Battleship

After the summer's big budget kick-off "The Avengers" which is still making a gazillion bucks, can the second big budget film, "Battleship" follow that lead? Suffice it to say, both will be gunning for that lead. Excuse the pun.

Based on the classic Hasbro combat board game, "Battleship" is the story of an international fleet of ships who come across an alien armada whilst on a Naval war games exercise in the Hawaiian Islands area.
The film starts with brothers, Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) and Comm. Stone Hopper (Alexander Skarsgard) celebrating Alex's birthday in a nearby pub. Alex, who is a troublemaker, ends up in trouble trying to impress a girl he met named Samantha (Brooklyn Decker), who happens to be the daughter of Admiral Shane (Liam Neeson), Stone's boss. Ouch! So Stone finally gives his younger brother, Alex an ultimatum: either get out with no more help from Stone or join the navy in which his brother works. It then edits ahead in the not so distant future where Alex is now a lieutenant. But because Alex means well, he's still a screw up. After he blows it one last time, Stone's been told that Alex's time in the Navy is coming to a halt.
A government project called 'The Beacon Project' has been built in Hawaii, which involves sending signals far out in space using our satellites to facilitate this process. The station is run by Cal Zapata (Hamish Linklater) and an intern. All of a sudden, they receive a transmission they soon feel is real.
Soon after, as the Naval war games ensue, the crew of the different ships including the Hopper brothers, Admiral Shane and many others, notice this huge ship coming out of the water which turns out to be hostile. An intense battle begins over sea, land and air. The big question is: What do the aliens known as 'The Regents' want?

Others to round out the cast are Rihanna as Petty Ofcr. Cora 'Weps' Raikes, Tadanobu Asano as Capt. Yugi Nagata, Peter MacNicol as Secretary of Defense, John Tui as Chief Petty Ofcr. Walter 'The Beast' Lynch, Jesse Plemons as Boatswain Mate Seaman Jimmy 'Ordy' Ord, Gregory D. Gadson as Lt. Col. Mick Canales, and Peter W. Berg as JPJ 2nd Gunner.

This was intensely directed by Peter Berg ("Very Bad Things" '98, "The Rundown" '03, "Friday Night Lights" '04, "The Kingdom" '07, "Hancock" '08, "Virtuality" (TV movie) '09).
Berg is an actor who also directs, and he does both about equal time. Being an actor definitely gives him an edge on what to expect from his actors, however this isn't always true which any director i.e. Steven Spielberg. He can't act at all, but knows what to expect out of his actors, but Spielberg is not the norm. It was written by Erich Hoeber and Jon Hoeber which was based on Hasbro's game, "Battleship". The script is extremely formulaic with a predictable plot and inevitable ending, but you already know this before you walk into the theater. Besides the casting of Taylor Kitsch as Hopper, what is going to draw a viewer is the visual effects mostly by ILM and the special effects by the comparable Burt Dalton.

This is obviously a guy flick designed for the 18-34 year-old single male demographic, but if you are into stunning visuals, loud explosive, adrenaline-packed scenes aplenty with non-stop action, you will be in big-budget heaven.

Out of 4 stars: 3                      Rated: PG-13                       131min.