Reviews

I stumbled upon this on Netflix. It had an interesting premise and some good actors so I gave it a whirl. Through most of the movie, I was super into it. Following the two leads around their neighborhood as they dodge the militia and try to uncover more of what's going on was quite entertaining. And then... the ending. Man, I haven't been that unsatisfied at the ending of a movie in a long time. Here are where the real spoilers happen so...

Stupe opens his heart up and tells his backstory and then, on his way to the bathroom at the laundromat is shot and killed by a scared kid, and that's it. Just dead. Then as Lucy and her sister are trying to get the helicopters, she is shot and killed and then the camera pans back to show NY on fire, and then its over. Wait, WTF!? I honestly would have settled for a newscaster voice over saying "The military has begun to turn the tide against the militia, etc." But we get nothing. Just credits.

So disappointing. The end almost completely undoes all of the enjoyment I got from the first 90% of the movie.

There may be some inadvertent spoilers in this review, so beware! I went to see this movie with my girlfriend expecting an action movie with (based on the previews) really good special effects. After the first 5mins of the movie, it became apparent that Battleship was going to mix in some comedy as well. Both my girlfriend and I were both laughing a lot at the beginning of the movie, and it loosened our original perception of the movie. Now, we were just there to have a good time.

For the most part, I was impressed. A good amount of the negative reviews I have read seem to not even be about this movie. I read one that literally stated, "Why did we have to slaughter these aliens that were just trying to get home?" They were obviously not watching the same movie. These aliens were trying to use our satellites to bring more ships to earth to take over the planet! They were piggy-backing on our technology because their communications ship crashed at the beginning. They weren't some well to do aliens who accidentally crashed and were trying to get home! This was an invasion! Another review said there were too many side stories... There were literally two. The main story arc deals with the main character fighting the aliens, and then his girlfriend is helping an army vet who lost his legs and they get into some trouble. That's pretty much it.

The one big problem I had was the super cheesy part towards the end when all of the old veterans working on the Mighty Mo are posing all over the ship and Hopper gives them the mini speech about asking them to do more for their country. Plus, the idea of running a WWII era battleship with about 10 Navy Sailors and 10 60+ year old vets is a little... unbelievable. I'm not 100% on this, but the standard crew for a Missouri type battleship is over 2000. That was just way too corny for my taste, but it didn't take away too much from the over all movie.

All in all, it was a lot of fun. The movie had great special effects, the interplay between the actors was amusing, and at times, just plain funny. The story was okay, there are a few things that were kind of left hanging, but this isn't supposed to be some artsy, independent film. I disagree with the reviewer who says that "It's an action movie" isn't a good excuse. I say it is. If you want moving dialog, Oscar worthy acting, and a swath of top name actors... This probably isn't the movie for you. If you just want to have a good time, have some laughs, see some great special effects and walk away from a movie with a smile on your face, go see this movie.

I watched this movie with my girlfriend and afterwards we both just kind of looked at each other and went... "Well, that was... okay." It's the kind of movie that doesn't require much thinking. It's pretty obvious that Salt isn't going to be the "Bad Guy" and we were able to pick out the fake assassination of the Russian President when it happened.

That being said... Most action movies today are supposed to be kind of unbelievable. I don't have a problem with all the acrobatics, it's a movie after all. And for the people talking about how small Jolie is, Bruce Lee was not a big guy at all. He could punch harder then guys 2x and 3x his size. Training means a lot. And also... it's a movie!

Worst movie I've seen this year? The Last Airbender

Best movie(s) I've seen this year? The Town/Inception

This is right in the middle.