"Too generic and fails to actually engage its viewer, relying too heavily on special effects and explosions to pass the time..."
Have things really become so desperate in Hollywood? With a plethora of sequels and remakes already clogging up our multiplexes, it has already become apparent that ideas are running out, and now we enter what could be a new phase of Hollywood drivel - the cinematically adapted board game.
Based somewhat loosely on the Hasbro board game Battleship, Peter Berg's picture tells the tale of a destructive conflict between unknown origins believed to be aliens, and the US Navy, with the future of mankind at risk.
We follow layabout Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch), seemingly on the verge of going absolutely nowhere with his life. Yet his older brother Stone (Alexander Skarsgård) persuades him to join him in the navy and make something of himself. Alex has an added incentive to succeed, as he plans on winning over his girlfriend Samantha's (Brooklyn Decker) father (Liam Neeson), who just so happens to be the Admiral of the US Navy.
Alex and his crew, which includes the determined Raikes (Rihanna) soon have their abilities put to the test following the invasion of what appears to be aliens, transpiring in an epic battle on the Pacific Ocean between five mysterious ships, and the rather vulnerable navy - with Alex as captain following the death of his brother at the hands of the seemingly merciless creatures, attempting to reconnect with their planet and bring reinforcements.
The link to the much loved board game is decidedly tenuous. Effectively it's just a battle. With ships. It's almost like linking Withnail and I to Monopoly, because they live in a house, in London. Come to think of it, isn't Ridley Scott working on bringing Monopoly to the big screen? What is happening to Hollywood. There are the occasional Battleship references within the film, but they feel too contrived as if director Berg simply thought "We had better say B7 soon, otherwise we haven't fulfilled our contract obligations with Hasbro..."
On a more positive note the film is certainly a visual treat, as the explosions and battle sequences look fantastic up on the big-screen - but then again, with a $200million budget, I should bloody well hope so. Yet the battle sequences last far too long - taking up the majority of what is already too long a movie. Berg implements a host of explosions throughout, clearly to disguise the lack of narrative in the story, leading to severe tedium. Such scenes are made worse by being set against an annoyingly horrible American rock soundtrack too.
Battleship is yet another underwhelming blockbuster which doesn't appear to have had much effort put into it. Its script is ridiculously overstated and clichéd. Yet in fairness, the film does appear to be aware of its exaggerated mediocrity, clearly playing up to it in parts, such as the line "who actually talks like that?" following yet another banal one liner. On that note, the film is rather fun at times, as it certainly takes a quite jovial and tongue-in-cheek approach, yet such a sentiment is overruled by the lack of any actual story or emotion towards any particular character.
The lead performance by Kitsch is actually relatively impressive. Similarly to his approach to John Carter, he has a likeability to him and a sort of "I know how rubbish this film is" smirk smacked across his face, evident throughout. As for Rihanna, she has a bit of a nothing character with little personality of any note, but she takes on her debut role more than aptly, and fair play to her for attempting something quite different. I'm sure she could have taken a pointless romantic role, and although taking a pointless action hero role, it's still respectable that she has given it a go. As for Neeson, it appears as if he shot his scenes during his lunch break.
Battleship is quite simply a disappointing film, and offers very little to the audience. It's too generic and fails to actually engage its viewer, relying too heavily on special effects and explosions to pass the time. For anyone fearing for the Hollywood blockbuster, please do avoid - because this film will only succeed in cementing your opinion.
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