Battlefield Earth...good or bad?

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Erm - he was quite happy to set it up, and did it on a dare from editor Don A Stuart (or possibly Campbell himself) as I recall. No one coerced him into going for the gold.

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

I really enjoyed the book but didn't like the movie.
Barry Piper (I think that's his name) and John Travolta just hammed up their lines ridiculously and its a very long book so it was always going to be hard to cram it into 2 hours. I don't think they did a good job of portraying Terl as the genuis he is in the books. His only flaw was in not believing that "an animal" could ever outwit him.

Don't know much about the scientology sect he started, but then I'm not exactly a fan of organised religion anyway.

Oh and Rahl, it was the Mission: Earth series that stretched to 10 books.

 

[dwndrgn]

There aren't any sequels that I recall, Mark. He does have a 10 part scifi space opera type series out also so maybe you're confusing it with that.

 

[Medieval]

The book is pure genius. I barely even put it down whilst reading it.

The movie, I hear, is pure crap.

 

[BAYLOR]

It read like a Golden age science fiction adventure novel of yesteryear. It's entertaining and fun to read.

 

[Danny McG]

I personally thought Battlefield Earth was excellent and I highly recomend that book

Agreed, however the film was a disappointment - John Travolta didn't dance once!

 

[pogopossum]

I regularly attend a 30 hour SF Marathon. I plan to sleep through some films as they are overly familiar & I do not want to nod off during an interesting film.,Due to its rep, I attempted to watch BE as a goof. I credit it for giving me one of the best naps that I have had in more than 40 years of marathons, equalled only by (both versions! ) of Solaris. Waking up periodically, it put me right back to sleep. Thank you Travolta!!!

 

[Rodders]

I tried to read it in the ninties as it was one of those SF books that i was hearing a lot of at the time. I really struggled with it and couldn't finish it. I don't rate L. Ron Hubbard highly at all. I also read his ten volume Mission Earth series (the books were discounted at Forbidden Planet). Nine books in and the final volume was a DNF.

I still want to see the movie as i want to see how bad it really is.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

The film was utter garbage and the book wasn't much better. As for the dekology, only the first one was written by Hubbard, the rest were written by a syndicate. Zero rating for all.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

"Now I must admit that Battlefield Earth is a book with something for everyone, all the way across the cultural scale from people who need doorstops to people who want to start bonfires." - Dave Langford.

 

[BAYLOR]

I tried to read it in the ninties as it was one of those SF books that i was hearing a lot of at the time. I really struggled with it and couldn't finish it. I don't rate L. Ron Hubbard highly at all. I also read his ten volume Mission Earth series (the books were discounted at Forbidden Planet). Nine books in and the final volume was a DNF.

I still want to see the movie as i want to see how bad it really is.

The film is godawful.

 

[BAYLOR]

"Now I must admit that Battlefield Earth is a book with something for everyone, all the way across the cultural scale from people who need doorstops to people who want to start bonfires." - Dave Langford.

There's is no question that Dave Langford is high up in the Science Fiction Pantheon whose thoughts and opinions on all things science fiction carry great weight. I am , at best , a second rate mind and can't hold candle to him on the subject science fiction and probably a great many other topics as well. But on the subject of Battlefield Earth, I respectfully disagree him . Battlefield Earth is a decent read that does entertain and thus has value . L. Ron Hubbard could actually write a good novel and short stories well , Ive read several other books by him Typewriter in in the Sky, Fear and Slaves of Sleep and the short story Borrowed Glory , all very good reads . Ive also read the first Mission Earth The Invaders Plan. while the later was not bad , I had no desire to read any more books in that series.

 

[BAYLOR]

The film was utter garbage and the book wasn't much better. As for the dekology, only the first one was written by Hubbard, the rest were written by a syndicate. Zero rating for all.

A miniseries or perhaps , a limited tv series might have been a better format for Battlefield Earth. Interesting , At one point there was proposed 13 episode anime series that was to be produced but, never happened.

 

[BAYLOR]

Agreed, however the film was a disappointment - John Travolta didn't dance once!

Hm, Earth Side Story ? Nah.

 

[BAYLOR]

They could make into a drama series and set it in Beverly Hills. Yes Battlefield Earth 90210 or set in New York and call it Turl in the Family.

 

[BAYLOR]

Battlefield Earth the Next Generation

 

[BAYLOR]

I would like to see a feature film reboot.

 

[Guttersnipe]

I've never read the book, but I did think the movie was pretty disappointing. The aliens are so stupid that they think humans like eating rats when that's obviously not a choice they could make; they had to survive. The special effects and dialogue are laughable (i.e. the aliens calling humans "man-animals" when every man is indeed an animal and this is a tautology, or "--with endless options for renewal!" being echoed as if we care). The screen swipes were lifted from Star Wars, which its creators clearly envied. I don't know if it would've been much better if Hubbard had made the movie himself, but I do know that he was an awful man, and Scientology has been exposed as being run by a similar lot.

 

[BAYLOR]

I tried to read it in the ninties as it was one of those SF books that i was hearing a lot of at the time. I really struggled with it and couldn't finish it. I don't rate L. Ron Hubbard highly at all. I also read his ten volume Mission Earth series (the books were discounted at Forbidden Planet). Nine books in and the final volume was a DNF.

I still want to see the movie as i want to see how bad it really is.

As to watching that film , It was 2 hours of my life that I will never get back . Ever.

 

[BAYLOR]

I've never read the book, but I did think the movie was pretty disappointing. The aliens are so stupid that they think humans like eating rats when that's obviously not a choice they could make; they had to survive. The special effects and dialogue are laughable (i.e. the aliens calling humans "man-animals" when every man is indeed an animal and this is a tautology, or "--with endless options for renewal!" being echoed as if we care). The screen swipes were lifted from Star Wars, which its creators clearly envied. I don't know if it would've been much better if Hubbard had made the movie himself, but I do know that he was an awful man, and Scientology has been exposed as being run by a similar lot.

The aliens in the book were a bit smarter then then the ones portrayed in the movie . The Turl in the book for example, was also more far cunning and more ambitious but , he make glaring mistakes and did underestimate John and everyone more out of arrogance then then stupidity.