Battle Planet

Yes-- the budget is low. This isn't Star Wars. This isn't Galactica. And other reviewers have pointed out its other flaws. . .

And yes-- the acting is wooden.

But folks! This is an intelligent Sci-Fi ACTION film that actually takes a STORY and puts it before you. The FX (Weapons, ships) are measured and to the point. The alien make-up is very good and consistent. The snatches of back-story gives you a hint of politics and secrecy to give the story some added depth. And the STORY actually holds your attention.

A Man on a classified Mission in a Suit endowed with Artificial Intelligence to find a terrorist on an untrammeled world runs into complications, not the least of which is the Suit in which he finds himself prisoner. It's refreshing. It's different.

And the Suit. . .Not Bad.

Those of you who actually READ Science Fiction-- just suspend your belief and watch. You will find it enjoyable. For the rest of you: It's a 'B' Movie, Not a Hollywood Box Office Blow-out. Just because it's 'B' does not make it 'Bad'. And best of all, the movie works because the actors are truly letting the movie tell it's story. Zack Ward and the other actors take the script seriously and they are giving it a professional send-up. And that's what makes this movie work.

Lower your expectations. Watch this one on a late Friday Night after a hard week at work. Have Chips and Dip on the couch with you. Just enjoy it!

Battle Planet is not a great movie, but I have seen much worse as well. It does have a lot of problems, such as the wooden acting though Zack Ward was at least engaging, the hackneyed dialogue where nothing feels that natural and the clichéd and not very interesting or well-developed characters. I also had mixed feelings on the story, it did hold my attention and was reasonably paced with a decent idea and some nice back story elements, but some of it was silly and suspend-disbelief-inducing. On the other hand, it doesn't look too bad. True, not exactly well-made but much better than many other low-budget movies I've seen recently. The aliens were bizarre but not cheap in look, the plannetry scenery is surprisingly great, the make-up is consistent enough and the effects while not award-worthy are a step-up from other low-budget movies seen recently.

All in all, there is not much outstanding but I did sort of enjoy it and can name much worse movies even without having to look through old notebooks and my past reviews for reference. 6/10 Bethany Cox

This is a steaming pile of crap. I would find it incredible that the "director" was given the money to make a infomercial, much less a feature.

Like all fans of science fiction I have been suckered into watching some awful film and television--especially on the "SciFi" Chanel!--but this is a new low.

The fact that a hack with gullible dentist friends is able to get funding doesn't mean that he should make a movie--step aside and let someone with talent and a true love of the genre have a chance, produce if you must.

We must stop supporting this sort insulting product. Maybe there should be an organized campaign against the SciFi Chanel, I don't know, but I for one am vowing right now to never watch another one of these straight to SciFi productions again.

And finally: there wasn't even a single "battle" on the planet! Aaaargh! I think I just popped a vein in my head.

The rating for this movie is not very good, but I didn't find it "extremely" bad. There are so many worse sci-fi movies. This movie actually held my attention well enough that I kept watching to the end. Although it was not very good, it was "different".

The visuals were the strong point. Nice ships, good props, great planetary scenery and bizarre-looking aliens. I've probably seen all of these things before in different movies. However, when you combine all of them with a guy stuck on a planet ... and stuck in an artificially intelligent suit ... and chasing an alien terrorist ... it's "sort of" interesting.

If you're sick of watching rubber-stamped insect/rat/snake movies on the sci-fi channel, this is a change for the better. If you're looking for high grade sci-fi, this won't exactly do it for you.

This film wasn't that bad, except that a lot of the "plot twists" were kind of predictable.

It's a future time, where Earth has joined an alliance with an bunch of aliens called the Pavonians, against another bunch called the Aquarians who live in fishbowls. So far, this is kind of standard Sci-Fi boilerplate.

Our hero is sent out in a prototype battlesuit to capture an unnamed war criminal. He encounters an alien general of the Pavonians, who is really hot despite the alien makeup. Except he is being set up to test human endurance, not to actually complete any mission. There are machinations that are about as shallow as you can get.

Acting is sub-par, the special effects look like they were worked up on someone's home computer. Still, I give this movie credit for being other than the typical Sci-Fi Channel template of "Monster on the loose".

The dialog was kind of shallow, and the actors all looked like they were recruited from a film-school class. Huge holes in the plot logic. (Did this alliance really keep its senior commanders on this ship,waiting for reports?)

Mediocre, at best. But I've seen millions spent on worse films.