Battleship, review by John Delia

AN

EXCITING

ACTION

THRILLER

BATTLESHIP

Review by John Delia

Who’d ever think they could make a film from a kids Hasbro board game and come up a winner.  With Battleship they did just that and it’s more action, thrills, amazing special effects than I had ever imagined possible.  If you like alien invasion movies with cool spaceships, scary spacemen, saw bladed war drones and explosive rocket pegs then get ready for extreme fun watching Battleship.  

Battleship’s storyline wouldn’t attract an Oscar but neither would The Avengers, but it’s still a lot of fun.  Sort of a fantasy adventure, the movie follows Lt. Alex Hooper (Taylor Kitsch) who falls for Sam Shane (Brooklyn Decker) the daughter of Admiral Shane. The two hit it off well and want to take it to the next step getting engaged, however her father doesn’t see eye-to-eye with Alex who constantly gets in trouble.  

In the meantime scientists develop a contact beam, set the super delivery dishes atop the highest mountain in the Hawaiian Islands and send the signal millions of miles into space to a planet very much like Earth. Years later space creatures decide to travel in five alien spacecraft to our world where they crash land in the Pacific just miles from Hawaii.  By coincidence a fleet on maneuvers with Japanese vessels just outside of Hawaii commanded by Admiral Shane finds itself in the middle of the phenomenon.  When the space invaders get angry at all the fleets available firepower they attack.

The film goes on from there with Alex taking over the USS John Paul Jones and leading a counter strike that sets in motion one of the biggest battles against aliens ever on film other than maybe Independence Day. From here on out there’s nothing but action, explosions, rocket launching, missal firings, cannon rapports and that’s just from the US Navy. When the aliens start launching their peg bombs and spinning wheel blade destroyers the strike force finds itself no match for the ferocious visitors.

Peter Berge who gave us films like Hancock and The Kingdom shows his keen imagination with amazing eye popping explosive water scenes, nightmarish destruction of US and Japanese warships, menacing attacks by the aliens with devastating weapons and pure adrenaline pumping response by a rag-tag crew that will make you cheer.

The movie however is all about the action with seamless computer graphics (CGI) and green screen creating the magic. If you have seen the films 2012 and the recent The Avengers you have experienced the fantasy that can be made through this process.  While the actors still perform on stages and sets that provide a platform for the story, unless there’s ample CGI in a film like this, the ‘realism’ diminishes immensely.  I bow down to the hundreds of computer artists, aerial performers, motion capture crews and special effects people who brought this amazing film to life.

No film becomes a winner without the musical background that livens up the story.  In Battleship they get it right with the energy needed to give the feel of explosive combat, a dramatic meeting between human and alien and close quarters defense by the ships crew against a dangerous enemy.  

Battleship has been  rated PG-13 by the MPAA for intense sequences of violence, action and destruction, and for language, but nothing most teens and tweens have experienced in their video games or on the Cartoon Channel.

FINAL ANALYSIS: A very good explosive action film. (B)

Additional Film Information:

• Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgard, Brooklyn Decker, and Liam Neeson
• Directed by: Peter Berg
• MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, action and destruction, and for language
• Genre: War, Action/Adventure, Adaptation, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
• Running Time: 2 hours 11 minutes
• Opening Date: May 18, 2012
• Distributed by: Universal Pictures