Film Review -- Battleship

This new big-budgeted sci-fi film stars Liam Neeson, Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgard, Rihanna, and Brooklyn Decker. In 2005, NASA discovers a distant planet that possesses similar living conditions as Earth. Aware of the possibility of life on the planet, it sends a signal via satellite to the planet, from a communications array in Oahu. Meanwhile, Commander Stone Hopper (Skarsgard) forces his under-achieving brother, Alex (Kitsch) to join him in the Navy, where the latter becomes a lieutenant and falls in love with Samantha Shane (Decker) -- who happens to be the daughter of the Pacific Fleet's commander, Admiral Shane (Neeson). When the most powerful world navies come together for the annual RIMPAC naval exercises, five objects from outer space crash in the Pacific Ocean. NASA soon finds out that their communication efforts with the planet succeeded, but these alien ships aren't as friendly as the humans hoped they'd be. The aliens subsequently trap five American and Japanese vessels in a seemingly impervious force field, including the USS John Paul Jones (where Alex is a lieutenant) and the USS Samson (where Stone is commander). The invaders blow up the Samson, killing everyone on board, including Stone, a Japanese vessel whose commander Captain Nagata (Tadanobu Asano), Alex's rival, is rescued by the JPJ, and eventually only the JPJ remains to battle the aliens and save the earth. Alex Hopper must discover the strength and courage he didn't know he had, as well as cooperate with Captain Nagata, to prevent the human race's extinction at the hands of the invaders. Costars include Rihanna as a weapons specialist on the JPJ, Hamish Linklater as one of the mastermind scientists behind the communications experiment, and Gregory D. Gadson as a bitter veteran and amputee (Gadson is a veteran and amputee in real life). I expected very little of the film going in, knowing that an adaptation having little to do with the classic board game from which it was based was probably going to receive mostly negative reviews. However, I must admit that I was mildly entertained. Sure, the dialogue is choppy and wooden at times, but the special effects are incredible, and the story itself is fascinating. The idea that intelligent life exists somewhere in the universe, the possibility of communicating with it, and the consequences, good or bad, of such communication aren't done justice in this loud and shallow action film. Though definitely not a great film by any means, it is a solid summer blockbuster, much better than any Transformers film I've seen. 


Should you see it: Sure -- just don't set your expectations too high.
Grade: C+