Our Battleship Review.
Director: Peter Berg
Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Brooklyn Decker, Rihanna, Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgård
Release Date: UK – Out Now / US – 18th May

Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) is a perennial screw-up who doesn’t know the meaning of the word “responsibility”. His disapproving brother Stone (Alexander Skarsgard) forces him to join the Navy after Alex is arrested impressing a girl Samantha (Brooklyn Decker) who also happens to be the daughter of Stone’s fleet Admiral, Shane (Liam Neeson). Oh and there’s an alien invasion in the middle of all this too. Hands up who sees where this is going?

Battleship is a film that is chock-full of cliches, cheesy moments and chest-bumping action and yet you can’t help but feel some of it is intentional or at least tongue-in-cheek. There were several points where a lot of people laughed out loud or groaned during the preview screening. Puzzlingly, Peter Berg is known for directing a string of decent films in the form of Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom and Welcome To The Jungle so you almost have to wonder what the intentions were behind signing onto this film – perhaps, being responsible for a box-office success would lead to the path of creative freedom for him?

It is easy to be cynical when you know a motion picture is based on a board game of all things but this is a film that was clearly meant for families or young kids who like Michael Bay-type ‘splosions and special effects. In terms of memorable Summer Movies, The Dark Knight this is not. But that doesn’t mean Battleship is a terrible option to choose at the cinema if you’ve already seen The Hunger Games. Especially if you love 80s action movies like Commando (like me) or you’re a 15-year-old kid (like me, mentally) then there’s a good chance you could still enjoy this film. However, if you fear you might sever your retina from the amount of eye-rolling you’ll do watching this film, you should probably stay away.

Oh, and Rihanna provides a competent performance in the film channeling a mix of Moesha and the Pvt. Vasquez character from Aliens. I guess that’s the real reason why you’re reading this review anyway. She gets covered in water. A lot.

Our Rating: B-