Goddamned Bats: The two-peg patrol boat/destroyer, or the one-peg submarine(s) in versions where they exist, are this. Their small profiles allow a lucky player to turn around the entire game even if they're at a disadvantage. Conversely, managing to sink the things early on makes winning a whole lot easier.
The aliens as a peaceful expedition. They repeatedly avoid harming non-threatening humans and only fire when fired upon, which raises the possibility that they were not invaders or scouting for an attack but peaceful, and twitchy humans botched first contact.
Alex as an arrogant screw-up who got lucky throughout the film. That this fits well with his early film portrayal makes it even easier.
Audience-Alienating Premise: The film basically never had a chance in any territory where Battleship is well-known. Very few people would be interested in a film based on a simplistic children's board game with no plot—it wasn't so much Tainted by the Preview as it was Tainted by the Initial Announcement. The fact that the film's plot is essentially about slavishly recreating the setup of the board game (down to the enemy using peg-shaped missiles) while also being about an alien invasion ended up being a further nail, as it made the whole thing impossible to take seriously.
Why were the Australian F-18s were first on the scene? It's because they don't have carriers and those F-18s couldn't land but can be refueled in the air from American midair refuelers. They were already in the air when the shields went down.
While the club-hauling maneuver shouldn't work, the Iowa class has a different rapid braking maneuver called a "barn door stop" that works very well: The engines are put into full reverse and simultaneously the large twin rudders are both cranked to centerline, virtually eliminating water flow under the ship. Doing so stops a 45,000 ton battleship within its own 700-foot length. Of course, such a rapid stop means every single unsecured object on the ship winds up on the nearest forward bulkhead. Combining club-hauling with a barn door stop at least is in the logical neighborhood of possibly working.
On a meta level, the club-hauling maneuver makes perfect sense. By the rules of physics, it shouldn't be possible for the Missouri to suddenly shift its course and facing in time to avoid the barrage, let alone to counterattack. But breaking the rules of the game to covertly move your own vessel out of danger is a classic way of cheating when playing Battleship, so the film's ploy is replicating another aspect of the board game.
So yeah, the day is saved, but think about it. This is an organized military invading Earth that lost its means of communication. Sooner or later search and rescue parties will be sent, and as soon as they get word out about us...
The aliens' dome appears to completely cut off the Hawaiian islands from the world for many hours. There are 151 commercial flights to Hawaii per day, none of which are capable of landing on an aircraft carrier, and many of which would've been far past the point of return when the only land in 2900 miles was abruptly blocked off. How many innocent vacationers wound up drowning when those planes ran out of fuel?
Fridge Logic: Just how did they get the Missouri fueled, loaded, and generally back into fighting condition in only a few hours?
It was noted that she had enough fuel on board for a short cruise and the shells were probably already on board for museum purposes. The powder and the fact that the shells were still armed, however...
Supposedly, the Navy only allowed the four Iowa-class battleships (Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey, and Wisconsin) to be used as museum ships on the condition that they be kept somewhat combat-ready. As anyone who has visited any of these ships can tell you, the main battery turrets, ammo hoists, magazines, and most of the engineering spaces remain off-limits to visitors. So it could be plausible, unlike most of the movie.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Battleship notably made over $200 million overseas before opening in the U.S. While the film was largely ignored in America, European markets such as the UK helped it make four times more overseas than it did in the US. This might be because the abovementioned Audience-Alienating Premise simply didn't apply as much; outside of Canada and the US, the original "Battleship" board game is either unknown or is known by a different name, so overseas audiences were more easily able to view the movie at face value; In Japan, it has its own sizable following, especially centered around Missouri's club-hauling moment of awesome.
Mis-blamed: Critics of this movie often go on about it being another mindless Michael Bay flick. It was directed and produced by Peter Berg.
Is this the first time that a movie's very existence, even on the most basic conceptual level, been so narmy?
The scene with the veterans stepping up to help prepare and launch the Missouri again, especially when aged veterans in an ancient ship dramatically outperform modern vessels against the aliens. Goes straight into Narm Charm for some.
Never Live It Down: Whenever people discuss Rihanna's acting ability, it's practically a guarantee that this film will be brought up.
Nightmare Fuel: The shots of the interior of the Samson taking on water after being hit by the aliens' weaponry, which includes sailors yelling for help as the compartments they're in start to fill up.
The Problem with Licensed Games: The video game tie-in on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 is a short, cookie cutter First-Person Shooter with nothing special in it apart from the ability to command ships that is clearly tacked-in due to its inconvenience.
If the premise of a World War II-era battleship going up against more advanced aliens to save the Earth sounds familiar, then this film is the closest thing to an American adaptation of Space Battleship Yamato.
Tear Jerker: Stone's death. Made even worse when you remember that the last thing Alex said to him was "I'm sorry I let you down." And the last shot of him is standing on the ship's deck, scanning the seas for Alex.
