Battleship

I don't think that this film deserves all the hate, it's a fun film. It's not an art movie or moral drama, but you knew that. It's a fun romp like the Independence Day films. You watch a film like this knowing you've got to suspend belief and not examine the plot too carefully.

Despite the film's light touch, it's got some great actors in it (Liam Neeson, Alexander Skasgård and Jesse Plemmons). A lot of folk are rubbishing Rhianna, but I like her in this, I love her vibe with Ordy.

The film also uses ex veterans in the film, the USS Mo crew and the extras at the physio centre, plus the actor who plays Mick Canales are all wounded veterans (Mick is one of my favourite characters). It's a great family film (not for young children, though). Make sure you watch the bit at the end of the credits. Shame of you, Prime for not streaming that bit!

How this movie needed to be based upon any game I have no idea, all I can say about it is that my wife and I sat back, decided to ignore the obvious impossibilities and enjoy the movie. Doing that it was a fun time with my wife, however as a Science Fiction writer myself I still cringed more than I every want to admit.

What I will say in critic is something that Asimov and Clarke both agreed upon. "Never ask your reader to disbelieve more than one thing." Whomever wrote this screenplay really badly ignored that warning. Still in all it was a heck of a lot better than anything that the SciFry channel has ever put out.

I'm not sure why everyone is complaining about this movie. It's an action movie - not a deep social commentary or a romantic comedy.

Yeah. It had plenty of implausibilities but so what. Every movie has them.

It was well made, hero's and bad guys who had just enough weapons to be dangerous but not dangerous enough to secure the environment.

But again. This is a feel good, Cowboys & Indians movie.

Well I enjoyed it a lot and I'm kind of hard to please. It simply was not as bad as everyone says it is.

I liked the choice of actors even the two from Friday Night Lights.

The guy who played the injured sailor was pretty funny.

And what's a movie without your resident geek. Check.

I based my initial opinion on the IMDb score and from the odd critic review when this was released. I watched this last night and was pleasantly surprised. its a lot better then I expected. I wont go into detail about the plot etc as its in the summary. the only actors I knew were Liam Neeson and Rhianna. Rhianna was better then most other singers that attempt acting. I think to put this in perspective I will tell you some of my favourite films as I feel if you also like these you will like battleship: transformers, skyline, matrix, avatar, lethal weapon, die-hard, van damme films, terminator 2. (I couldn't list them all. :-) ) ignore the fact the enemy look like transformer. I think the makers have done well turning a very old, guesswork boardgame into a pretty decent movie.

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.