BATTLESHIP (2012)

BATTLESHIP (2012)

Tagline: The Battle for Earth Begins at Sea

(Adventure, Sci-Fi, Action) [PG-13]

We are going to die. You're going to die, I'm going to die, we're all going to die... just not today.

In this one, Japanese and American naval ships are having a war game exercise when they are suddenly faced with the threat of alien ships landing and pinning several of the battleships involved in a force field. The alien's main goal is to wipe out all human life. Can Lieutenant Alex Hopper (played by Taylor Kitsch best known for JOHN CARTER) set aside his self-sabotaging arrogance in time to take advantage of the skills and talents of those around him, or will he let his crew down and put the world at risk of extinction.  Will Hopper’s girlfriend and Chief Petty Officer Walter 'The Beast' Lynch (played by Gregory D. Gadson) find out the alien's plot before they can signal more aliens to come and aid them in earth's take over?

Probably my favorite thing about this movie is that it took a big risk. Hasbro finally decided to bring a movie based on its mega-popular game BATTLESHIP to the big screen. Coming up with a plot that would draw a huge audience and not just be a straightforward naval battle movie must have been quite the challenge. In most ways BATTLESHIP pulls it off. 

The Good – The acting in this movie is super strong. You don’t hire the likes of  Liam Neeson to make your movie if you are planning on phoning it in talent-wise. Taylor Kitsch is a top-notch actor with bad luck at the box office, but bringing him it was still a great idea. This is Rihanna’s first feature-length film as far as I can tell. I mean this thing has a lot going for it. The special effects and sound work are also superb. This movie is trying to hit a certain scale and hits on all cylinders regarding that. The pacing and flow of the movie are pretty strong after we get past the 35 minutes or so introduction. There is a scene where Hopper breaks into a Quickie Mart-type place to get a burrito. I thought the scene was great, and it also spoofed a real-life event caught on a security camera. The film also did a good job of getting realism into the plot when they could. Real battleships were used, real naval crew at times, and even real wounded warriors for one pivotal scene. Of course, the alien scenes involved a ton of CGI, but that is also extremely well done. The soundtrack also features two songs from AC/DC which is also never a bad idea.

The Bad – This thing does unfortunately have a few plot issues. First off, I am pretty sure you can’t just suddenly get an old battleship running again in hours. It seems like they wouldn’t store that much fuel or live weapons on a battleship that got turned into a museum. There is another scene where we see the aliens launch a giant land attack with these rad spinning machines that chew everything up like the old War Wheel from the Blackhawk comics. That part is fine, but there is zero follow-up after that. For all we know, at the end of the movie, those things are just zippin around destroying everything in sight. Some might also question the realism of the plot action-wise, but I won’t because if you saw the previews you were probably expecting some sci-fi nonsense. 

Overall I kinda loved this movie when it came out and when I watched it again recently. I get that the critics hated it and rather than a recession this thing also go blamed for Hasbro’s toy sales dropping, but I don’t care (and the second thing isn’t even real). This movie is under-appreciated and got a lot of underserved hate in my opinion. For those reasons I have to give this thing a solid 5 out of 7, inching close to a 6 for me.

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