Battleship (2012)

When it's over, what started out as a far-fetched idea of turning a popular board game into a summer blockbuster has in turn, become a fun enterprise of recycled ideas.  Battleship is predicable, cliche at times, and has hardly anything to do with the board game.  But then, the board game has no human characters, and the varying ships become the sole characters in the game.  So, how does that transcend over to the big screen?  Well enough for a film that's meant to entertain.  The film utilizes elements from sources such as Transformers, the Halo series (the popular video game for the XBOX console), and ET, with an added dusting of patriotism.  The story’s straightforward, nothing complex, nothing that provokes the viewer to assume anything other than what’s on the screen.  The drama’s not noteworthy, and the acting’s okay.  Taylor Kitsch plays military well in the leading role as Lt. Alex Hopper, an irresponsible officer who is suddenly thrown into the captain’s chair when an alien armada threatens mankind.  Hopper must put aside his prejudice and dislike for Japanese Captain, Yugi Nagata (Tadanobu Asano), when the two must join efforts to command the last destroyer trapped in the alien’s force field.  Despite the film’s bad reviews and criticism, I really enjoyed Battleship.  I liked how the film pays homage to war veterans and soldiers with disabilities by giving them a role(s) and a voice.  Having the story take place in Hawaii added an extra level of conflict in the script, as there were tensions between the American and Japanese naval officers, feelings derived from remnants of the tragedy at Pearl Harbour in 1941. The battle scenes at sea were the best features of the film.  They were exciting, and surprisingly, creative, especially the massive alien balls which served to be indestructible; and of course, the film wouldn't be complete without the inclusion of the battleship grid, taken from the board game when sonar was used to track the aliens underwater. There hasn't been many films released in the past few years involving sea battles, which was definitely the hook for me and works to the film’s advantage. Alexander Skarsgard, Liam Neeson, and Rihanna also star as crew mates.


My rating: 3 out of 5