Roger Christian
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Filmography
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He's done some fine work as a second-unit guy on the "Star Wars" movies (he directed the pod race in "Phantom Menace"), but he's no match for Hubbard's story and Corey Mandell's screen adaptation.
The movie is directed by Roger Christian, a former second-unit director of "Star Wars."
Though based on Scientologist founder L. Ron Hubbard's 1982 novel, this screens like "Mad Max" meets "Star Wars".
It would certainly kill fewer brain cells than this mess, which wastes the considerable talents of John Travolta (for whom the movie was a pet project) and Forest Whitaker on a film that mixes equal parts "Star Wars," -"Braveheart" and "Plan 9 from Outer Space."
The plot is the tried-and-true fight of the righteous against oppressors -- it could be Indians against the cavalry, the "Star Wars" rebels against the evil Empire, the colonialists against the Redcoats, etc., etc.
The movie plays like an uglier, Earth-bound "Star Wars," interrupted by frequent Psychlo temper tantrums.
"Masterminds" sort of tells the story of a famous heist involving not very bright thieves, the 1997 Loomis Fargo job.
…stolen in Charlotte, NC in October 1997—gets the pseudo-Coen-brothers, robbery-by-dummies treatment in Jared Hess’ Masterminds.
If “Lord of the Rings” and “Battlefield Earth” had a baby, it would look like the plot of “Warcraft.”
And the very best any sci-fi and fantasy devotee can hope for right now, is that "Warcraft" disappears into a black hole of failure so huge you could chuck "The Green Lantern," "John Carter," "Fantastic Four" and even "Battlefield Earth" right in after it.
That this succeeds is enough to make me dismiss critics who call the film the Battlefield Earth of the 21st century.
Though this isn't a science fiction folly quite as bad as Battlefield Earth or The Adventures of Pluto Nash , it's still rammed with an incomprehensible plot, off-key performances and a script that blurts out lines as ridiculous as "bees are genetically programmed to recognise royalty".
The big hits—the Transformers franchise, The Avengers (2012), Avatar (2009), and Independence Day (1996), to name a few—have all fallen squarely into one of these categories, while the bombs have tried to mix science fiction and fantasy in the way the old pulp stories used to do, mixing elements of fairy tales and myth (royal families, important lineages, wars between competing races, etc.) with spaceships, laser guns, and the like (the aforementioned John Carter is the best example, although we could also mention 2000’s Battlefield Earth, Disney’s 2002 animated film Treasure Planet, and 1984’s Dune).
The result feels familiar yet alien, like a cross between "Flash Gordon," Zane Grey and L. Ron Hubbard's "Battlefield Earth," and is awfully literal for something so fantastic.
Maybe with a math equation: John Carter = Battlefield Earth + Dune over Prince of Persia times $250 million, the reported cost of this underwhelming fantasy.
Can you think about “Battlefield Earth” or “Ishtar” or “Waterworld” or “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” — with a net loss amounting to 94 percent of its production cost, pretty much the all-time dog — without laughing?
If these instincts were to betray him, his films would be written off as loopy failures in the same class as John Travolta's L. Ron Hubbard adaptation, Battlefield Earth.
It has bits of other modern spectacles: the monsters are copy-and-pasted from “Clash of the Titans,” while the gods stand several feet taller than the wee mortals, just like “Lord of the Rings” (or, less charitably, “Battlefield Earth”).
…the dutch angle goofiness evokes Battlefield Earth more often than it should…
Mortal Engines (2018)
Directed by Christian Rivers
influenced by Battlefield Earth (2000)
Plot Themes
It’s just another derivative post-apocalyptic story about utter catastrophe and corruption, where the only hope is a small group of hot teenagers, a lesser “Hunger Games/Divergent/Maze Runner/Ender’s Game” knock-off, with a touch of “Battlefield Earth,” “Terminator,” and even a hint of the original “Star Wars” trilogy (now episodes IV and V).
The only one that came to mind was Battlefield Earth , another dystopian science-fiction extravaganza with a bloated mythology and a turgid plotline.
It’s a little too late to be a part of the YA boom that happened in the wake of Harry Potter’s demise and the rise of The Hunger Games , and fits more comfortably in the broad sci-fi epic genre that has been boring the hell out of all but the most devoted nerds (we’re looking at you, fans of Krull , Jupiter Ascending and Battlefield Earth ) and will always lose money.
Of the flattened-out subplots presented by Tykwer and the Wachowskis, at best two could plausibly stand on their own, and one—the distant-future fable, in which Hanks and Berry banter in nearly incomprehensible pidgin English—approaches the catastrophic camp of Battlefield Earth.
The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
Directed by David Twohy
influenced by Battlefield Earth (2000)
Themes
This is perhaps the most dense science fiction psychobabble this side of L. Ron Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth saga, which I myself have read and seen the awful resulting film with John Travolta.
This battered gentleman looks like a Travolta stunt double from Battlefield Earth , but he doesn't look like a Taserface—Tasers being, as a piece of equipment, not especially fearsome to look at.
It was a given that the long-awaited Spider-Man movie, released in 2002 after a 39-year gestation period on the comic book page, would make millions even if its hero had been played by John Travolta in Battlefield Earth dreadlocks.
Films like Dances With Wolves , Braveheart , and even Battlefield Earth come to mind.
The Last Witch Hunter (2015)
Directed by Breck Eisner
influenced by Battlefield Earth (2000)
Visuals
(They might as well have called this one The Last Witch Hunter 1.) Breck Eisner, of the California Eisners, directs; Diesel stars as Kaulder, seen here first as a 13th-century warrior with a braided Battlefield Earth beard and a Macklemore Mohawk, leading his fellow Knights of the Axe and Cross through a snowy wasteland to put the hurt on a witch they blame for the Black Plague.
“The Tomorrow War” thinks of itself as a sci-fi “Saving Private Ryan” or the heir to the “Independence Day” throne (not that that’s a good movie by any means) but has far more in common with the likes of “Battlefield Earth.”
His tribe seems to be made up of the underground freaky-deakies from The Matrix Reloaded, dressed as the Psychlos from Battlefield Earth.
The Host isn't as overwhelmingly awful as Battlefield Earth , but it's woeful in some similar ways.
A few of the scenes, especially those with Peter Sarsgaard, go into camp territory, but thats not nearly enough to make the film veer into so-bad-its-good territory like notoriously awful Battlefield Earth does.
Travolta had his "Battlefield Earth," Costner had his "Waterworld" and now Denzel Washington has his truly awful sci-fi epic, "The Book of Eli."