Yes, the movie industry has run out of original ideas for movies, and so they have started to make movies based on board games. I can't wait to see Connect Four in a theater near me. Actually, I bet they could make Twister into some horror film...but I digress.
What's this move about?
When I saw the first trailer for Battleship, I knew this was a movie I wanted to see. It had aliens, action and explosions. These are the types of movies I love! When someone told me that it was actually based on the game, I was surprised and wondered how aliens had anything to do with the game Battleship.
The premise of the movie is that Earth has found a planet far away that has the same properties as our Earth, and so they sent messages to that planet to see if there is any life there. Well, there was, and so they sent some ships to our planet to check it out. In the process of coming to earth, their communication ship was destroyed, and they have no way to communicate with their home planet unless they take over the communication relay Earth used to communicate with them.
The aliens had landed in the Pacific Ocean where an international naval competition was happening. Once they landed, they created a force field around most of Hawaii, themselves, and some of the ships in the naval competition. Admittedly, I was confused as to whether the aliens were hostile or just reacting to the attacks by the ships captured in the force field. There were times when they would not attack or kill a human, but if they saw a threat they would destroy them. So, I just went with the premise that alien = bad guy, and that seemed to work.
Now the humans need to destroy the alien ships and their communications array to prevent more aliens from coming. The problem is that they cannot see with the aliens and attack them with their systems because the aliens have knocked our their radar, etc. Using technology to track Tsunami's they are able to create a grid to watch water displacement to track and then shoot at the aliens. This is where the Battleship game comes into play-although loosely.
What did I like about the movie?
This movie was a traditional action flick. It has good special effects, lots of action and explosions, the good looking woman for the leading actor, and little plot. This made it a fun movie to watch for me.
One of my favorite parts of the movie was toward the end when all of their boats were destroyed except for a decommissioned battleship. Fortunately, earlier that same day there was a ceremony recognizing all the men who once ran the boat. It was great to see these old sailor take over running the decommissioned battleship and tell all the current sailors what to do.
Would I recommend it?
Yes. If you like action flicks I think you will like this movie. Just don't come for the plot.
