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Review: Battleship

By Christine Petralia

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures

May 20, 2012

*Spoiler Alert



There was nothing not to like in Battleship. Action - check; the Navy - check; aliens - check; Alexander Skarsgard - check. The film starts out with an explanation of how the aliens come into Earth's atmosphere. Scientists and NASA have discovered another planet, similar to Earth, that can sustain lifeforms, water, etc. So they send out communications to try to reach planet G, with the project based in Hawaii.



In the meantime, Commander Stone Hopper (Skarsgard) is trying to keep his little brother Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) out of trouble, so he makes him join the Navy with him. Hopper climbs the ranks, while dating the admiral's daughter (Brooklyn Decker). Soon, Hopper is a lieutenant and its the international Navy games. During the RIMPAC opening ceremony, Hopper gets into a brawl with Capt. Nagata of the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force. And soon all the crews take to the ocean.



During the prep work, four pods land in the water. Thinking its part of the games, a small crew, including Hopper, take a motor boat to investigate and after closer inspection, they realize these pods are of an alien lifeform. Once Hopper touches the main pod, beams shoot up trapping three ships inside a bubble with the pods. All communication is lost. Two ships go down, as they try to attack these alien pod ships and soon Nagata and Hopper have to join forces to battle the aliens. It soon becomes a game of battleship as they try to trick the aliens to take them down.



Back on land, the admiral's daughter, Sam, who is a physical therapist for injured soliders, is taking a walk with one of her patients, who lost both his legs in battle. They stumble upon the main satellite base, where this communication started. They learn, through one of the scientists that the aliens are basically trying to communicate with their planet, and possibly destroy Earth. However, as the aliens start to attack on land, we see that they do not intentionally kill humans, but rather technology and structures. Which is an aspect of the film they didn't really explore.

Sam and her patient convince the scientist to get equipment to communicate with Hopper. Sam lets Hopper know about the aliens' motive. Meanwhile, after capturing one of the aliens, the crew realizes the alien race's weakness, sunlight. With this knowledge, the crew takes down another pod. However, the aliens fight back and the ship is destroyed. But all hope is not lost, as Hopper decides he's going to take over the U.S.S. Missouri, a 70-year old decommissioned battleship that has been converted into a museum. With the help of veterans, who originally manned the battleship, they get her up and running and essentially save the world.



Throw in big explosions, a little love story, some humor and random one-liners from Rihanna's character and that pretty much sums up Battleship. Plot was simple. Effects were pretty outstanding. I feel like I was expecting more, but was happy with it in the end. It was very pro-military, pro-Navy. In fact, I'm pretty sure most of the naval officers in the film were actual officers. I do wish they had explored the aliens a little bit more. I feel like the director focused a lot more on the character build-up, which is fine, but when it came down to why the aliens where there, and even some of the action, it lacked a little bit. The acting was just OK too. I feel like the bigger names, such as Liam Neeson and Skarsgard played very minimal parts. And I don't really think the part was right for Skarsgard, as much as I love him. I did realize though that Kitsch is a pretty decent actor and I could see him playing Christian Grey if/when Shades of Grey hits the big screen, but I digress. And Decker is there to just put a pretty face in an action film.



As far as action, alien invasion movies, I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but it was a fun movie to see in the theaters.



Supposedly, there's an extra scene at the end of the credits, but we didn't stay.

3 stars.

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All works created by Christine McGrath; Centereach, New York  All Rights Reserved 2024

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