Battleship Blu-ray Review

The trickiest thing about writing a review for Battleship, the film based on the popular board game, which now pits Tim Riggins of Mars against a fleet of aliens that challenge the Navy to deadly war games…or something, is capturing why I did not really care for the film as much as I did  other, similar films.  It is a loud, $200 million, alien invasion flick, with lots of stuff that goes boom throughout its 2-hour runtime.  It is perfectly suitable for the summertime, yet I did not have that much fun as I would have liked with it.  Having recently seen New York get toppled (The Avengers), Chicago get blasted (Transformers: Dark of the Moon), and Los Angeles become a blown out war zone (Battle: LA), I think I am just a little tired of this.  Battleship does not attempt to do anything new with this kind of film and aside from having a higher appreciation for the military, director Peter Berg does little to make this film really stand ahead of Michael “Boom Boom” Bay’s alien robot adventures.  Battleship is less a terrible film and more a film that seems to be hitting me at a point where its type fatigues me.  With all of that said, the Blu-ray is, of course, pretty fantastic if you need a film to emphasize why Blu-ray is the best format available.

That story thing that this film has involves a lot of setup.  First – In 2005, NASA discovered a planet, which appears to have conditions similar to earth, so a signal is sent out from a communications array in Hawaii.  Around the same time, we meet Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch), who is a rebel, blah blah, breaks rules, blah blah, impresses a girl, Samantha (Brooklyn Decker), and a few years later he is a lieutenant in the Navy.  Alex also shares screentime with his older brother, Stone Hopper (Alexander Skarsgard), a Commander, and Samantha’s father, Admiral Shane (Liam Neeson), the Commander of the United States Pacific Fleet.  Alex is of course smart and full of potential, but needs to learn the value of teamwork and leadership.

Fortunately, Alex will face his ultimate challenge, because during the RIMPAC naval training exercises, the world is finally met with a response from the planet they sent a transmission too.  Five Four ships (one accidentally crashes into Hong Kong) arrive in the Pacific Ocean, near Hawaii.  After splashdown, one of the ships erects an impenetrable force field around the Hawaiian Islands and a portion of the ocean, cutting off all but three naval ships.  What follows is seemingly a big case of miscommunication, as neither the aliens nor the Navy fleet in the area seem to have a desire to destroy each other, but are faced with few options, as both groups find themselves launching all sorts of weapons at each other.  Sticking with the Earth side of things, it will be up to the heroics of a few, which includes the crew of a destroyer, Brooklyn Decker, a double amputee, and a nervous scientist to prevent further alien destruction, cue the rock music.

Battleship is indeed every bit as silly and ridiculous as it looks and does not have much that is new to offer to the realm of the silly and ridiculous blockbusters that generally come out during the summer.  Still, I was initially looking forward to seeing this film, mainly because of how silly and ridiculous it looked, and the fact that I tend to find things to enjoy in movies this blunt in their action exploitation.  That is why I find it so sad that I did not have more fun with it.

There are many good ingredients here.  Beyond the amazingly ridiculous premise, the excuse to see big Navy ships take on alien forces had some promise.  Wanting to see how the actual game was incorporated into the film was another curiosity.  In addition, I have liked Taylor Kitsch enough to want to see him succeed in his transition to a leading man.  Adding Tadanobu Asano (a favorite Japanese actor of mine) to the cast was a nice touch as well.  And of course, Liam Neeson tends to make everything better.  Unfortunately, not many of these things paid off as well as I would have hoped.

I brought up the cast, but not a lot comes out of that.  Kitsch is fine in a very standard role that is only aided by what I find to be his natural charisma.  Neeson does nothing in this film, so no reason to mention him anymore.  The same can almost be said for Skarsgard, who spends his time giving speeches to Kitsch about how he needs to shape up or ship out (easiest joke this week).  Some people may want to make something out of Rihanna’s presence in the film, but she is just as ill-defined as everyone else and is probably the best out of the non-actor’s in this film.  Speaking of non-actors, Gregory D. Gadson, a former field artillery officer and a real-life double above-the-knee amputee may get the chance to stand out in a film like this, which is fine, but receives no help from either the screenplay or his own rookie experience as an actor.  There is the temptation to go into how I understand that a movie like Battleship is not one that really requires a strong delivery when it comes to character development, story, and acting, but I will just let this sentence stand and add one thing:  I know.

Instead, rather than going into why this movie has an excuse to be stupid, I would rather talk about the directorial work of Peter Berg.  I have liked many of Berg’s films and I believe he is a good action director.  With Battleship, it feels like Berg was completely trying to embody the exact model of a Michael Bay film.  If anything, I wished there could have been a somewhat mocking tone attached to that (which could have done wonders for a blockbuster film like this, were it to have a somewhat satirical edge), but it really does just stand as a barrage of loud special effects that look more than decent throughout, despite the lack of any real resonance.  There is certainly a lot of action here, but beyond new shapes and sizes for the aliens facing off against old and new Navy war craft, not much of it felt memorable.

Fittingly, or ironically, or hilariously, the best scenes of this movie are when it actually tries to resemble the board game that it is based on.  One point in the film revolves around the Navy group having to resort to a method that literally involves guessing where the enemy is and firing rockets at points on a grid.  This may sound ridiculous, but there is actually tension and fun to be found here (and in a few other sequences).  Another I could name involves watching the destruction of a ship from the perspective of the people going through it.  Where the film truly rides the line of how big and far off it wants to go overboard (another ship joke…I’m sorry) is in the last act of the film.   This portion brings together everything that is ridiculous about the film along with all that Peter Berg wants to achieve in being able to respect military, while creating a silly action film about a board game.

The main takeaway that I had from Battleship is that it was very loud, something I have made note of several times.  There are certainly plenty of other things going on.  The effects look about as good as $200 million can buy someone.  The action is shot in a way where I could understand all that was going on amidst the chaos (which is a place where many action directors fail frequently), and the aliens fighting seamen portions looks cool and stuff.  Still, I mainly learned that Battleship was an assault on the ears.  So what does that mean?  Basically, I just did not care.  I may have chuckled at some of the attempts at jokes, let alone the over-the-top-ness of some of the film.  Likewise, I may have admired some of the visual panache seen in the film; but overall, the film exists while only being somewhat fun and entirely forgettable.  I can only hope that Monopoly and Candy Land: The Movie turn out to be more entertaining.

Despite my thoughts about the film, nothing can take away the fact that Battleship has a fantastic video presentation on its Blu-ray disc.  Universal pulled out the stops to make the film look amazing throughout.  Fully utilizing its 1080p AVC-encoded transfer, everything about the picture quality on this disc is great.  Given that Battleship takes place on the water and Hawaii, and utilizes heavy amounts of CG, this film is ideal for viewing on Blu-ray and is a pleasure to enjoy, despite my reservations about the film.  Colors pop, black levels are great, textures, contrasts, and basically anything else in regards to what makes for a visual experience is just great to see.

And dammit, I have called this film an assault on the ears, but that doesn’t stop Battleship’s Blu-ray from having a fantastic audio presentation as well.  The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio track is amazing.  Everything is perfectly balanced, which is notable given that we are still able to hear the film’s dialogue amidst the giant alien ships blasting at the giant naval fleet blasting their cannons back.  Everything one needs in an audio track for a big budget action film is present here, making this a film that is essentially reference quality for those who want a Blu-ray disc to show off.  Again, in spite of the film, this Blu-ray soars.

With picture and audio quality this good, it comes as no surprise that the Blu-ray is also packed with extras as well (and all presented in glorious HD).

Features Include:

Blu-ray Exclusives:

Alternate Ending Previsualization – An alternate ending to the film, presented only in animatic form.

The Visual Effects of Battleship – See how the team at ILM pushes the boundaries of visual effects to bring the aliens to life.

All Access with Director Peter Berg – This is similar to Warner Brothers’ Maximum Movie Mode, where a director stops the film now and again to reveal some behind the scenes footage or add on some interesting information regarding select scenes in the film.  I would have preferred a commentary, but this is still enjoyable.

USS Missouri VIP Tour – Come aboard the historic “Mighty Mo” for an exclusive tour with director Peter Berg and actual Navy veterans.

Commander Pete – Watch as director Peter Berg energizes the cast and crew.

Bonus Features:

Preparing for Battle – How did the filmmakers bring a board game to life?

All Hands on Deck:  The Cast – Peter Berg talks with his cast about how great they are…

Engage in Battle – two featurettes:  “Shooting at Sea” and “All Aboard the Fleet”

The Universal Blu-ray boxes always have the tag, “Perfect Hi-Def Picture, Perfect High-Def sound.”  In this case, they are correct.  Battleship is a pretty fantastic Blu-ray that would be so much better if I appreciated the film more.  The film is a ridiculous blockbuster that is unfortunately not as much fun as I was hoping it could be regardless of how silly that may seem.  There are people that certainly tried hard on this film, but I still wasn’t very happy with it.  But that doesn’t stop the Blu-ray from having amazing audio/video presentations and a healthy collection of extras as well.  Overall, I wish the film was more fun, but this is still a great disc.

Aaron is a writer/reviewer for Hi-Def Ninja.com and WhySoBlu.com.  Follow him on Twitter @AaronsPS3.
He also co-hosts a podcast,
Out Now with Aaron and Abe, available via iTunes or at HHWLOD.com.

About the author

Writer/Reviewer, Film Lover, Podcaster, Video Game Player, Comic Book Reader, Disc Gofer, and a Lefty. There are too many films, TV shows, books, etc. for me to list as favorites, but I can assure that the amount film knowledge within my noggin is ridiculous, though I am always open to learning more. You can follow me on Twitter @AaronsPS4, see what else I am up to at TheCodeIsZeek.com, and check out my podcast, Out Now with Aaron and Abe, on iTunes.