NationStates Jolt Archive

It was just so one-dimensional. It was about a military rebellion and nothing more. The humans rose up, threw the Psychlos off Earth, and that was it. Basically, it was like any other movie about a subjugated people fighting back. Give them Scottish accents and horses and it'd be Braveheart, give them single-shot muskets and red uniforms and it'd be The Patriot, give them Irish-sounding names and laser guns and it'd be like this one episode of Andromeda that I saw a bunch of years ago. It had no depth.

The book, on the other hand, is an entirely different story.

In the book, but not in the movie, is humanity's quest to rediscover the history that it had lost. Its attempts to piece together just what happend when the Psychlos invaded and what kind of society existed on Earth beforehand.

In the book, but not in the movie, is humanity's attempts to contact all the pockets of life left on Earth, an effort to bring all the surviving humans together so that the species can survive and that we can rebuild our civilization once the Psychlos are gone.

In the book, but not in the movie, is the efforts of the scattered tribes and villages to form a unified world government so that all the seperate people can work together to help each other survive.

In the book, but not in the movie, are the plans to defend Earth once they're in posession of it once more. Afterall, they never give any thought to how they'd hold it from the other alien races out there.

Essentially, what was in the book but missing in the movie was any effort to think beyond merely killing the Psychlos. The movie never gave any thought to how Earth would survive after the rebellion, never gave any thoughts to how they'd keep old rivalries from flaring up again, never even brought up the question of how everyone would communicate, since barely any of the non-American/Scottish tribes spoke English. In essence, the movie skipped over everything important to sustaining a society after its been created. A great man once said "Warriors can lift up a country, but only Engineers can keep it from falling over."

It gave the book a bad name.

It was just so one-dimensional. It was about a military rebellion and nothing more. The humans rose up, threw the Psychlos off Earth, and that was it. Basically, it was like any other movie about a subjugated people fighting back. Give them Scottish accents and horses and it'd be Braveheart, give them single-shot muskets and red uniforms and it'd be The Patriot, give them Irish-sounding names and laser guns and it'd be like this one episode of Andromeda that I saw a bunch of years ago. It had no depth.

The book, on the other hand, is an entirely different story.

In the book, but not in the movie, is humanity's quest to rediscover the history that it had lost. Its attempts to piece together just what happend when the Psychlos invaded and what kind of society existed on Earth beforehand.

In the book, but not in the movie, is humanity's attempts to contact all the pockets of life left on Earth, an effort to bring all the surviving humans together so that the species can survive and that we can rebuild our civilization once the Psychlos are gone.

In the book, but not in the movie, is the efforts of the scattered tribes and villages to form a unified world government so that all the seperate people can work together to help each other survive.

In the book, but not in the movie, are the plans to defend Earth once they're in posession of it once more. Afterall, they never give any thought to how they'd hold it from the other alien races out there.

Essentially, what was in the book but missing in the movie was any effort to think beyond merely killing the Psychlos. The movie never gave any thought to how Earth would survive after the rebellion, never gave any thoughts to how they'd keep old rivalries from flaring up again, never even brought up the question of how everyone would communicate, since barely any of the non-American/Scottish tribes spoke English. In essence, the movie skipped over everything important to sustaining a society after its been created. A great man once said "Warriors can lift up a country, but only Engineers can keep it from falling over."

It gave the book a bad name.

So, you hated The Patriot, Braveheart and Andromeda?

No, because those movies (and TV show) had other people working on the matters at hand, they merely didn't focus on them. There were people who did focus on everything I'm talking about. In Battlefield Earth, everybody you saw doing the fighting was it. There was no Congressional Congress writing laws, no Lords working to nominate a King, and no Andromeda Ascendant trying to bring back the Systems Commonwealth.

No, because those movies (and TV show) had other people working on the matters at hand, they merely didn't focus on them. There were people who did focus on everything I'm talking about. In Battlefield Earth, everybody you saw doing the fighting was it. There was no Congressional Congress writing laws, no Lords working to nominate a King, and no Andromeda Ascendant trying to bring back the Systems Commonwealth.

And yet, we definitely saw politics (especially the feudal trade politics) of the Psychlo. The movie followed the combat elements, because that was the essence of the visual story... you have to make certain sacrifices to fit a book into 90 minutes.

I pretty much forced myself to watch the movie....it was just a desecration of the book (which was absolutely wonderful). I couldn't believe they'd managed to just ignore such great work.

I never read the book.

Saw the movie though. It was rather lame.

Shall I mention the horrible camera angles, shall I mention the horrible concept of busting out military technology from long ago, shall I mention the horrible graphics, espescially the one where the planet blew up. Sure, the planet blew up, but that's not what was supposed to happen, the atmosphere was supposed to burn away, but after the planet blew up the atmosphere was still there.

And braveheart was a much better film than this piece of scientology shitstuff. Watching Battlefield Earth put those damn body thetans into my body!

I think it's a pretty crappy idea how could we humans fight and defeat aliens who defeated us when we were strong

I've seen the movie only (reading is lame :) )

I think it's a pretty crappy idea how could we humans fight and defeat aliens who defeated us when we were strong

I've seen the movie only (reading is lame :) )

It's leftist propaganda for the insurgents in Iraq...

I'm just about sick of seeing movies where the following happens:

1. Aliens invade humans can't even scratch their tug boat crafts
2. Aliens are defeated by something incredibly simple that despite their advanced technology can't defend themselves aginst.
3. Humans unite and live happily ever after

I'd like to see something along the lines of Halo (the books), where the humans are technology inferior but still stick it to em at a horrendous cost to both sides.

In the book, humans win because they learn to use Psychlo technology, use superior tactics, and have learned vital weaknesses of their enemies. Also, the fact that the Psychlos have absolutely no defences set up to prevent an attack helps quite a bit. In the book, the human victory is quite plausible.

That rather reminds me of what happened with Starship Troopers. The movie industry seems to have difficulty translating sci-fi books into cinematic-form.

That rather reminds me of what happened with Starship Troopers. The movie industry seems to have difficulty translating sci-fi books into cinematic-form.

You just have to remember that they are VERY different animals...

If you go into a movie EXPECTING it to be the same experience as the book, you are almost ALWAYS going to be disappointed.

Unless it's "Interview with the Vampire"....

The book is several thousand pages long, did you really expect all the nuances of the plot to be carbon-copied to the screen version?

Actually, the reason Starship Troopers was so different was because the director changed it on purpose. Apparently, he didn't agree with the books 'message' and decided to throw in his own. Bastard.

I understand that books need to be changed for the big screen, a lot of things that work when written just can't be put into visuals and a lot of times directors know how to make things better. But, I think it's worse when directors feel that they have a right to change it beyond what needs to be changed, that their idea of what the book should have been is relevant to what the book is and that they can thus interpret the book any way they like.

The book is several thousand pages long, did you really expect all the nuances of the plot to be carbon-copied to the screen version?

No, especially since the movie only covers the first half of the book (There was supposed to be a second movie covering the second half, but the box office failure shut that down). However, I did expect some of the major plot points to be kept in. For example, being forced to actually mine the gold that they give to Terl. Being forced to use Psychlo technology to make ancient human relics workable (They might use American Assault Rifles, but they only work because the bullets are propelled with Psychlo explosives and the interior equipment was rebuilt with Psychlo technology). Humans not already being a standard slave race. Ker not being manipulative and evil (A criminal yes, evil no). I could go on.

Actually, the reason Starship Troopers was so different was because the director changed it on purpose. Apparently, he didn't agree with the books 'message' and decided to throw in his own. Bastard.

I understand that books need to be changed for the big screen, a lot of things that work when written just can't be put into visuals and a lot of times directors know how to make things better. But, I think it's worse when directors feel that they have a right to change it beyond what needs to be changed, that their idea of what the book should have been is relevant to what the book is and that they can thus interpret the book any way they like.

They CAN interpret the book any way they like... movies do not HAVE TO follow the book any more than the studio/writers/director choose.

Seen High Fidelity? Seen Constantine?

No to both, I haven't seen either. And I'm of the opinion that they shouldn't be allowed to do that, they're supposed to be trying to make a movie version of the book, not a movie version of what they think the book should have been.

But I can't force them to do so, all I can do is bitch about it on-line.

No to both, I haven't seen either. And I'm of the opinion that they shouldn't be allowed to do that, they're supposed to be trying to make a movie version of the book, not a movie version of what they think the book should have been.

But I can't force them to do so, all I can do is bitch about it on-line.

Why? Why are they 'supposed to make a movie version of the book'?

When they buy the rights, there is (usually) stipulation language included, that allows the production to use as much of the book as they require - even if they choose to use ONLY the title...

I agree that I often go into the movie theatre HOPING for a product that matches the book I read... but it really doesn't HAVE TO be. And, sometimes, that's fine... other times... well.

<snip>It gave the book a bad name.
No, the bad name was on the cover... L.Ron Hubbard.

The movie was intended to be a tribute to Travolta's personal Guru & Savior..

He of Saturday Night Fever could not make a SciFi film if he had Hugo Gernsback writing and ILM producing, much less from LRH's hack work.

When I watched BE, it was at a friends place one night, and we were all liquored up...it was funny as hell! Not intentionally funny, but we got plenty of laughs out of how bad it was. :D

...for hours afterwards, we just kept looking at each other and bellowing "Leverage! Muahahaha!" :p

***SPOILER***

For me the highlight of the movie was a bunch of stone-age level humans, using thousand year old jet fighters, which they have trained in for less than two weeks, manage to overthrow vastly superior alien forces! LMFAO!

When I watched BE, it was at a friends place one night, and we were all liquored up...it was funny as hell! Not intentionally funny, but we got plenty of laughs out of how bad it was. :D

...for hours afterwards, we just kept looking at each other and bellowing "Leverage! Muahahaha!" :p

***SPOILER***

For me the highlight of the movie was a bunch of stone-age level humans, using thousand year old jet fighters, which they have trained in for less than two weeks, manage to overthrow vastly superior alien forces! LMFAO!Sounds like we were at the same party... you didn't happen to watch Battle Queen 2020 the same night did you?

"Welcome to Bad Movies and Bad Beer Night! All the Drek & Piss Water you can Stomache!" :D

When I watched BE, it was at a friends place one night, and we were all liquored up...it was funny as hell! Not intentionally funny, but we got plenty of laughs out of how bad it was. :D

...for hours afterwards, we just kept looking at each other and bellowing "Leverage! Muahahaha!" :p

***SPOILER***

For me the highlight of the movie was a bunch of stone-age level humans, using thousand year old jet fighters, which they have trained in for less than two weeks, manage to overthrow vastly superior alien forces! LMFAO!

Yeah espcially since the whole world's defence lasted 21 seconds.

Sounds like we were at the same party... you didn't happen to watch Battle Queen 2020 the same night did you?

"Welcome to Bad Movies and Bad Beer Night! All the Drek & Piss Water you can Stomache!" :D
Actually the other movie we watched that night was that Jon Bon Jovi submarine one...um...U-571! :p