Battleship (DVD Review)

This past week I picked up the movie Battleship. I was a bit leery buying a movie sight unseen because I have done that in the past only to regret it later. I had seen the trailers and read the reviews which were mostly negative but nothing in either the trailers or the reviews would suggest I wouldn’t like it. The last time I purchased an alien invasion movie was last years Battle: Los Angeles. I loved the trailer for that movie too. Although I generally do like that movie, it starts off very well but then degrades into a generic war movie, my experience with that film did raise my anxiety level just a bit, fearing I may have made a mistake.

I didn’t make a mistake.

This movie is a pure mindless popcorn movie. It stars Taylor Kitsch, Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgård, Rihanna, Brooklyn Decker, and Tadanobu Asano. The film was directed by Peter Berg. In many ways this movie is made in the spirit of Independence Day. It is a film that doesn’t take its subject matter too seriously. In my reviews I don’t like to give a detailed outline of the plot because that gets tedious. I will just talk about the things that I liked and disliked about the movie. I love Liam Neeson and he cuts a good figure as the domineering Admiral Terrance Shane, Commander of the United States Pacific Fleet. He also happens to be the father of Samantha Shane, played by Brooklyn Decker the love interest of the main character, Lieutenant Alex Hopper, played by Taylor Kitsch. Lieutenant Hopper is an under achiever who has to win the approval of Admiral Shane in order to marry his daughter. However, because of his attitude and predilection for fighting Hopper is about to get discharged from the Navy after the military exercises he is taking part in. However, he is saved by an alien invasion where he alone (along with a few other ships) have to save humanity.

What ensues is a special effects extravaganza. As an unapologetic lover of special effects this movie delivers them in spades and with enthusiasm. Some of the complaints aimed towards films like this are that they lack a cohesive story or plot. I don’t think that is a fair criticism. Often when people say that these types of stories lack plot development they generally seem to mean that these stories do not have complex plot twists where things that were unknown are revealed later in the film. While that may be true I do not think that more basic linear story telling concludes that the story itself lacks a plot. Sometimes the plot can simply be the journey of an individuals redemption which I feel is at the heart of this movie.

This movie, like Independence Day before it, celebrates patriotism. Samantha Shane is a physical therapist who is helping a man overcome his loss of both legs to discover he is still a whole person and capable of contributing to life. As our heroes stare death in the face and their ships are all destroyed Hopper turns to the only ship left in the area, the retired and venerable USS Missouri. With the help of aging veterans they rise above the odds to defeat the enemy showing that these elderly vets are also capable of still being relevant and valuable to society.

Those are the things I like most about the movie. There were things I did not care for but there are not too many of them. The first thing that I didn’t like was the design of the aliens. They are too human looking. They have quill like protrusions where a beard should be, their eyes are a bit reptilian and they have funky claw like hands but other than that they are very human looking. I view the design as a little unimaginative. I would have liked the aliens to have been more exotic looking. The other thing I didn’t care for in the movie is part of the soundtrack where the music of AC/DC is used. That got on my nerves in a couple of scenes. That is it. That is all I really didn’t like in this movie.

This movie is based on a board game which is also part of the reason I think people closed their minds to this project in the first place. I think the aspects of the game are woven into the movie in a very creative fashion. One of the weapons used by the aliens look similar to the pushpins that you would push into your battleship on the game board. However, when the aliens lodge these into the ship they are extremely destructive. At one point in the battle with the aliens they are unable to track them on radar so they use a grid on a map to try and find the location of the alien ships.

All in all this is an enjoyable movie. Like all movies such as this it asks you to suspend disbelief. I will admit the events in this movie are implausible. So although this movie does have a message at its heart it really is nothing more than a fast paced action adventure movie of humanity trying to survive an alien attack.

 

New on DVD Today…

Battleship

Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, Rihanna, Liam Neeson

Director: Peter Berg

New on DVD and Blu-ray is the movie Battleship. I LOVE ALIEN INVASION MOVIES!!!! I have not seen this movie yet and I will be buying it within a week or so. This movie didn’t do too well. I guess you could say it bombed…well, sort of. The budget for this movie was $209 million. It took in a miserable $65,233,400 at the domestic box office. However, it took in a total of $237,602,860 in the overseas market for a grand total of $302,836,260 world wide. So it looks like it wasn’t a loss for the studio. It didn’t get great reviews either with a 34% positive reviews of the professional reviewers, but did get 53% positive reviews from the general public. I have liked movies that have received even worse reviews. When I get this DVD look for my review in the coming weeks.

Here is my original post on this movie.

Alien invasion movies is one of my favorite themes within the science-fiction genre. Battleship is the newest type of alien invasion movie to come out of Hollywood. Like the Transformer series, Battleship is also a toy, in this case a board game, made by Hasbro. Although the original game did not include an alien invasion the focus of this movie is a group of sailors try to take down an invading force of aliens after we send a signal into space alerting them of our presence.

In many ways this movie seems more like a remake of independence Day rather than a movie about the game Battleship. However, some of my nerd sources tell me that there are elements of the game inserted into the movie. This is one of my top movies I am looking forward to seeing this summer!

Battleship

Battleship

Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, Rihanna, Liam Neeson

Director: Peter Berg

Release Date: 18 May 2012

 Alien invasion movies is one of my favorite themes within the science-fiction genre. Battleship is the newest type of alien invasion movie to come out of Hollywood. Like the Transformer series, Battleship is also a toy, in this case a board game, made by Hasbro. Although the original game did not include an alien invasion the focus of this movie is a group of sailors try to take down an invading force of aliens after we send a signal into space alerting them of our presence.

 In many ways this movie seems more like a remake of independence Day rather than a movie about the game Battleship. However, some of my nerd sources tell me that there are elements of the game inserted into the movie. This is one of my top movies I am looking forward to seeing this summer!