Battleship (2011) Directed by Peter Berg. Written by: Erich Hoeber, Jon Hoeber Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Taylor Kitsch, Brooklyn Decker and Liam Neeson. IMDB says: “A fleet of ships is forced to do battle with an armada of unknown origins in order to discover and thwart their destructive goals.“
Remember the game Battleship by Hasbro? Yeah man! You have little plastic ships and little plastic pegs and you have to find the other dude’s little plastic ships with your little plastic pegs. It was a fun game, right? So, of course, it deserves to be a film. And a film it has become. Peter Berg’s cinematic masterpiece hits theaters all over the country today, even though it has been airing oversees for nearly a month already. Featuring the top actors of our generation, Taylor Kitsch and Rihanna, this film is sure to delight audiences both young and old.
The premise is essentially that aliens land on earth and stage a naval battle just off the coast of Hawaii. The film manages to pay homage to the board game in little ways, and the general feeling is that the audience really responds to it. A lot of people are comparing this to Transformers and to be honest, they are along a similar vein but this movie is better, and I’ll tell you why. The story makes sense and is fairly well developed. The screenplay gives some depth to the characters and does evoke some compassion from the audience. This isn’t all about the board game; it isn’t Liam Neeson sitting in a room shouting “you sunk my battleship!” (Even though that would have been awesome). The special effects look good, without being too over the top. There’s a little comedy interweaved in there that gives you a chuckle here and there. And there are a couple of twists and turns, it actually draws you in.
I went in with very low expectations. I expected a campier version of transformers with poor acting and plastic pegs but that isn’t what I got. What I got was a great movie, one that I could watch multiple times. Sure, the acting isn’t world-class and some of the dialogue feels a little forced. Maybe they could have delved a little deeper into their backgrounds and maybe Taylor Kitsch could have used a facial expression or two, but even with these opportunities, it’s an enjoyable movie.
Feel free to ignore this review in its entirety and go into the movie thinking it’s terrible. I dare you to watch this film from beginning to end and not enjoy it at least as much as Transformers. If you can’t watch this and leave with a smile on your face, you don’t like having fun. You probably eat ribs with a fork and knife and generally frown as kittens cross your path. What you shouldn’t do is pass this movie by completely based on some silly preconceived notions.
