BATTLESHIP (Peter Berg, 2012)

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BATTLESHIP is absolute popcorn flick from the surface right down to the core, never mind logic or story depth. Those familiar with Peter Berg's work knows he likes to keep the pace tight, and the action intense (THE RUNDOWN, THE KINGDOM, HANCOCK). In BATTLESHIP, the characters are thinly-drawn, Taylor Kitsch's Alex Hopper most especially. We never see how he turned from reckless teen to a team leader. But what BATTLESHIP lacks in character development it does make up for spectacle. Pure guilty pleasure level of spectacle.

Somewhere in BATTLESHIP are Michael Bay moments (you know when there's a dramatic scene that injects heroism, leadership, and courage into one serving, to the tune of some dramatic background music), yet BATTLESHIP manages to be way better than the last two TRANSFORMERS films combined. The problem with Michael Bay and his TRANSFORMERS films is that he doesn't know when to stop, and when he does, he does so in an ill fashion that the film just ends in the most abrupt manner known to man.

BATTLESHIP on the other hand, builds one grand action sequence after another, and the circumstances for the protagonist to exhibit heroism does not feel contrived. My only comment there is that, did they never really run out of bullets? The sequence where they peppered the alien ship with lead just before their destroyer is blown to bits looked like a RPG game with the infinite ammo cheat on.

If there's one moral lesson again to be had in BATTLESHIP, it's this: you cannot trust the government in the event of a surprise attack. Ever.

RATING: 3/5


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