Battleship (2012) Review

Earlier today, I watched and reviewed the Other Guys. I started the review with the words "The Other Guys surprised me". Yes, it did. But, it was nothing like the surprise of Battleship. Going into watching battleship, I almost knew I would hate it. All major movie sites declared it awful, and it just looked like a failure. I expected ridiculous, over-the-top action that could be mistaken for a Michael Bay film.

Starting out the movie wasn't very good either. I am immediately introduced to bad acting, but at least I know there is comedy in this action film. Guardians of the Galaxy is one of my favorite movies of all time. It has some the finest action in any movie ever, but it really wouldn't be the same without all the comedy between the characters. My point is, there is no great action film without comedy. After 30 minutes into the film, I haven't seen any action or sci-fi, which is clearly a huge part of the film. I have only been impressed by one actor and one character. Taylor Kitsch as Alex Hopper. His brother is annoying and unlikeable. Liam Neeson is supposed to be scary, but I certainly wasn't convinced. And the two female leads don't establish themselves as good characters. Fortunately, the movie swung in a positive direction shortly after.

After Stone dies, and all the boring training is done, the plot finally moves forward. We see some aliens, learn about their weaknesses, and fail to beat them in battle. It got better, but I'm not loving yet. Meanwhile, Brooklyn Decker is having her own side story, and it's turning out to be quite good. When Alex establishes himself as Captain, the film is great for the rest of the runtime. I start to like all of the characters. They become more helpful and meaningful to the plot. We start to see some relation to the game Battleship, and the humans start to win. The action gets really exciting and thrilling. And in the side story, it is just as thrilling. The action gets better and better through the rest of the movie, and eventually it's over with a satisfying final battle. It's starting to get lame again, but a line from Liam Neeson concludes the film with a acceptable ending. The credits were pretty good, too.

Now, I am by no means calling Battleship a excellent movie. It had many, many flaws, was a little cheesy, and really wasn't that original. But, battleship was a good movie. It is criminally underrated. And the great action, comedy, and characters made up for the flaws.

Movie Rating: B+

Would you confuse that for Michael Bay?