Is Battlefield Earth a must see?

[Nukie 2]

I still haven't seen it-- the reason is that it looks painful to watch. Though I'm kind of compelled to see it, as a "to do".
I'm not going to pay more than  $1.00, I kinda feel like John Travolta should pay me to watch it.

What do you say:
Big budget Plan 9 or the most painful thing ever?

[AnubisVonMojo]

The fields of thought I've come across have been that people either hate it, laugh at it for being utter garbage, or feel it's just another mediocre sci-fi flick. I tend to fall into the first myself. I'd laugh at it, but it just irritates the crap outta me to the point that I stop laughing and spend the rest of the movie with my head in my hands...

As to whether it's a "must see" or not, if you're looking for a good sci-fi flick I'd say absolutely not. If you're looking for something MST3K worthy, you could say it is indeed a must.

[Kester Pelagius]

Worth seeing once. . .

Not for the plot but for the unintentional humor.

[sideorderofninjas]

We've all seen good and bad movies. For me, Battlefield Earth is bad but
 nowhere near the bottom of the heap of bad movies.  It is pretty amazing for its unintentional humor. 

[AVERY GUERRA]

That all really depends on if you like "bad cinema"?? Oh, it's pretty painful. However, it's not the worse film ever like many have said, but it's pretty damned close.        It is however, one of the only films that truely deserves to be compared to an Ed Wood film. Everyone's always comparing ' intentionally ' cheesy and bad films to Ed's flicks, but Ed's weren't meant to be intentionally bad. They just ended up that way and that's what makes them so bad[great]. Their humor and ' badness ' was unintentional. This film falls into that category nicely as they weren't meaning to make a horrible film and thought that they were really making a grand sci-fi epic.   

[dean]

I'd say it's worth a look: kind of like a semi rite of passage [like most films on this site really]

Good with Scotch!

[Jack]

It's worth a watch.  I don't think it's painful at all.  If you've ever seen a Sci-Fi Channel original movie, this thing won't insult your intelligence any more than they do.  This just had 50 times as much money behind it. 

[Rumblestealskins]

 I did not appreciate it that much. Good background effects. The idea seemed like a version of Planet of the Apes to me.

[ER]

I didn't think it was a particularly good movie but I also don't think it warranted the excoriation it received.

[JJ80]

i just thought that it was a dull but moderately watchable ego project for Mr Ravolta. Without the inherent Scietological agenda it would probably never even been made.

[Psycho Circus]

A truly great comedy! 

[AndyC]

A must see? Well, it certainly must be seen to be believed.

More tilted cameras than a season of Batman.

More ham than a butcher shop.

More holes than a block of swiss cheese.

More groan-inducing than severe constipation.

More worthy of the title "A Goofy Movie" than that Disney cartoon.

Last time I saw this movie was at B-Fest in 2002. It was a surprise to see such a recent movie on the lineup, but it was a good choice. Watching it with that crowd was a hoot.

[Gigantor]

Stinky film ,I think they're much better er worse movies to spend your time on.

Has anyone here seen THINGS ?

[ghouck]

Battlefield Earth 'could' have been a good movie. The book was IMO damn good. The problem is they only covered the first half of the book at MOST, and that was way too much for one movie, so TONS of relevant story was cut out. Really, the book would have to be made into 3 or 4 movies to cover the entire book, maybe more. Tons of the holes mentioned were simply where parts of the story got chopped out.
The book tends to show how and why Psychlos are the way they are. How their cruelity was systematic and refined for centuries. There were reasons for their cruelity, and they did horrible things to their own just for the sake or security and profits for their race. The movie just kinda told you they were mean. Obviously, the books have tons of scientology overtones, anti-human, anti-government, anti-corporation, anti-everything messages, but beneath that is a pretty good story, same with Mission Earth IMO. It's obvious to me LRH meant for people to draw paralell lines between the Psychlos and your government entity of choice, just the same has Mission Earth was meant to show the worst of human beings, and downplay any good. I do wonder if he saw himself as Jetero Heller.

[Edit]

Oh Yea, must see? no, , it's not. .

[Captain Tars Tarkas]

The worst part of Battlefield Earth is the DVD version has many of the unintentional hilarious scenes cut out, including the scene where they try to see if man can fly by dropping a guy off a cliff.  The film itself is nothing special as far as badness goes, it is just hyped up by the hate for scientology.  The defining Battlefield Earth review is at Jabootu.