Battlefield Earth (2000) is the infamous Scientology propaganda film commissioned by John Travolta. It is considered one of the worst moves ever made, but I'd never seen it before yesterday.
It is now one of my favourite films. 
Literally everthing about this movie is hillariously bad. The sheer incompetence is awe-inspiring and I didn't want it to end.
Story & Writing
In Battlefield Earth, a species of 10-foot tall aliens called Psychlos (seriously) run a mining colony on Earth after conquering the planet a thousand years ago after a war lasting just nine minutes. Humans are now reduced to stone-age tribes in irradiated wastelands, or slaves of alien masters.
I can't really say much more except it makes no sense. The Psychlos believe "man-animals" are too stupid to mine for gold, but they already employ humans as a labour force in their city. 
The film is filled with the most ham-fisted exposition I've ever heard. As an audience-member, can you understand what blackmail is? Yes? Too bad! We're going to tell you anyway in 90 additional seconds of dialogue!
The Acting
John Travolta stars the scheming Psychlo security chief named Terl (seriously), trying to earn a transfer off the planet. His nemesis is the human Johnny Goodboy (seriously), played by a wooden Barry Pepper, who must lead humans to freedom.
Travolta's (and everyone else's) performance is so far over the top, he can't see all the way down. He isn't chewing the scenery, he is engorging himself upon it. Hense my favourite line in any movie anywhere:
If you ever wanted to see John Travolta in dreadlocks and a codpiece shooting the legs off a cow, this is the film for you.
Even Forest Whitacker, who's acting talent is undeniable, is wasted with nothing to do except deliver terrible dialogue.
Cinematography
A "Dutch angle" is a filming technique where the camera is tilted off the horizon to portray a scene of uneasiness or tension.
Literally the entire film is shot in this way. It looks like the DP had a stroke.
Also, there are loads of corny slo-mo shots, an over-use of wipe transitions, and most scenes are shot with an ugly, sickly purple filter.
Pacing
Battlefield Earth is all over the place. Fast-paced action set pieces are inter-cut with corny slo-mo. Thematically important scenes are not allowed to breathe, but are immediately followed by more exposition or John Travolta overacting.
Special Effects
Honestly, for 2000, the special effects aren't half bad. It all looks ugly as sin, of course. But I think this was a deliberate choice rather than technical negligence.
Summary
This film is worse than I ever thought possible and lives up to its reputation. But it's so bad, it became a joy to watch. I found myself laughing many times at the sheer absurd awfulness of this movie.
If you haven't seen Battlefield Earth, I thoroughly recommend it. I love this movie.
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It's awful but so much fun. Say what you will about L. Ron Hubbard but at least he was creative.
The reason why the bad guys are called "Psychlos" is because he hated psychiatrists so much. Wonder why...
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I read the ENTIRE Mission Earth series because I just couldn't believe how bad it was but how much I simultaneously couldn't get enough of it.
He's the car crash of science fiction authors.
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Did you know Mission Earth has a companion prog-rock soundtrack? Yes, a series of novels has a soundtrack. According to our tour guide at the L Ron Hubbard Life Exhibition this was a world first innovation from the man himself.
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Ugh that soundtrack is so bad
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Lmao no frickin way. This is as terribly bad but good as the books
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Wasn't some of his early work supposedly not absolute dogshit? I never bothered because Scientology is insane and we had shitty science fiction at home (all the Dune books written by the son).
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Hubbard was known as a fast writer who could spin fun adventure stories. He wasn't a lolcow but there's also not too much reason to read him today. The general literary talent level in Golden Age sci-fi was lower, and the stuff we remember today is the stuff that pushed interesting ideas (which wasn't really Hubbard's forte).
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I think Hubbard is what Gene Roddenberrry would have become if he started to believe that he was a god.
I hope someone makes a film about the Xenu thetan story, I would watch the shit out of that. It'll never happen though, we'll just have to live with the 2-minute South Park animation.
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Psychiatrists are fairly evil/ incompetent. They've done some of the most vile shit possible.
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Lol they told him he was crazy and he should be in the loony bin.
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