August 7th, 2011 at 9:24 am by
Sheri

There is now a teaser trailer available for Peter Berg’s Battleship. There is also a first look at Rihanna as “Raikes”. (I’m assuming that’s something like Lt. Raikes or Ensign Raikes or Able Seaman Raikes…you get the picture.) This is merely a public service announcement. I cannot in good conscience encourage you to watch. I saw it on the big screen in front of both Captain America: The First Avenger andCowboys & Aliens. The first time, I burst into involuntary laughter. The second, I knew what was coming and averted my eyes.
The plot centers on a fleet of US Navy ships on training maneuvers forced to do battle with an armada of “unknown origins” (read: aliens) in order to discover and thwart their destructive goals. What does this have to do with Hasbro’s eponymous board game? I think I get the logic behind turning a video game into a movie. The good ones are already cinematic in nature, populated with an engaging cast of characters, very often voiced by known actors. I do not, on the other hand understand the concept of trying to film a board game, even a multi-dimensional one like “Battleship!”. Obviously, since they bear no other resemblance save a shared title, you can’t.
Okay if you’ve read this far, I assume you’ve watched. The thing is filled with every action movie cliche imaginable. The hot-headed superstar upstart who rubs his commanding officer the wrong way is of course in love with said officer’s daughter. This meme wasn’t new when it was Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler (Armageddon). The trailer lays out exactly how the movie will go. We will get scenes of the hot shot doing a few things to piss off the girl friend’s Dad, who already doesn’t like him. Then hotshot will eventually save the day and Dad will realize how wrong he was about hot shot and hot shot and girlfriend walk off into the sunset. Since we know this going in, it’s going to be up to the in-between to make the whole thing worth anyone’s while. And of course, the aliens. It would be more interesting if it were vampires.
Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights - film and the series- Hancock, Very Bad Things, The Kingdom) is a talented director, although I’d feel a lot better about this if he were working from his own script. Eric and Jon Hoeber have Red, Whiteout and the upcoming Man on a Ledge to their credit. I’ll say this, Berg has convinced some good actors to take part, including Taylor Kitsch, Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgard, Peter MacNichol and another FNL alum, Jesse Plemons. Oh and Brooklyn Dekker and Rihanna. I guess with a budget of $200 million there was a lot of cash to spread around.
Battleship hits May 18, 2012 in the UK, US & Canada. Keep your ear tuned to news coming out of Russia, Sweden & Hong Kong. They get it in April.