Battleship Review

[MrCreeper187]

Skeptical whether a film based on an archaic board game could be any good? Battleship proves that such an adaptation can yield success. A science fiction action film named after the classic pen and paper game, Battleship defies naysayers to deliver solid action.

In 2005, NASA discovers an extrasolar planet with conditions similar to Earth. On the chance that it contains intelligent life, NASA transmits a powerful signal from a communications array in Hawaii, which will be boosted by a satellite in orbit. Around the same time, the talented but undisciplined slacker Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) attempts to impress a woman by getting her a chicken burrito, the result of which sees Alex breaking into a convenience store and being tasered by the police. The woman is Samantha Shane (Brooklyn Decker), daughter of United States Pacific Fleet commander Admiral Shane (Liam Neeson), who in turn is the superior of Commander Stone Hopper (Alexander Skarsgard), Alex’s older brother. Fed up and infuriated at Alex for lack of motivation and possibly ruining his own career, Stone forces him to join the United States Navy.

By 2012, Alex is a lieutenant and the Tactical Action Officer aboard the Arleigh Burke class flight I destroyer USS John Paul Jones, while Stone is the commanding officer of USS Sampson. Alex is also in a committed relationship with Samantha and wants to marry her, but is afraid to ask her father for permission. During the opening ceremony for the RIMPAC naval exercises, Alex brawls with Japanese officer Captain Nagata (Tadanobu Asano), the latest in a string of incidents that could result in his discharge at the end of RIMPAC. Meanwhile, Samantha, a physical therapist, accompanies retired Army veteran and amputee Mick Canales (Gregory D. Gadson) on a hike on Oahu to help him adapt to his prosthetic legs.

Unfortunately, this part of the film plays like a Navy advertisement thinly masked as Act One. It drags on, with dialog that is shockingly canned, even for a major studio picture. It feels like Battle: Los Angeles in that regard: great action that comes late in a film populated with tiny characters and trite dialog. But once the action begins in Battleship, the spam is quickly forgotten.

Five alien ships respond to the NASA signal. One ship collides with an orbital satellite and crashes in Hong Kong, while four others land in the water near Hawaii. Sampson, John Paul Jones, and the JMSDF Kongo class destroyer Myōkō investigate, but are trapped when one of the ships erects an impenetrable force field around the Hawaiian islands. The destroyers attempt to establish contact, but the aliens open fire in response to a warning shot fired by the American destroyers: Sampson and Myōkō are destroyed, killing Stone Hopper. John Paul Jones is damaged with the commanding and executive officers killed. Initially attached to Sampson, Alex, who was one of the few out to take a closer look at the alien vessels, now boards John Paul Jones and takes command as the most senior officer left on the ship. Although initially wanting to attack the alien ships in retaliation for his brother’s death, Alex is persuaded by other crew members to break off from attacking and to instead recover survivors from Myōkō, with Captain Nagata among them. This act prompts the aliens to call off another attack.

Since the barrier prevents the use of radar and sonar, Nagata reveals that they can use tsunami warning buoys around Hawaii to track the alien vessels’ movements. In this moment, the board game meets major motion picture cleverly, as screenwriters Erich Hoeber and Jon Hoeber move the players into a night-time battle, with the aliens and humans engaging in a macro-cosmic version of the board game. One jaw-dopping scene not soon forgotten involves a battleship dropping anchor and skidding into optimum position to take out an alien vessel. Moments like that make Battleship worth seeing, despite the obvious nods to Transformers.

Battleship runs long, clocking in at 131 minutes and manages to under-use its major stars, Liam Neeson and Rihanna. The trailers for the film lead viewers to think Neeson and Rihanna will take center-stage, next to the Kitsh and the aliens. Sadly, Neeson is only briefly seen in the beginning and the end, and Rihanna plays only a minor supporting role with limited screen-time.

Directed by Peter Berg and released by Universal Pictures, Battleship stars Taylor Kitsch, Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgård, Rihanna, Brooklyn Decker, and Tadanobu Asano.