Battleship

Michael Bay....if you say that name in America, i can imagine there are different reactions. His pumped up action movies are so patriotic and filled with cheesy lines, it´s hard not to laugh sometimes. But not everything he does is bad, he actually made some descent ones, like the 90´s classic The Rock. Peter Berg, who directed the odd but funny Very Bad Things, seems ready to try and do his own Michael Bay version. Battleship looks like a steroid overdosed Top Gun with less gay hair cuts. Could this be the perfect date movie, or should the U.S. army have shot down this project deep down the sea?

Hawaii in the year 2005, Nasa dicover a new planet, wich is similar to ours. They decide to send a signal into space, to see if they can make contact with another life form.  Meanwhile we meet Alex Hopper ( Taylor Kitsch ), a man who lives to party and meet girls. When a night out goes wrong, and he ends up in trouble with law, his older brother Stone Hopper ( Alexander Skarsgård ), is tired of his brother´s behaviour, not thinking about his future. Stone force his brother to join the United States Army. 7 years later, Alex is now a lieutenant and a Tactical Action Officer aboard the destroyer USS Paul Jones, while his older brother Stone is the commander of USS Sampson. At the communications array from Nasa, they have a signal from outer space. Several spaceships seems to be heading towards earth, landing on different locations. While USS Paul Jones and USS Sampon drift along, they encounter the alien spaceship within their area. Not knowing what they want, or why they have come, they are not prepared of what is about to happen.

Battleship is a stupid movie. Does that mean it´s bad? Actually, no. For a sci fi action movie, we are served with plenty of muscle action and adrenaline effects, that you will not fall asleep. And if you just want entertainment action, Battleship will deliver the perfect balance. The biggest problem is the actors, Rhianna is not very good, Alexander Skarsgård tries to keep his character believable, but doesn´t succeed. We have Liam Neeson here, and he may be one of the few actors who still deliver some kind of credibility. Since director Peter Berg has dome some action before ( The Kingdom ), he knows how to use fast editing with effective ways of making pure action. There is no intelligent script here, there are flaws, but hey, does everything have to be perfect everytime? Just take Battleship for what this is, pure entertainment violence. Just fill a bucket with ice, and throw in some beers, this is definetely a saturday blockbuster for all you guys out there.

Rating: DDD