Battleship

Hello! Today's post will probably be quite quick because I'm actually not very well... does that stop me? of course it doesn't! although staring at the screen hurts my head so consider yourself lucky, imagine what your Sundays would be like without me... don't answer that.
If you didn't read the title and you don't recognise the image this post is all about the 2012 film "Battleship" based on the game... kinda, not really. Honestly I actually quite enjoyed it but it had faults and particular things that annoyed me so hold on and enjoy.

Battleship is about a fleet of naval ships that intercept an Alien armada after NASA send a signal to Planet-G in hopes of finding life in 2005. The aliens create a giant force field around a bunch of islands concealing everything in it and stopping anything from entering, this force field traps the naval fleet who rage war against the giant alien ships. Whilst footsoldiers plan to use our technology to signal their home planet ready for a world wide invasion.

The Film actually has a pretty decent cast including Liam Neeson as the admiral, Taylor Kitsch as Alex Hopper the hero of the film and Alexander Skarsgard as Alex's brother, Stone. Everything was fine until Rihanna popped up, if you like her and enjoyed her role thats fine but to me it was very pointless. I dislike Rihanna so her presence was annoying anyway but they could have used someone else like Michelle Rodriguez or an ACTRESS, not a singer.
Apart from that I really enjoyed the cast plus I'm a big fan of Taylor Kitsch. Now onto the story.

The plot itself is easy to follow but nothing like the board game so I think the film would have got a better reception if it wasn't based on the board game, no version of Battleship involve aliens so I'm not really sure why they did that and I think they should have rethought their strategy, however there is one scene that is very similar to the board game and it was a very clever scene that I really enjoyed but it was not Battleship. The characters activate the ocean buoys which creates a grid for them because they are blind in the night, the alien ships move the buoys which is traced back to Alex indicating their location so for a moment it does become a game of battleship I just wish it lasted longer.
The film had a few issues so instead of a mass paragraph I think I'll just list them so I can get onto the good bits.
1) Rihanna
2) Liam Neeson didn't kill anyone nor did he have a big role
3) No one says "you sunk my battleship"
4) Too much like transformers including the Ships structure and noises (they reuse Scorponok's sound from the 1st transformers)
5) The Aliens didn't look great although their armour was pretty bad ass
6) Aliens are allergic to sunlight

I guess thats it really, this is all I could pick up but there are probably a few plot holes and scientific inaccuracies but when it comes down to aliens science goes out the window. With the aliens although the inspection scene was key to the story I wish they kept their cool suits on, I just wasn't a fan on their look. I felt Liam Neeson didn't have a big role and I wanted to see him kick ass with the battleship he controlled. Enough said about Rihanna. Now onto the positives.

Ok, so this is not an Oscar winning film or one that should be critically analysed so if you do take watching films very seriously then this isn't for you because Battleship is a fun film and it is a very good fun film because of a few aspects that range from humour to the CGI used.
There is quite a bit a humour in it and that comes down to the characters, you have Taylor Kitsch who robs a shop for a chicken Burrito, you have the wacky scientist who thinks a paraplegic is a cyborg because of his legs and then you have the strange Naval seaman Jimmy who has a pet lizard called Penelope the Third, the humour is ridiculous but it works so well in this film I laughed and so did the audience in the cinema that means they did something right.
The special effects which were executed by Industrial light and magic created a masterpiece, water manipulation was done brilliantly, here you can view a video of how they created the water effect

Like I said the effects were amazing especially for the ship destruction and the aliens themselves however I just felt it was a lot like transformers but the alien ships were awesome no matter what and their movements were created very well and so were their weaponry, a little bit of trivia for you! the alien missiles represent the pins on the board game; pretty cool right!
The CGI was definitely the highlight of the film but overall I would give it a reasonable 6.5/10. It wasn't amazing but it wasn't terrible either, its an enjoyable film that was better to watch on the big screen due to the mass action and effects but if your looking at the film from a critical view then it had its issues which brought it down. I really enjoyed it and had no hesitation to pay £7 to watch it but whilst watching I did notice the issues and I didn't walk out amazed jumping around wanting to watch it again or pissed off. If anything you'll probably be really annoyed that no one said "you sunk my battleship" we needed Liam Neeson to say it.

There you have it!
I hope you enjoyed reading
Until next time