Battleship

I can remember as a younger father playing the Hasbro game with my kids. I also have a vague recollection of playing a version as a kid myself using a pencil and paper but that could be just dead brain cells floating around. Speaking of dead brain cells...with a movie like "Battleship" it is usually a good idea to set the bar low (pick a Michael Bay movie) and just relax. For me, I use the second "Transformers" movie "Revenge of the Fallen" as my standard.

Here we have some early scenes that actually aren't bad and begin to flesh out the characters. The focus is on bad boy, Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) who somehow becomes a U. S. Navy officer at the insistence of his big brother, Stone (Alexander Skarsgard) who already is a Commander. Unless memory again fades, having been in the Navy myself it is unlikely that they would accept a drunken felon into their officer corps (i.e. Alex) but maybe things have changed.

While this is a minor nit not worth picking, there are so many other flawed technical aspects of the film, it can't be taken seriously. The good news is that the movie is wildly, if absurdly, entertaining. It is decently constructed with a beginning, middle and an end. The movie is extremely loud at times, especially when the alien visitors take offense at being threatened and launch their razor sharp ball bearing thingies. I mean, the Earthlings did invite them, right? All is well that ends well, especially when you have the mothballed (yet battle ready!) U.S.S. Missouri easily launched with a skeleton crew (pun intended).