Travolta still defends Battlefield Earth

Battlefield Earth, with a budget estimated at $73m (�51m) was widely seen as a major embarrassment for the star.

The picture, based on a best-seller written by Church of Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard, was voted the worst movie of 2001 by several film groups.

Although Travolta sports a strange hairdo in Swordfish, but not as extreme as the bizarre deadlocked look he adopted in Battlefield Earth, this high-octane thriller should help that actor win back some credibility.

'Pretty slick'

Travolta has been busily promoting and exuding enthusiasm over Swordfish, in which he plays Gabriel Shear, a seemingly villainous spy.

When you get blasted for something you have to be patient and watch what the box office does

John Travolta

"He's pretty slick and stylish," says Travolta, who adds that "at first the illusion is that he's not a good guy, but it turns out he actually is".

In some respects Travolta's role in Swordfish is a return to the sympathetic and cool hit man he played in his acclaimed comeback performance in Pulp Fiction.

The actress Halle Berry, who also stars in Swordfish, confirms that this picture provides Travolta with the opportunity to showcase his unique talents.

She says: "John has an amazing ability to be a bad guy but have people love him, and that's a tribute to his star power."

Slush fund

The film's plot is extraordinarily complex and it involves great mind boggling leaps of logic.

Travolta's character, Gabriel Shear, seems to have links to the CIA.

Vinnie Jones' movie career continues

He appears to want to raid a bank containing millions from a government slush fund to finance his unexplained brand of US patriotism.

One of his henchmen is the British footballer turned actor Vinnie Jones.

But none of the characters in the movie are quite who they appear to be.

As Travolta puts it: "This is very deliberate. That is probably one of the gimmicks to the movie."

Strong action

Swordfish is a cyberspace thriller that possesses a distinctly hip sensibility with constant references to Hollywood movie culture.

Halle Berry praises Travolta's star power

The film also bears some resemblance to the recent blockbuster The Matrix, an association that is hardly surprising given that Joel Silver, who produced The Matrix, is also serving in the same capacity with Swordfish.

Although the plot may be too intricate for some moviegoers, the film is buoyed by strong action sequences, which should help it at the box office.

The film boasts a dramatic opening, as well as a finale in which hostages with explosives strapped to their bodies are put inside a bus dangled by wires from a helicopter as it flies through downtown Los Angeles.

Travolta is the star, but he is sidelined partly by the impressive action and strong performance from the up-and-coming Australian actor Hugh Jackson who plays a computer hacker forced into helping Shear in his efforts to raid the government slush fund.

Jackman, who won praise for his role last year in X Men as Wolverine, plays Stanley Jobson, a man who becomes part of an almost surreal world where reality keeps shifting.

Positive spin

He says Swordfish provided a lot of opportunities because "as an actor, to be the kind of protagonist who gets embroiled in this situation and doesn't know who anyone is, you get to play a little bit of everything".

Even while Travolta has been promoting Swordfish, he is still trying to put a positive spin on his disastrous Battlefield Earth, claiming it has become a commercial success.

He says: "When you get blasted for something you have to be patient and watch what the box office does.

"Now we're at $100m (�69m) for Battlefield Earth, so then that takes the sting away from the whole attack."

Whether Swordfish will help moviegoers erase the image of Travolta in Battlefield Earth remains unclear.

But Travolta remains an extremely popular actor, and Swordfish, while it is no masterpiece, is expected to reassure his fans and get his career back on track.