I could go on and on about how this represents the pinnacle of what is wrong with the 'tentpole' portion of the film industry at the moment. But truth be told, I'm more depressed that Peter Berg chose THIS as his follow up to Hancock (arguably one of the best original superhero pictures of the modern superhero era) and chose not to fill the cast with quirky character actors (think The Core). But no matter, the finished product basically feels like an original (though contrived) invading aliens vs. the US Navy film that slapped the name 'Battleship' on its marquee purely for brand name recognition. Which, frankly, if you're going to adapt a board game (or a theme park ride for that matter), that's how you do it. I'm less annoyed at the whole 'let's make a movie out of Battleship' concept that I am at how contrived and generic the picture feels. Peter Berg (who showed real action chops with The Kingdom) seems to be mimicking Michael Bay. The alien threat feels like something out of Transformers (the red and yellow peg-shaped missiles are a nice touch), while the core storyline is pure Armageddon. The only question is not whether Liam Neeson will die at the end (after giving Taylor Kitsch approval to wed his daughter, Brooklyn Decker), but whether Neeson's last words will be "You sunk my battleship!" This one comes out May 18th, 2012, which is actually prime summer real estate, in apparently glorious 2D.
Scott Mendelson
I have to be honest. I've actually been pretty excited about this movie, ever since I heard they just randomly threw aliens into it. Normally, that would not grab my interest, but I'm hoping and praying that this makes it the spiritual successor to the recent G.I. Joe film. With that movie, I skipped it in the theater because I thought it just looked like a Transformers cash-in. Later, I was at a rental store and they were playing it on TV and simply hearing the dialogue from the end of the movie won me over and I had to watch it. My girlfriend and I had one of the greatest movie experiences we've ever had because G.I. Joe was just so over-the-top campy and silly-hilarious. "We just shot the missile headed for Moscow!" "Thank God!" And I will never forget when we both screamed "Childhood friend ninjas!" after Snake Eyes' backstory turned out to be so funny. I think that's what the filmmakers were going for. It was supremely fun. I hope Battleship enjoys the same tone.
ReplyDeleteThis movie just looks bad. I can't believe Universal would risk $200 million on this pictures while saying no to Del Toro's At the Mountain of Madness.
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