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We Come in Peace, Shoot to Kill: Battleship’s Truly Alien Alien Invasion…

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Darren

I really liked Peter Berg’s Battleship, and I think a part of that was the way that he tried to subtly bend some of the Michael Bay blockbuster conventions against themselves. So, for example, the hero doesn’t step up to the plate so much as realising he’s not the right person to step up to the plate. The heroes aren’t the bunch of hot pop-stars and would-be male models that make up the leading cast, but people who have actually experienced war and suffered for their patriotism. However, I really like how distinctively alien Battleship’s aliens were.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: battleship, Berg, Brooklyn Decker, Hopper, liam neeson, michael bay, Optimus Prime, peter berg, Stephen Hawkins, transformers, United States | 31 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Battleship

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Darren

Battleship is a big American blockbuster. And, to be fair, it falls pray to a large number of the pitfalls of those sorts of films. There’s more action than thought. There’s lots of CGI filling the scenes. It rigidly adheres to a formula. It’s characters aren’t developed beyond shallow archetypes. However, I can forgive most of these flaws because Peter Berg actually makes this fun. I can very honestly and shamelessly admit that this was the most fun big dumb blockbuster that I’ve seen since Independence Day or perhaps The Rock. And that’s quite a compliment. It’s never anything more than it claims to be, but does well not to take itself too seriously.