth
Warner Brothers


2.4

based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 85 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Bandido

MPAA 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.

GENRE(S):	Sci-fi
WRITTEN BY:	L. Ron Hubbard (novel) Corey Mandell J. David Shapiro
DIRECTED BY:	Roger Christian
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 16, 2001 Video: January 16, 2001 Theatrical: May 12, 2000
RUNNING TIME:	121 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

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).

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

Is it worth seeing once? Sure.

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.

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.

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.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Goes from being tediously terrible to downright gigglesome.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

The movie's mode is brutal and excremental.

Variety Dennis Harvey

Yet the overall look, though derivative ("The Matrix," "Blade Runner," "Waterworld," etc.), rates as Battlefield's one non-guilty pleasure.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Seems like a miscalculation on multiple levels.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The story's broad strokes are painfully clichéd and its details make no sense at all.

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.

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.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Awful in so many different ways.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Let's cut to the chase: We're talking "Ishtar of the Apes."

LA Weekly Ron Stringer

A stinker.

Film.com Robert Horton

The film is Travolta's baby, but indifference and boredom is everywhere.

Newsweek Ted Gideonse

The dialogue is inane, the acting wooden, and Roger Christian's directing choices are a lesson in sci-fi film cliché.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Slate David Edelstein

A picture that will be hailed without controversy as the worst of its kind ever made.

The average user rating for this movie is 2.4 (out of 10) based on 85 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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.

Dale H. gave it a0:
This movie was so bad it was amazing that the stars accepted these roles, in two weeks time the primitive people know how to fly fighter jets? It also moved way too fast and was so stupid how the tryed to talk, piece of crap movie, don't waste your time.

Soulman gave it a3:
Well... the film is bad. BUT it is not that bad then I thought after reading all the critics. Or maybe it's only not so bad because it is some sort of fun to see such a bad film. I had a good time!

Tom C. gave it a10:
This film is great. You must be a psychiatrist or on medication if you hate this film. My buddy Jon Travolta does an excellent job portraying Bob Marley. I can't wait to show it to Suri when IT takes over and our Xenu comes back. Haven't you all suspected? THIS film is how I converted Katie. I assure you, watch this film and your E-Meter will be off the chart. Just pay 400 thousand dollars to the only true religion and 5 bucks to your local secular video store and you too can be a scientologist! Thanks for your time, and Viacom, f.ck off! I'm fine without you!

Nathan T. gave it a0:
The hype is accurate! "Battlefield Earth" is one of, if not the worst film in the history of mankind. Ugly, stupid, repulsive, and disturbing in a manner not seen, since, well, the era of L. Ron Hubbard's crummy derivative writing and scam of a religion.

Vinny B. gave it a9:
Far ahead of its time, "Battlefield Earth" was never recognized for the masterpiece allegory that it is. The aliens in this movie are thinly veiled versions of Scientology proselytizers, and their adventures on planet Earth focus on the misunderstandings that often occur between members of the church and the general public. Travolta's character is an unsubtle archetype of every Hubbard-worshiping movie star that has come before him - his natty dreads and over-the-top delivery an uncanny riff on Tom Cruise's performance in "Born on the Fourth of July." His large bulk and space-faring ways can not fail to invoke memories of Kirstie Alley in a far inferior sci-fi flick, "Star Trek II." Indeed, the film makes a case for L. Ron Hubbard as the supreme pop culture Sci-Fi guru of our time, not the overrated Gene Roddenberry. Indeed, "Battlefield Earth" may very well be viewed in the year 3000 much as we look back on near-forgotten masterpieces like "The Inferno" and "King Lear." Watch for Will Smith's brief but hilarious cameo as a Bible salesmen. Other Scientologists making brief cameos include Tom Hanks, Bea Arthur, the kid from "Jerry Maguire," and Fred "The Hammer" Williamson.

Battlefield Earth Warner Brothers

Battlefield Earth
Warner Brothers