Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures
Aliens again wreak havoc on America, this time courtesy of the seas in the Hasbro board game inspired feature, BATTLESHIP.
After discovering another planet almost identical to Earth in our solar system, NASA has sent a message to the foreign planet in hopes of contact. The message is received, but instead of a friendly return call, the aliens decide to pay us a visit off shore. They do so during a naval exercise involving several US destroyer ships.
Two of the ships are led by the brother tandem of Lieutenant Alex Hopper and Commander Stone Hopper. Stone is the responsible, stable leader, while Alex is the fiery hot shot.
BATTLESHIP is the Jerry Bruckheimer-lite of action epics. It’s centered around a cataclysmic event, has enough testosterone to fuel 100 armies and wears its patriotism on its sleeve. None of these characteristics is a plus or a minus, but it gives you a sense of what BATTLESHIP is all about.
The action scenes are more comprehensible than your average Bruckheimer flick, but they still fail to capture a sense of danger or the scale of their importance. The future of America, and the world, hang in the balance, but the spectacle of the aliens and their high-tech machinery is more important in the eyes of director Peter Berg and screenwriters Erich and Jon Hoeber.
Some of the gadgets are interesting, including gigantic metal wheels that possess the power of a tank, the speed of a rocket and the lethalness of a dagger. Yet, the gadgets dominate a story where mankind’s existence is in the balance.
The fickleness of the script does lend itself to some self-aware silliness, some of which I appreciated, from Alex’s quest for an elusive chicken burrito to a scientist questioning a clichéd statement from a disabled veteran’s mouth.
In spite of the film's often playful nature, BATTLESHIP amounts to a relatively standard, formulaic blockbuster that lacks the firepower to deliver on its biggest moments. Leave BATTLESHIP at bay.
Grade: C
No comments:
Post a Comment