If ever a movie had “Paid for in full by the U.S. Navy” written all over it—it would be Battleship. Based on the Hasbro toy company’s game of the same name, Battleship is an unabashed, movie-length Navy recruitment vehicle. That being said, Battleship might eventually nudge The Avengers out of the top spot for 2012’s leading summer blockbuster. Between the two, it’s surprisingly more fun.
Whether a shameless military recruitment film is a good thing is always an interesting question. Battleship may be the most blatantly shameless ever.
The NASA “Beacon project” is looking for “Goldilocks” situations in deep space. There are other planets out there orbiting suns. Some are too far from their sun and thus too cold, others are too close and too hot, and the one that’s “just right” must be like our planet Earth. So let’s beam some info to the possible humanoid life forms on those “just right” planets. Oh wait, but what if they then pinpoint our location and send some aliens back our way to do some reconnaissance? Uh-oh.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Hopper (Taylor Kitsch of Friday Night Lights fame) is the loose-cannon rebel younger brother of a Navy officer (Alexander Skarsgard). While celebrating his birthday, he gets tasered by cops after an inebriated attempt to impress the cute chick at the bar. He eventually gets the girl (Brooklyn Decker) but can’t face up to asking her dad (Liam Neeson) for her hand in marriage. Dad happens to be a Navy admiral.
So little brother joins the Navy. We can tell because “Navy” is stenciled everywhere. He leapfrogs to a high command (never mind how) but remains highly annoying to his hopefully future father-in-law. Eventually he comes to command a destroyer. This means it’s time to grow up, destroy some aliens (yep, they found us and their intentions aren’t good), attain manhood, and earn the admiral’s respect.
