{"id":8030,"date":"2012-05-23T13:51:57","date_gmt":"2012-05-23T19:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flovalleynews.com\/?p=8030"},"modified":"2020-01-15T22:03:59","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T22:03:59","slug":"battleship-is-a-direct-hit-for-special-effects-with-a-potent-patriotic-pitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=8030","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Battleship&#8221; is a Direct Hit For Special Effects, With a Potent Patriotic Pitch"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><strong>By Maggie Scott<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The latest cinematic sow\u2019s ear Hollywood hoped to make into a silk purse (although its first weekend box office \u201cpurse\u201d was a healthy $22 million), is actor-turned-director, Peter Berg\u2019s screechingly smashaholic sci-fi thriller, <em>Battleship.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Its release is timed to add to Memorial Day festivities and observances. It contains a climactic kicker involving Greatest Generation \u201cOld Salts\u201d proving they still have \u201cthe right stuff\u201d that is guaranteed to moisten eyes that have already spent two hours in excited dilation observing the hit-\u2018em-with-everything-\u2018ya-got barrage of CGI action between the vessels of the United States Navy and the vanguard ships of an alien invasion.<\/p>\n<p>Thinly disguised as a recruiting film, <em>Battleshi<\/em>p features \u201creal deal\u201d naval crews and vessels; and the theatre featured a pre-movie ad for the Navy which intoned how this branch of the armed forces is a \u201cglobal force for good.\u201d\u00a0 In fact, ultimately, all of the other branches will have some presence in Battleship: the Air Force pounds the invaders with its lethal fighter jets; a Marine base suffers a Pearl Harbor-style (the film is set in Hawaii) attack; and the Army is commandingly represented by the on-screen work of real-life Iraq combat vet, Gregory D. Gadson, as Mick Canales. He&#8217;s\u00a0 a double amputee, who will literally go metal prosthetic toe-to-not-in-the-periodic table-metal toe with the aliens.<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s Beacon Project search for intelligent life in the universe turns up a \u201cGoldilocks\u201d planet dubbed Planet G and sets off the threat of an \u201cextinction level event.\u201d\u00a0 At the same time as the naval forces of several nations have converged in the waters off Oahu for the annual RIMPAC \u201cwar games,\u201d vessels from Planet G arrive; one of which takes out some high-rise Hong Kong real estate, while others take up menacing residence in the waters right in front of the U.S. Destroyer John Paul Jones.<\/p>\n<p>This is the battleship upon which is serving our story\u2019s hero&#8212;26-year-old Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch).\u00a0 Alex is on board thanks to his career Navy officer brother, Stone (Alexander Skarsgard), who ordered the ner-do-well Alex to ship out to shape up.\u00a0 But his service so far has been less than stellar, with an attitude adjustment still to be achieved.\u00a0 He\u2019s just been warned by the Admiral father (Liam Neeson) of his lady love, Samantha (Brooklyn Decker), that he could be kicked out of the Navy after RIMPAC.\u00a0 Luckily for the world, the aliens help Alex realize the potential Stone always saw in him.\u00a0 It\u2019s swiftly and tragically determined that this is not the North Koreans fooling with them, when Stone\u2019s Destroyer is obliterated and the death of the officers of the John Paul Jones puts the stunned and grieving Alex in command.<\/p>\n<p>At first, Alex is almost overwhelmed by his \u201cbad feeling like we\u2019re gonna need a new planet kind of feeling.\u201d\u00a0 But, he and his intrepid band of survivors, that include Cora, a feisty communications officer played by R&amp;B diva, Rihanna, and Captain Nagata (Tadanobu Asano), Alex\u2019s soccer game rival from a RIMPAC competing Japanese vessel (the irony of which, remembering World War II history, is hard to shake off), refuse to be sunk\u2014 even when their ship is taken out by the aliens\u2019 vicious buzz saw weapons and ammo that hit the Destroyer.<\/p>\n<p>Helping Alex, et al, \u201cbuy the world another day\u201d are Sam and Mick, who are playing hide and seek with the aliens at the mountain top, where the Beacon Project space signal transmitters are located, with cowering oversight by equipment tech, Cal Zapata (Hamish Linklater).\u00a0 In addition to just staying alive, Alex is responsible for destroying those transmitters\u2014and he\u2019s going to need some big guns, like the kind on the floating \u201cmuseum,\u201d the venerated Battleship \u201cMight Mo\u201d (Missouri).\u00a0 All the veterans who once proudly sailed aboard her, and now serve as tour guides, have to ask is, \u201cWhat do you need, son?\u201d to the grateful Alex, and the survivors are \u201cready to play with the big boys\u201d to \u201cdrop some lead\u201d on the mother of all enemies\u2019 mother ship.<\/p>\n<p>Although roundly trounced by the critics, and too long by at least 30 minutes (should have cut out the sequences where the buzz saws menace the Little League team and take out a freeway), <em>Battleship <\/em>scores a direct hit with its special effects and low-key, but still potent, patriotic pitch.\u00a0 As a nearly-perfect popcorn movie, you could say it\u2019s almost worthy of a twenty-one gun salute.\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 for violence, language.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Maggie Scott The latest cinematic sow\u2019s ear Hollywood hoped to make into a silk purse (although its first weekend box office \u201cpurse\u201d was a healthy $22 million), is actor-turned-director, Peter Berg\u2019s screechingly smashaholic sci-fi thriller, Battleship. Its release is timed to add to Memorial Day festivities and observances. It contains a climactic kicker involving [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment-travel","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&#039;Battleship&quot; is a Direct Hit For Special Effects, With a Potent Patriotic Pitch - flovalleynews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=8030\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&#039;Battleship&quot; is a Direct Hit For Special Effects, With a Potent Patriotic Pitch - flovalleynews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Maggie Scott The latest cinematic sow\u2019s ear Hollywood hoped to make into a silk purse (although its first weekend box office \u201cpurse\u201d was a healthy $22 million), is actor-turned-director, Peter Berg\u2019s screechingly smashaholic sci-fi thriller, Battleship. 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