Battleship ~ There been a lot of bad press and even worse word of mouth on this flick, and let's be honest here, this
is a movie based on a board game. And not a game that lends itself well to a plot, mind you, this is not
Clue we're talking about here. All that said, and bear in mind, this is by no means a brilliant movie (it's no
Doctor Zhivago) but it is pretty good flick for one made based on a board game.
The acting is pretty bad by most here, I would say below soap opera level, no offense meant to soap opera actors, but it doesn't bode well for folks like Liam Neeson and Alexander Skarsgard. The special effects of the completely indecipherable alien ships are the draw here, as it should be for a summer blockbuster. They are kinda like rejects from the
Transformers movies, only not, but they are impressive. Also impressive is how they actually tie aspects of the film to the specifics of the game "Battleship," that, I thought was clever. Spoilers, if there are such a thing here, but it was really sweet that the old guys who fought in World War II and their antique battleship are the guys who save the world, especially nice in lieu of Memorial Day this past weekend.
As far as the rest of the cast goes, Rihanna steals the movie, she is a delight. Taylor Kitsch, who I have loved as both Gambit and John Carter, is almost a cipher here. He's terrible in this role, paper not even cardboard. Liam Neeson… well, if you have seen the preview, you have seen almost all of his scenes. Talk about calling it in, taking the cash and running. I did however also like John Tui and Tadanobu Asano, the latter of which is being called the Johnny Depp of Japan - they were both quite good.
The rest of the movie? It gets not only monotonous and predictable but it actually manages to make those big impressive alien ships get boring after a while. And the jumping from ship to ship to ship when they get sunk got a bit ridiculous after a while. We all knew we would beat the aliens, but it got so I wanted to yell "Get on with it already!" more than a few times.
All in all, it was an enjoyable two hours of mindless popcorn movie fluff. It wasn't bad enough to want my money back, but as I said, this wasn't a great film either. I don't think it deserves the bad word of mouth it has been getting either. Come on folks, it's not like this was
Moulin Rouge! or
The Dark Knight.
The plot has criminals taking on the identities of their idols - the Penguin, and the Joker, among others - to rob banks. To counteract this, two men, I am unsure if they are brothers or father and son, dress up like Batman and Robin, and have their car souped up to look like the Batmobile. Hilarity, romance, as well as song and dance numbers ensue, as one would expect.
For an unauthorized film using DC Comics characters, some of it looks good, not great, but some is better than that prime time NBC "Challenge of the Superheroes." The costumes are plays on the 1966 TV series rather than the Tim Burton films of the time. Comedian Rene Requiestas as the Joker reminds me of Prince's alter-ego Gemini, and not in a good way.
