I can't front and not admit that I was one of the biggest doubters of this flick when I first saw the trailer. I had been saying for the longest that it was nothing more than Michael Bay's attempt to give us some filler until the next "Transformers" movie hits. Well I still stand by that. Nevertheless, I found myself with some spare time one afternoon and after seeing some folks talking about the great effects, I caved and decided to see it.
"Battleship" appeared to have a bit of a misleading name since it is VERY loosely based on the famous Hasbro game that we are all familiar with. This super-budget movie involves a fleet of Navy vessels that are out doing war game manuevers when they encounter an armada of unknown origins set on destructive goals. It turns out the alien life came to earth due to a signal we had sent out years ago in search of intelligent life. Now that they have arrived, it's up to a select few Navy vessels to make sure they don't bring about the extinction of the human race.
My problem with this movie from the onset was the same that I'm sure many people had. Anyone that grew up with this game knows full well it was never about any alien lifeform. They never even specified what type of Navies were involved. It was just two regular Navies going at it. And the trailers to "Battleship" don't seem to indicate anything remotely close to the type of action the game portrays. To their credit, there is one scene in the movie where they finally key in to the element of the game. It doesn't last very long and it is reaching quite a bit (as much of the film does), but at least they did incorporate it.
Being such a huge "Friday Night Lights" fan I unfortunately became dismayed the minute I found out that Riggins (Taylor Kitsch...but he will always be Riggins to me) was in the starring role. He just hasn't been able to sell me on any movie he's been in ever since seeing him on "FNL". It certainly didn't help that they tried to pass him off as Gambit in the "Wolverine" movie. That was bad enough, but trying to make us believe that he's a Lieutenant in the Navy? Come on now.
I go into every action flick knowing to expect some bit of corniness. It just comes with the genre. This one just had a bit more than most. It seemed like every few minutes they were trying to implement some. Just once I'd like to see an action flick where they leave that out altogether and let the action speak for itself. But when you have a movie where Rihanna is playing a Naval Petty Officer then you can pretty much guarantee the corniness will be at an all-time high.
The special effects were very much on point. They definitely make sure they got their money's worth from the $209 million budget spent on making "Battleship". The alien warships featured throughout the movie were all very impressive. Especially once they started engaging in action. Now the actual aliens themselves? That's another story altogether. Apparently there wasn't a lot of thought that went into their appearance. Or time put into their CGI. I guess $209 million doesn't go as far as used to.
Don't go into "Battleship" expecting to see Oscar award-winning performances. In spite of the fact that Liam Neeson is on board who evidently just wanted an extra paycheck. It's your standard popcorn fluff designed to optimize a theater's HD screens and surround sound for more summer filler. Although the 2 hours, 11 minutes was not an entire waste of time it would have been better spent just watching "Avengers" for a second time.
My rating: C -


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