Meet the Film Critic Who Liked After Earth AND Battlefield Earth
Topless Robot editor Luke Y. Thompson knew what he was getting himself into when he gave After Earth a positive review. On his personal Facebook page Thursday, he linked to the article with the declaration “I liked it. I’ll defend it.” This prompted fellow LAFCA member Wade Major to comment: “Oh dude… That’s seriously putting yourself out there… Armor up.”
Actually, what really puts Thompson out there is that on Rotten Tomatoes, he is the only critic tagging both After Earth and John Travolta’s 2000 Scientology sci-fi epic Battlefield Earth as “Fresh:”
Ex-Scientologist Marc Headley, in a Drudge-linked THR guest column, suggests that the Will/Jaden Smith epic is full of CoS references. We’re not buying most of his argument, but reading his comparison of the two sci-fi films is what sparked us to this particular RT browsing.
For the record, we agree with Thompson on After Earth. We saw the film last night on the Paramount lot in glorious Sony 4K and it’s nowhere near as bad as the critics are making it out to be (even more so if your viewing party includes one or more youngsters). However, we cannot find any way to align with LYT on the other half of this one-two “Fresh” prints punch.
Editor’s note – 06/03/13:
Thompson objected via Twitter over the weekend to the idea that his comments (and those of Major) were taken from a Facebook page that is not set to public. He has a right to be upset. FishbowlLA apologizes for carelessly not checking with him first and obtaining his permission.
Previously on FishbowlLA:
Topless Robot Readers Welcome New Editor Luke Y. Thompson
