Battlefield Earth

[Guts]

I never read the book, but I watched the film when I was twelve and surfing TV Tropes and some youtube clips reminded me of it. What the hell were the cast and crew on? The film sucked balls and was as horrible as turkish star wars but w/out the camp or weird plot elements (a planetary shield made of human brain particles) or funny fight scenes of the latter.

Anyways, just wanted to open a thread to discuss the film and/or book and ways to improve it/them.

[freerangetroll]

I never read the book, but I watched the film when I was twelve and surfing TV Tropes and some youtube clips reminded me of it. What the hell were the cast and crew on? The film sucked balls and was as horrible as turkish star wars but w/out the camp or weird plot elements (a planetary shield made of human brain particles) or funny fight scenes of the latter.

Anyways, just wanted to open a thread to discuss the film and/or book and ways to improve it/them.


The book was awesome.

What movie? There was never a movie. Nobody would make such a movie. Never was a movie.

[MeklorIlavator]

The book was awesome.

What movie? There was never a movie. Nobody would make such a movie. Never was a movie.

I club I've joined at college is going to watch the movie. With MST3K Rifftracts :smallbiggrin:.

[freerangetroll]

No movie no movie no movie!

:eek:

[warty goblin]

The movie that according to this thread may or may not exist (call it the Bad Entertainment Uncertainty Principle), is one of those things I've never been able to decide is just plain bad, or is actually bad on purpose and hence sort of a self parody. Really rather bemusing...

[Gaelbert]

I've never heard of the movie before, but I certainly liked the book.

[Zeful]

The movie was pretty good, have only just now heard of a book.

[SolkaTruesilver]

The movie was pretty good, have only just now heard of a book.

BURN HIM!!! :smallfurious:

[averagejoe]

Great book. I read my dad's copy; he got it before I was born, and it had "Soon to be a major motion picture" on the cover. Good stuff.

[Malik]

The book is a masterpiece in its own right. The movie is a masterpiece too but one of stupendously terrible horrific movie making.

[factotum]

I wouldn't necessarily call the book a masterpiece, but it's certainly a good deal better than most stuff L. Ron Hubbard put out, and it's a thousand times better than the movie. (So long as you can ignore some of the frankly ropey science in it...getting a large metal object out of someone's head using electrolysis? I don't think so!).

[Manga Shoggoth]

I wouldn't necessarily call the book a masterpiece, but it's certainly a good deal better than most stuff L. Ron Hubbard put out, and it's a thousand times better than the movie. (So long as you can ignore some of the frankly ropey science in it...getting a large metal object out of someone's head using electrolysis? I don't think so!).

Hubbard was pretty much writing in the sci-fi style he was used to - 1940's pulp - including the bad (by modern standards) science. From that point of view the book is fairly good fun. I gave up on the book about half-way through when it stopped - well - being interesting.

Improving the book? a razor blade down the spine about half-way along, then sticking the back cover back on to the first half.

I have never seen the film, but it sounds like one to watch simply because it has such an awful reputation.

[Muz]

I have never seen the film, but it sounds like one to watch simply because it has such an awful reputation.

Never seen the film? Treat yourself to an AgonyBooth recap (http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Battlefield_Earth_2000.aspx)! :smallwink:

[Saithis Bladewing]

The movie was the most atrocious film I've ever watched, and I've seen films like Sound of Thunder, Dracula 3000 and The Final Countdown.

[Turcano]

I never read the book, but I watched the film when I was twelve and surfing TV Tropes and some youtube clips reminded me of it. What the hell were the cast and crew on?

This is Dianetics (http://www.dianetics.org/).

This is your brain on Dianetics (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185183/).

Any questions?

[Zeful]

BURN HIM!!! :smallfurious:

You're welcome to try.

[black dragoon]

There was no movie....
The book was alright a ton of rather silly science but alright at the end of the day.
there was no movie...:smalleek::smalleek::smalleek:

[averagejoe]

There was no movie....
The book was alright a ton of rather silly science but alright at the end of the day.
there was no movie...:smalleek::smalleek::smalleek:

The book was more like fantasy in that way, and definitely soft sci fi. Which I don't really have a problem with per se; I mean, I still enjoy the Star Wars films. It gets on my nerves a little, though, just because ol' Elron said in the introduction that he wanted to, "create a work of pure science fiction," or something like that. However, I mostly find the notion that he considered the book to be pure science fiction offensive, not the actual content of the book.

[Weezer]

I didnt really like the book, it read like two books, with multiple climaxes and plots. I agree with Manga Shoggoth it should have stopped at the middle. The whole plot also felt stale with a marie sue main character, humanity was portrayed as being better in every way than all aliens.

going from illiterate stone age level tech to defeating an empire that never faced defeat and holding off a whole alliance of alien races seems a little far fetched, even more so than most scifi is.

[black dragoon]

You think Uranium be found more often when you mine out an ENTIRE PLANET.

[factotum]

You think Uranium be found more often when you mine out an ENTIRE PLANET.

Not necessarily. I think the idea (and this is actually one where the science holds up) is that Psychlo was a planet that formed in an area where there was a dearth of heavy elements--hence no gold or uranium, which is why they prized gold so highly.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Never seen the film? Treat yourself to an AgonyBooth recap (http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Battlefield_Earth_2000.aspx)! :smallwink:

Thank you, but alas certain forms of browsing are banned at work (I'm surprised they haven't banned GITP yet...).