Review of Battleship (2012) by Oxcart — 06 Apr 2013

This is a film that really surprised me. Given what I'd heard said about it, I put this movie on one day mainly on a whim, kind of that "okay, let's see how bad this movie really is." Truth be told, Battleship is actually a really decent film for what it seeks to do.

I cannot understand how in a market where the Transformers franchise does well that this film was received so poorly. This is a great special effects-driven, action-based military sci-fi film. It's Independence Day at sea.

The scriptwriting is certainly no worse than the average summer popcorn film today and is in many ways better. Is this a triumph of "filmmaking art?" Of course not. It's a movie based on a board game that centers around calling out random grid references.

There's no plot in the game, so everything had to be created from scratch. And I'll tell you this: they did a good job creating something from nothing. The story is engaging if you let it be, and the characters really do have dimension to them (not much, but some).

Taylor Kitsch did an acceptable job as the film's main character, and you can say what you like, but I thought Rhianna did a good job in her role, even if it essentially is a stereotyped cliche. Special effects were top notch (anybody familiar with how difficult small-scale water rendering is will appreciate what they've done here).

There are a few clever homages to the game, too, which is unexpected. And humor? Plenty enough to keep it from being a downer and enough to make the film just plain fun. I'm giving it an 8, though, so here are the reasons for deductions.

One, this is not a triumph of filmmaking, it's not destined to be a classic. But here's the thing: it NEVER WAS. This film does not pretend to be Battleship Potemkin, it just wants to be Battleship. Two, this film is heavily reliant on special effects and less on character driven plot, sort of the inverse of Independence Day which showed a surprising amount of character development for a special effects movie.

Gripe if you must, but Battleship is and only ever was about a pure action film, and it succeeds in that goal. It's about cheering for your team during the alien invasion and watching debris flying all over the place.

If you want a don't-need-to-think-about-it, pure fun action fest (and who doesn't from time to time?), then go watch Battleship; that was the mission it was built to complete. A well-earned 8 for a pure action film without pretense: it's just about the action and fun.