"Battleship", Rated "PG-13" for Adult Situations, Adult Language, Mild Sexual Innuendo, Violence, Mild Gore. Running Time: 2hr&11mns.
My Take: **1/2 (Out of ****)
It never ceases to amaze me how Hollywood studios attempt to turn anything into a movie. This includes theme park attractions, toys, video games and board games. In the case of "Battleship," it is the latter. Can a board game be successfully adapted into a full-length feature? A better question: when it comes to Hollywood taking your hard-earned dollar, does it really matter if the movie is good or not? I ask this rhetorically.
"Battleship," budgeted over $200 million, has all the elements of a summer blockbuster movie. Many films like this can also tank and sink film studios with them. The recent box-office bomb "John Carter" fiscally hurt its studio, Disney, and resulted in the resignation of their studio head. I only bring this up to show you what "Battleship" is up against and I'm not talking about aliens with missiles.
The characters of "Battleship," like the film's premise, are also set up like pieces on a board game grid. The movie opens with the gifted slacker Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch, "John Carter") trying to impress the attractive Samantha Shane (Brooklyn Decker, "What to Expect When You're Expecting"). She is the daughter of Admiral Shane (Liam Neeson, "The Dark Knight Rises"), the commander of the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet and the boss of Alex's brother Stone (Alexander Skarsgard, "True Blood"). In a last ditch effort to become productive, Alex is persuaded by his brother to join the U.S. Navy. Fast forward a few years and Alex (referred to as "Hopper") is the tactical officer onboard the destroyer USS John Paul Jones. He is still something of an embarrassment to Stone, who is now the commanding officer of the USS Sampson. While in the preparation for the international joint fleet exercise RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific), Hopper finds himself in hot water with Admiral Shane and Hopper's future in the Navy is in doubt.
Lo and behold, alien spacecrafts crash land in the Pacific Ocean, smack dab in the middle of the RIMPAC exercise! They are belligerent, with the intention of conquering Earth. The alien spacecraft generates a dome-like force field keeping outside interference away. Trapped inside the force field are a handful of ships from the RIMPAC exercise. They take action against the alien threat.
Hopper's group decides to use weather buoys to track the underwater movements of the aliens with a grid. Hmmm, this tactic reminds me of a particular board game.
There are things in "Battleship" that do not make sense. I fail to understand why a raft with about three Navy personnel, under the protection of the gun-toating Gunner's Mate 2nd Class Raikes (Rhianna), would speed over to an alien craft the size of 20 aircraft carriers to "assess" things. That's like a mosquito visiting a heavily armed rhinoceros. Why anyone would leave the ship to do this and what they thought they could achieve is beyond me. What did I miss here? Also confusing me was why would the alien ships land in the Pacific Ocean during RIMPAC? Why didn't they land in Washington D.C. or at the Kremlin or somewhere like that? It must have something to do with the satellite dishes in Hawaii that can broadcast into deep space. Oh. Well then, never mind
"Battleship" also has a few nice sub-plots. The best one involves Samantha and the Army amputee Lt. Col. Canales (Gregory D. Gadson). He has mechanical legs and he is reluctant to learn how to use them. Samantha coerces him into a nature hike in rural Oahu when the alien invasion takes place. How rises to the challenge of doing some reconnaissance against the alien and overcome the adversity of his new handicap is nice to watch. Granted, this film is a fantasy, but having the characters proactively engaged shows positivity that helps drive the movie.
The original "Battleship" board game did not have aliens floating around the Pacific. It was a watered-down naval strategy game. My hunch is for the film version, aliens became the bad guys for two reasons. Reason #1: Aliens sell movie tickets. In the wake of the financial successes of the "Transformers" movies, making the baddies resemble and mimic the ones from "Transformers" guarantees teenage filmgoers will have a built in interest in "Battleship." Reason #2: It might not be politically correct to portray a given nation or other groups engaging in an all-out battle with the Pacific Fleet with the goal of world conquest. I should point out that "Battleship" could have been a period piece set during World War II, which would have been more naval and true to the board game. Oh wait, that might not generate the kind of ticket sales from the teens unless there are aliens on the screen. I guess I can rule out a career in movie marketing. Though there is a nifty tie-in to WWII during the last third of the movie which is definitely a crowd pleaser.
Director Peter Berg ("Friday Night Lights") deserves credit for taking this material and making it as fun for a screen adaptation as possible. Still, the movie is nothing more than bubblegum. It is also funny to note the leading man in this film is named Taylor Kitsch. The word "Kitsch" is a derogatory German word meaning tawdry, vulgarized, or pretentious art, literature, etc, usually with popular or sentimental appeal. I think it's ironic that Mr. Kitsch is the lead in both "Battleship" and "John Carter". I'll just leave it at that.
"Battleship" is only somewhat satisfying. I think the script and the editing needed one more polish. Though it is a light and breezy film, the clichés and formulas in it have been done better in other films. That and there are better "kitsches" out there.
My Take: **1/2 (Out of ****)
It never ceases to amaze me how Hollywood studios attempt to turn anything into a movie. This includes theme park attractions, toys, video games and board games. In the case of "Battleship," it is the latter. Can a board game be successfully adapted into a full-length feature? A better question: when it comes to Hollywood taking your hard-earned dollar, does it really matter if the movie is good or not? I ask this rhetorically.
"Battleship," budgeted over $200 million, has all the elements of a summer blockbuster movie. Many films like this can also tank and sink film studios with them. The recent box-office bomb "John Carter" fiscally hurt its studio, Disney, and resulted in the resignation of their studio head. I only bring this up to show you what "Battleship" is up against and I'm not talking about aliens with missiles.
The characters of "Battleship," like the film's premise, are also set up like pieces on a board game grid. The movie opens with the gifted slacker Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch, "John Carter") trying to impress the attractive Samantha Shane (Brooklyn Decker, "What to Expect When You're Expecting"). She is the daughter of Admiral Shane (Liam Neeson, "The Dark Knight Rises"), the commander of the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet and the boss of Alex's brother Stone (Alexander Skarsgard, "True Blood"). In a last ditch effort to become productive, Alex is persuaded by his brother to join the U.S. Navy. Fast forward a few years and Alex (referred to as "Hopper") is the tactical officer onboard the destroyer USS John Paul Jones. He is still something of an embarrassment to Stone, who is now the commanding officer of the USS Sampson. While in the preparation for the international joint fleet exercise RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific), Hopper finds himself in hot water with Admiral Shane and Hopper's future in the Navy is in doubt.
Lo and behold, alien spacecrafts crash land in the Pacific Ocean, smack dab in the middle of the RIMPAC exercise! They are belligerent, with the intention of conquering Earth. The alien spacecraft generates a dome-like force field keeping outside interference away. Trapped inside the force field are a handful of ships from the RIMPAC exercise. They take action against the alien threat.
Hopper's group decides to use weather buoys to track the underwater movements of the aliens with a grid. Hmmm, this tactic reminds me of a particular board game.
There are things in "Battleship" that do not make sense. I fail to understand why a raft with about three Navy personnel, under the protection of the gun-toating Gunner's Mate 2nd Class Raikes (Rhianna), would speed over to an alien craft the size of 20 aircraft carriers to "assess" things. That's like a mosquito visiting a heavily armed rhinoceros. Why anyone would leave the ship to do this and what they thought they could achieve is beyond me. What did I miss here? Also confusing me was why would the alien ships land in the Pacific Ocean during RIMPAC? Why didn't they land in Washington D.C. or at the Kremlin or somewhere like that? It must have something to do with the satellite dishes in Hawaii that can broadcast into deep space. Oh. Well then, never mind
"Battleship" also has a few nice sub-plots. The best one involves Samantha and the Army amputee Lt. Col. Canales (Gregory D. Gadson). He has mechanical legs and he is reluctant to learn how to use them. Samantha coerces him into a nature hike in rural Oahu when the alien invasion takes place. How rises to the challenge of doing some reconnaissance against the alien and overcome the adversity of his new handicap is nice to watch. Granted, this film is a fantasy, but having the characters proactively engaged shows positivity that helps drive the movie.
The original "Battleship" board game did not have aliens floating around the Pacific. It was a watered-down naval strategy game. My hunch is for the film version, aliens became the bad guys for two reasons. Reason #1: Aliens sell movie tickets. In the wake of the financial successes of the "Transformers" movies, making the baddies resemble and mimic the ones from "Transformers" guarantees teenage filmgoers will have a built in interest in "Battleship." Reason #2: It might not be politically correct to portray a given nation or other groups engaging in an all-out battle with the Pacific Fleet with the goal of world conquest. I should point out that "Battleship" could have been a period piece set during World War II, which would have been more naval and true to the board game. Oh wait, that might not generate the kind of ticket sales from the teens unless there are aliens on the screen. I guess I can rule out a career in movie marketing. Though there is a nifty tie-in to WWII during the last third of the movie which is definitely a crowd pleaser.
Director Peter Berg ("Friday Night Lights") deserves credit for taking this material and making it as fun for a screen adaptation as possible. Still, the movie is nothing more than bubblegum. It is also funny to note the leading man in this film is named Taylor Kitsch. The word "Kitsch" is a derogatory German word meaning tawdry, vulgarized, or pretentious art, literature, etc, usually with popular or sentimental appeal. I think it's ironic that Mr. Kitsch is the lead in both "Battleship" and "John Carter". I'll just leave it at that.
"Battleship" is only somewhat satisfying. I think the script and the editing needed one more polish. Though it is a light and breezy film, the clichés and formulas in it have been done better in other films. That and there are better "kitsches" out there.