It's a question of first impressions.
I enjoyed it, first of all; it's superior in almost every way to, say, the Transformers. Battleship knows it takes place in a ridiculous reality much like our own, except one dripping with absurdity. A criminal delinquent makes ranking naval officer in a matter of years? Yet the Admiral and everyone else still berates him for being a total screwup? almost everything in the movie is stretched and pushed and magnified. But the movie has irony enough to plant a serious, honest personal story of two very different brothers at the heart of it. Their plot could transplant to a simple character piece set on a stage, because it strives to remain true to itself.
The rest of the movie remains true to itself too : a hyper-exaggerated
spectacle of extreme effect and sensation. I find it strange and upsetting how many people still, to this day, with this much storytelling savvy bred into their genes, still judge a movie by their own pre-existing criteria instead of on its own merits. To call a movie like this flawed because the characters take more of a beating than humanly possible is to miss the point entirely, not to mention be now forced to openly despise James Bond, Indiana Jones, and basically all other action movies by extension.
I'm not saying Battleship isn't flawed, lord almighty no, it's got plenty of problems. The primary one is associating itself with the game Battleship on purpose. For two years before it was released, people primed themselves to hate it, and the movie's only got itself to blame. That hurt the box office dearly... yet I think those that of those who did give it a chance, most were then turned off right at the beginning of act 1.
Battleship starts with that honest (enough) family story I mentioned, the brothers. But it starts with an uncomfortable scene wherein one being is painted as a loser, a grown man with no job, no girl, no home, no life. It's pretty unflinching in drawing this embarrassing portrait of the hero. And it's there my theory rests.
Battleship's demographic, see, its target audience, is boys, many of them right around the age of the hero. Its demographic isn't concentrated on very many young executives, adults, or entrepeneurs of the year. It's looking at the scifi nerds, military buffs, comic book geeks, computer afficiandos... fans of special effects, simple plots, invading aliens, a girl with big jugs, kinetic hyperaction and things blowin up. These fans, when dispersed on the Bell curve, cluster in a concentration where the hero's characteristics, as laid out in the opening minutes, are well represented.
So imagine, you're one of these underachievers. You pay admission to a movie you've mocked for years and already heard might be bad, and are immediately assaulted with a harsh mirror of your meagreness existence... It was too much!
These are the same people who post their public opinions for all their ilk and kind to see, and those denizens of the e-world, presented with a flood of negative word from peers they trust, plus many alternative entertainments vying for their time, will naturally opt out of Battleship in droves. Yet the movie somehow thought it was wise to open with a big spotlight and a wagging finger, tut tut tut, at the very people it's asking for money!
Then again it's just a theory.
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jeffburnett16
12 years ago
Wow whole lotta nothin in that post. I did'nt mind battleship but to say its better than Transformers I don't think you understand what youre looking at when you watch a movie lol.
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fiore2
12 years ago
He is exactly right in what he says.
Transformers is complete garbage.
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