Battleship (2012)

A fleet of ships is forced to do battle with an armada of unknown origins in order to discover and thwart their destructive goals.

Director:

Peter Berg

Writers:

Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber

Stars:

Alexander Skarsgård, Brooklyn Decker, Liam Neeson

4 wins & 15 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Taylor Kitsch	...	Lieutenant Alex Hopper
Alexander Skarsgård	...	Commander Stone Hopper
Rihanna	...	Petty Officer Cora 'Weps' Raikes
Brooklyn Decker	...	Sam
Tadanobu Asano	...	Captain Yugi Nagata
Hamish Linklater	...	Cal Zapata
Liam Neeson	...	Admiral Shane
Peter MacNicol	...	Secretary of Defense
John Tui	...	Chief Petty Officer Walter 'The Beast' Lynch
Jesse Plemons	...	Boatswain Mate Seaman Jimmy 'Ordy' Ord
Gregory D. Gadson	...	Lieutenant Colonel Mick Canales
Jerry Ferrara	...	Sampson JOOD Strodell
Adam Godley	...	Dr. Nogrady
Rico McClinton	...	Captain Browley
Joji Yoshida	...	Chief Engineer Hiroki

Storyline

A naval war ship encounters an alien armada and faces the biggest threat mankind has ever faced. If they lose, the world could face a major extinction event and an alien invasion. Will humans win this alien war, what are the aliens doing here, and what do they want? Based on the Hasbro naval war game.

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Plot Keywords:

alien | battleship | alien invasion | wargames | based on board game | 

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Taglines:

The battle for Earth begins at sea.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, action and destruction, and for language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

18 May 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

Battleship

Filming Locations:

Figueroa Hotel - 939 S. Figueroa Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$209,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$25,534,825, 20 May 2012, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$65,422,625

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$303,025,485

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Hasbro, Bluegrass Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

131 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Datasat Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Skarsgård's character tells everyone to "stay frosty." This is a nod to his character Brad Colbert in Generation Kill.

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Goofs

When Hopper is playing football for the USA Navy against the Japanese Navy he is kicked in the face by a Japanese player. When he is laying on the ground his face is covered in blood around his nose. He stands up as his brother talks to him, his face is clean, he picks up the ball to take the penalty and his face has blood all around his nose. He stands up and the blood has gone, he turns to another player to threaten him and the blood is back.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Title Card: In 2005, scientists discovered a distant planet believed to have a climate nearly identical to Earth.
Title Card: In 2006, NASA built a transmission device five times more powerful than any before it, and a program to contact the planet began.
Title Card: It was known as The Beacon Project.

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Crazy Credits

There is an additional final scene after the end credits.

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Connections

Referenced in Super Hyper Mega Lactose Intolerance (2017)

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Soundtracks

Everybody Wants You
Written by Billy Squier
Performed by Billy Squier
Courtesy of Capitol Records
Under License from EMI Film and Television Music

User Reviews

More Fun Than It Has Any Right To Be

On a certain level, there's no way I can claim that Battleship is a good movie in any conventional sense. The plot is incredulous and the script couldn't be riddled with more holes if you unloaded a shotgun at it. Even the idea that the movie is based on Hasbro's classic board game of the same name is rather disingenuous: yes, there is a battleship involved in the action, almost all of which takes place at sea, but other than that any resemblance to the game we all grew up playing seems purely coincidental. And I certainly don't remember any aliens in the game I had.

But somehow, despite it all, Battleship stays afloat. There's a certain energy and enthusiasm to the film that is infectious, even via the big screen. The story may not make a whole lot of sense, but it is a lot of fun. The extravagant special effects—merely par for the course in any modern would-be blockbuster—are one factor, but spectacular as the many explosions, gunfights, and various displays of pyrotechnics are, there's more to it than that, an overriding sense of fun that makes all the conventional weaknesses of the film meaningless.

Certainly, the cast seems to be having a lot of fun on screen. Taylor Kitsch, who stars as Lt. Alex Hopper, is an empathetic hero whose struggle to overcome his personal weaknesses is ultimately played out with the fate of the world at stake when he finds himself and the crew of his Navy destroyer in the wrong place at the wrong time—and smack in the middle of an amphibious alien invasion. Alexander Skarsgard plays Alex's older brother and mentor, a Navy Captain to whom Alex feels he has been a shallow disappointment. The gorgeous Brooklyn Decker does an adequate job as Alex's girlfriend, Samantha, whose father just happens to be the Admiral of the fleet, and played by the great Liam Neeson in a typically authoritative performance. The only real weak spot in the cast is singer Rihanna, making her big screen debut and looking like it. One can only hope that if Rihanna pursues further acting roles, she'll improve…a lot.

The plot isn't deep, but it does have some positive aspects, incorporating elements of personal redemption, self-empowerment, and self-sacrifice, all concepts that more movies would be well-advised to advance. And while the movie is in a sense very violent—once the aliens arrive, things start to blow up at a rapid clip—there's nothing especially graphic or bloody. The dialog isn't Oscar-worthy, but is sometimes quite witty.

In the end, Battleship is a prototypical summer actioner. It's nowhere nearly as good as The Avengers, but as a very different type of film is still worth seeing if big-budget mayhem is your thing. If you're okay with a movie that doesn't stimulate your brain and requires only that you go along for the fast-paced ride and enjoy the show, Battleship is surprisingly entertaining.