Battleship is a sci-fi action film released in the summer of 2012, directed by Peter Berg and starring Liam Neeson, Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgard, and Rihanna, very loosely based on the board game Battleship. Yes, the one with red and white pegs and a grid and "you sunk my battleship!"Battleship opens with Alex Hopper (Kitsch), a drunk, unemployed loser. He's dragged into the navy by his straightlaced brother, Stone (Skarsgard) in the hopes that it will give him some direction in life. Five years later, Alex is a junior officer, with plans to ask the Admiral for his daughter's hand. Unfortunately, the Admiral (Neeson) dislikes Alex both as an officer and a gentlemen, and he intends to have Alex discharged by the end of the next voyage.Said voyage is a huge, multi-national war game, off of the coast of Hawaii. Before the exercises have a chance to get underway, the fleet is interrupted by a bunch of alien objects crashing into the ocean. The objects reveal themselves to be a squadron of alien war machines. Their intentions aren't clear, but whatever they're planning, the aliens aren't here to play games.
Tropes
The Ace: Stone Hopper, when compared to Alex; not only does he have his shit squared away, his destroyer has won the Battle E numerous times.
All Asians are Alike: Mocked. Raikes's visible annoyance at Odie's mocking imitation of "Ko-Ni-Chi-Wa" (Japanese "Hello") and Nagata's exasperation at Alex's assumption that The Art of War (a Chinese text) is a pan-Asian text are examples of this.
Ascended Meme: A variation of the classic line is uttered towards the end of the film.
Veteran: "They're not gonna sink this battleship!"
Handicapped Badass: Mick, who still manages to kick alien ass despite having lost both legs. Pun not intended.
Big Brother Mentor: Commander Stone Hopper, Alex's older brother, who's been trying to rein him in his entire life, eventually dragging him into the Navy.
The geeky and wimpy scientist coming in from out of nowhere with a briefcase-to-the-head for the alien about to kill the downed Mick.
Black Dude Dies First: Zigzagged. Of the 3 black characters 2 survive. The John Paul Jones captain is on the bridge when the aliens fire, killing him and 3 other crew members.
Boom, Headshot: Raikes does this to an alien marine, with the 5-inch gun, at point blank range.
Brilliant, but Lazy: It is repeatedly stated that Alex has a lot of potential but doesn't use it.
Cool Ship: A lot. There's the Arleigh-Burke-class missile destroyers, their Japanese copy counterparts, the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan... but the coolest of them all is the USS Missouri.
And those are just the human ships...
Curse Cut Short: A few times, usually with a naval gun firing.
Determinator: Alex, delivering the burrito. (Also against the aliens. The crew of the John Paul Jones follow suit.)
Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: Alex Hopper is sent with two others on a zodiac to get a closer look at the alien structure when the fleet spots it, and one of his companions cautions him against getting closer when he finds a surface he can walk on. Naturally, he walks over and puts his hand on a wall, apparently initiating a reaction and launching him about 50 feet backwards.
Excuse Plot: The first half hour of the movie mainly comprises of a fine example for this trope.
Fire-Forged Friends: By the end of the movie, Alex and Nagata have set aside their differences.
Gatling Good: Raikes mans a Minigun on one of the rigid inflatable boats sent to investigate the alien craft.
The Phalanx CIWS turrets on the ships count too.
The General's Daughter: Well, admiral's daughter in this case. And she's caught the eye of a Lieutenant. Her father does not approve of him.
Glass Cannon: The Arleigh-Burke and Kongo-class guided missile destroyers pack a punch if they hit, but can't take a beating.
Girls With Guns: Raikes is hardly ever seen without one, and they range from a pistol to 16 inch naval artillery.
Gondor Calls for Aid: What the aliens are trying to do for most of the movie. After their Communications vessel is destroyed after colliding with a Satellite, their entire goal is to secure the Deep Space communications facility in Hawaii to send out a distress signal.
Gunship Rescue: the Super Hornets that land the final blow on the alien mothership.
Idiot Hero: Alex begins the movie as this, but he gets better.
Infant Immortality: The Wheel of Death turns away from the kid playing baseball.
Insufficiently Advanced Alien: They only equip their "marines" with a hand spike, and both their war machines and their ground troops can be beaten by a 1940s warship and a retired ex-boxer Colonel Badass with artificial legs, respectively. Note, however, that said warship was dropping armor-piercing shells weighing 2700 pounds on them.
Justified if these "marines" are considered scouts and communication operators instead. They did deploy an invincible shield. Given the size of the planet what were the odds they'd keep all these within the shield?
It Has Been an Honor: Alex and Nagata, staring at the alien mothership, and choosing to stop the alien transmission at the cost of their own lives.
Kaiju Defense Force: The Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force sends a number of missile destroyers to the RIMPAC 2012 excercises, among them Myoko.
Lightning Bruiser: Missouri is only slightly slower than the Aegis missile destroyers, her 16-inch main guns fire shells weighing 2700 pounds, and she can take a beating that would kill a modern ship.
Macross Missile Massacre: The Aegis Combat System allows the missile destroyers to do this... except that the aliens are jamming their radar, and most of their missiles are anti-aircraft missiles. The aliens themselves enjoy using this method.
Meaningful Name: The John Paul Jones is named after one of the US Navy's determinator pioneers.
Monumental Damage: An alien craft crash severs the top off the Bank of China building in Hong Kong.
More Dakka: Both sides of the conflict apply this tactic.
The Movie: Of the board game. Universal got the rights along with those to several other board games from Hasbro, then sat on them. Hasbro was starting to ask them to pay a penalty for doing nothing with the film rights when Peter Berg came along and offered to direct.
Noble Demon: One scene in which the aliens do allow the characters to rescue the survivors of the ships they sunk early in the film.
Noodle Incident: It is never directly shown how or why Alex is considered a screwup by his fellow sailors, outside of being lackadaisical.
Not of This Earth: Alien debris is composed of unknown elements (and Lawrencium).
Novelization: A novelization of the film was released in April. It actually included passages from the aliens' view point and reveals their actual motives.
Officers Who Actually Do Something: Lt. Alex Hopper doesn't do delegating. Being a junior officer, he's sent to scout the alien spaceship; later, when the aliens board John Paul Jones, he's leading the team searching for them, even though he's by then the acting Captain.
Likewise, it is Captain Nagata who is required to "play Battleships", rather than one of his own weapons officers, though it's likely most of his CIC crew are dead, given the placement of the hit on Myoko.
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Skarsgard has a few moments like this, particularly in the opening scene.
The Stinger: Post-credits is a scene in what looks like Scotland of a group of people trying to open a pod which fell from the sky, only to pull back when an alien hand from the inside starts to pull it open.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Alex and Nagata dislike each other immensely, and Nagata blames him for the loss of his ship and his men. Their cooperation is quite reluctant, but they both get better.
Telepathy: The touch of an alien's hand causes a vision of what's on its mind.
The War Room: The Combat Information Centre on John Paul Jones, where much of the fighting and planning takes place from.
Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: The aliens go out of their way to avoid killing anyone who isn't an immediate threat, even if they were hostile just a moment ago. Their plan would have succeeded if they bothered to destroy the John Paul Jones in addition to the Myoko and the Sampson
A similar event occurs when the scientist is confronted by the alien leader inside their base but is let go without harm.
The aliens don't even appear to carry small arms in the first place.
Villainous Valor: The aliens definitely have several examples of this. Despite their advanced technology, they are obviously Out-manned and Out-gunned by the rest of humanity (the Barrier they put up is for their own protection rather then to keep the heroes isolated) and they spend most of the movie trying to send out a distress signal. Then there's the Rescue mission they pull when the humans capture one of them and it's not difficult to see the desperation in the crew of the Main Gunship trying to take out the Missouri when the latter has a gun aimed at their ground team.
Worf Had The Flu: In addition to loosing their Communications vessel on landing, the alien Gunships seem to have suffered damage as well as evidenced when one tries to fly, but fails.
X Meets Y: The movie is almost quite literally Transformers versus G.I. Joe, and probably would have been had enough hands had been shaken.
2 reviews 