Battleship

Viewer Rating:Eoghan Bolger has rated Battleship rating: 3 Star

Battleship

Battleship is an action science fiction film about two men who gets more than they bargained for when the sign up for the military and find themselves smack in the middle of an alien invasion. The movie is 130 minutes long and stars Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgard and Taylor Kitsch.

The setup segments in battleship are a mixed affair, in one sense it becomes hard to tolerate the titillation cliché in the lead female and the military friendly dialogue. On the other hand its very much a guilty pleasure, aware of it's own cheesiness and runs with the corniness, theres very much a homage to the 80s action movie here, with silly writing and characterizations but it doesn't always commit to this and not everything feels tongue and cheek and that's where the movie boasts a few unintentional laughs.
Kitsch's character is fun, nicely portrayed, the movie is very well produced and it was a good directing decision to sort out the introductions and quiet scenes at the start rather than jumping around. This means that when the action comes around it keeps going, the goofiness also meshes in a little more consistently as well and battleship becomes a whole lot of fun to watch. It does however peter out in parts later on though but not by much.
This is stunning to watch and exciting when it gets going in terms of special effects and it cops a lot up to nostalgia in certain viewers. The acting and script are action movie standard, generally terrible/cornball but that seems to be the point of this one at least in part.
I only wish that it could have been more faithful however in that regard at times.
Battleship appeals to the child in us all and yanks it out, but even though we can't expect it to be more than it is, its paddling in shallow depths and waters do prevent a five out of five rating. I'm sure it will be one of the better summer movies though.

Verdict: ***

Review published on the 14 April 2012 23:50