Battleship: Spoilers, Discuss, Yadda, Yadda, Yadda

[DarthTom]

C-, mainly for some nice alien FX....otherwise, it was pretty stupid. What sort of strategic advantage would aliens advanced enough to make it to Earth after a recent message into space have by fighting in the water instead of the air or space? Why are they firing missles with scarely more power than Earth missles? Why did the lead protagonist of the movie spend 10 minutes looking for a chicken burrito?

Meh. I didn't see the film so I cannot comment on whether it's good or bad or not but generally I think this is an unfair criticism.

Star Trek fans typically are very forgiving of Trek for it's outright often absurd magical engineering solutions to problems that are only instantly forgotten 3 episodes later where the same problem could have been solved with the one they just used.

I'm willing to suspend my disbelief for Trek and for other sci-fi films that fail at the poorly thought out engineering generally to resolve plot problems.

 

[Cutter John]

Meh. I didn't see the film so I cannot comment on whether it's good or bad or not but generally I think this is an unfair criticism.

Star Trek fans typically are very forgiving of Trek for it's outright often absurd magical engineering solutions to problems that are only instantly forgotten 3 episodes later where the same problem could have been solved with the one they just used.

I'm willing to suspend my disbelief for Trek and for other sci-fi films that fail at the poorly thought out engineering generally to resolve plot problems.

I think the difference is, we're willing to put up with scientific BS in Trek because the stories are interesting and we like the characters.

 

[DarthTom]

I think the difference is, we're willing to put up with scientific BS in Trek because the stories are interesting and we like the characters.

[cough]ST Voyager - Thresholod[cough] [cough]ST Voyager - Any episode on the holodeck at Fairhaven[cough]

[cough] TOS Spocks Brain [cough]

[cough] TNG - Code of Honor - Skin of Evil - Shades of Gray [cough]



In any case, I got your point that we generally like the characters whereas in Battleship apparently people did not.

I was just saying that Trek is notorious for using plot devices that are all but forgotten in subsequent episodes to solve problems and to criticize it for doing so leaves Trek IMO ripe for the same observations.

 

[od0_ital]

Read on IMDB.com that there's a bonus postcredit scene. This has been confirmed by a friend who saw it before I did the other night.

Now I gotta go see it again to find out what I missed the first time...and I'm catchin' hell from her for not waitin' for it the first time.

I wouldn't bother unless you really want to see the movie again anyway. It didn't add much and it's easy enough to find on YouTube, so it's not really worth waiting through the credits or paying admission (if you have to) solely for that scene. There's no special effects wizardry that needs to be seen on the big screen or anything.

Well, I don't have to pay to see it, since I work for a movie theater chain here in Austin. And I have friends who do want to see it, so I can get 'em in for free, too.

 

[DarthTom]

on topic: Reuters is characterizing this as 'Battleship disaster' in terms of the box office:

Reuters

Reuters) - "Battleship," Universal Picture's big budget science fiction film, is likely to dent the studio's profits after it opened with lower than forecast ticket sales, according to analysts.
The film, which Comcast unit Universal has said cost $209 million to produce, generated $23.4 million in ticket sales at theaters in the U.S. and Canada during its opening weekend, according to figures compiled by Hollywood.com.

 

[Joerib]

I liked it!!

 

[Cutter John]

on topic: Reuters is characterizing this as 'Battleship disaster' in terms of the box office:

Reuters

Reuters) - "Battleship," Universal Picture's big budget science fiction film, is likely to dent the studio's profits after it opened with lower than forecast ticket sales, according to analysts.
The film, which Comcast unit Universal has said cost $209 million to produce, generated $23.4 million in ticket sales at theaters in the U.S. and Canada during its opening weekend, according to figures compiled by Hollywood.com.

There may be hope for our society yet.

 

[DarthTom]

There may be hope for our society yet.

Yea - but for sci-fi fans this may not bold well for the future of the genre generally. I'm sure Comcast executives are holding Universal's feet to the fire over what went wrong. Moreover, I'm sure they're scratching their heads as to what 'formula,' works for the genre with the general public - because apparently this ain't it.

 

[Harvey]

The failure of Battleship isn't going to put a dent in the great deluge of (mostly insipid) science fiction blockbusters. It's certainly not going to have an effect on any of the interesting, modestly budget science fiction films that are being produced.

And let's not forget that Hollywood studios make most of their money in television sales, where Battleship (which, by the way, has already grossed $215 million overseas) will almost certainly break even and, eventually, turn a tidy profit for Universal.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^^ It might put a dent in the ones with Taylor Kitsch in them.

 

[Cutter John]

There may be hope for our society yet.

Yea - but for sci-fi fans this may not bold well for the future of the genre generally. I'm sure Comcast executives are holding Universal's feet to the fire over what went wrong. Moreover, I'm sure they're scratching their heads as to what 'formula,' works for the genre with the general public - because apparently this ain't it.

I think a lot more will depend on how well Prometheus does.

However, should it give some studio second thoughts about greenlighting the next stupid Baysplosion movie, or Hungry, Hungry Hippos: The Motion Picture, we'll all be richer for it.

 

[Harvey]

^^ It might put a dent in the ones with Taylor Kitsch in them.

No doubt his career will have a bit of a set back. Then again, his work on television has received more praise than his work in blockbusters, so if he goes back to that perhaps it won't be so bad...

 

[Aeolusdallas]

C-, mainly for some nice alien FX....otherwise, it was pretty stupid. What sort of strategic advantage would aliens advanced enough to make it to Earth after a recent message into space have by fighting in the water instead of the air or space? Why are they firing missles with scarely more power than Earth missles? Why did the lead protagonist of the movie spend 10 minutes looking for a chicken burrito?

Because he wanted the girl and told her he would get her one. That scene was so funny I thought I would hurt myself. The whole movie was silly but fun like that.

Also I agree with the poster who said the humans were the bad guys. They clearly started the fight. At every turn the aliens used restraint and only went all out when they tried to phone home.

 

[Aeolusdallas]

^^ Yeah, I've gotten in the habit of staying through the credits everytime I go to the movies, just in case.

I read a post on another board arguing that the aliens' apparently stupid actions make perfect sense if you assume that:

a) The "attack" was really a crash-landing caused by accidentally clipping a satellite on the way down.

b) The aliens spend most of the film acting in self-defence and are actively working to minimise casualties.

c) The real bad guy is the human protagonist, who continually escalates the situation with his deranged over-reactions, and who only comes out looking like a hero because his actions manage to get his commanding officer killed, leaving no witnesses to the fact that he exceeded his orders and opened fire without authorisation.

Haven't seen the movie, but its an interesting alternate take.

The protagonist didn't start the fight. His commanding officer did when he had his ship fire the warning shot. But other than that your points are pretty accurate.

 

[hyzmarca]

"Weapons Tight" means "Do not fire unless attacked," not "Do not fire without permission." All the protagonist did was walk up to the mothership and touch it, and got electrocuted and flung into the ocean for his trouble. That qualifies as an attack, which meant that he had all the authorization he needed to shoot back, and his shipmates had every right to open fire in his defense. No human did anything outside of his authority concerning his or her response to the aliens' actions.

No, that doesn't qualify as an attack unless it also qualifies as an attack when you pee on an electrified fence. He was stupid enough to play around on a piece of high-tech equipment that he did not understand. That he got electrocuted for his trouble is not at all surprising. In the real military he would be chewed out for his stupidity in touching something when he had no idea what it did or how it worked.

Considering the fact that the battleship is supposedly serves aboard is full of things which aren't weapons but will nevertheless kill you if you get to close to them, he should have known better. He certainly wouldn't walk up to his ship's phased array radar and touch it.

 

[Star Wolf]

"Weapons Tight" means "Do not fire unless attacked," not "Do not fire without permission." All the protagonist did was walk up to the mothership and touch it, and got electrocuted and flung into the ocean for his trouble. That qualifies as an attack, which meant that he had all the authorization he needed to shoot back, and his shipmates had every right to open fire in his defense. No human did anything outside of his authority concerning his or her response to the aliens' actions.

No, that doesn't qualify as an attack unless it also qualifies as an attack when you pee on an electrified fence. He was stupid enough to play around on a piece of high-tech equipment that he did not understand.

.

Ever watch westerns, putting up a fence on open range was an act of war.

 

[Admiral2]

Also I agree with the poster who said the humans were the bad guys. They clearly started the fight. At every turn the aliens used restraint and only went all out when they tried to phone home.

People latching on to this myth keep forgetting the giant bladed bocce balls of doom, and lobbing giant bladed bocce balls of doom willy-nilly into civilian populations is not a sign of "restraint" on anyone's part, no matter what provocation they claim drove them to it.

No, that doesn't qualify as an attack unless it also qualifies as an attack when you pee on an electrified fence. He was stupid enough to play around on a piece of high-tech equipment that he did not understand. That he got electrocuted for his trouble is not at all surprising. In the real military he would be chewed out for his stupidity in touching something when he had no idea what it did or how it worked.

Finding out what it did and how it worked was what the team in the rigid-hulled inflatable boat was sent to do, and given that a RHIB is not a ship, and therefore doesn't mount fifteen different kinds of radar, the only things the boat crew would be able to use to investigate the object would be their own senses, including touch.

So no, hyzmarca, in the real military he would not be chewed out for doing his f***ing JOB and tripping a security feature in the process. Instead, his commanders would try to recover him, get the rest of the team away and make sure no other surprise hurt anybody else, which is exactly what happened in the movie. No human being "provoked" or "started" a damn thing.

Considering the fact that the battleship is supposedly serves aboard is full of things which aren't weapons but will nevertheless kill you if you get to close to them, he should have known better. He certainly wouldn't walk up to his ship's phased array radar and touch it.

First, he served aboard a GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYER. There is a significant difference between that and a BATTLESHIP.

Second, since (a) he obviously knows what a phased array radar is, and (b) it's impossible to actually just walk up to one of the "billboards" and touch it unless the ship is overturned and sinking, your example is BS. There is absolutely no way he could have known what not to touch on an alien object half-sunk into the water.

Third, some of us need to start reading books that don't have the Star Trek logo on them...

 

[hyzmarca]

Also I agree with the poster who said the humans were the bad guys. They clearly started the fight. At every turn the aliens used restraint and only went all out when they tried to phone home.

People latching on to this myth keep forgetting the giant bladed bocce balls of doom, and lobbing giant bladed bocce balls of doom willy-nilly into civilian populations is not a sign of "restraint" on anyone's part, no matter what provocation they claim drove them to it.

Except that they were intelligent and explicitly avoided killing civilians.

No, that doesn't qualify as an attack unless it also qualifies as an attack when you pee on an electrified fence. He was stupid enough to play around on a piece of high-tech equipment that he did not understand. That he got electrocuted for his trouble is not at all surprising. In the real military he would be chewed out for his stupidity in touching something when he had no idea what it did or how it worked.

Finding out what it did and how it worked was what the team in the rigid-hulled inflatable boat was sent to do, and given that a RHIB is not a ship, and therefore doesn't mount fifteen different kinds of radar, the only things the boat crew would be able to use to investigate the object would be their own senses, including touch.

So no, hyzmarca, in the real military he would not be chewed out for doing his f***ing JOB and tripping a security feature in the process. Instead, his commanders would try to recover him, get the rest of the team away and make sure no other surprise hurt anybody else, which is exactly what happened in the movie. No human being "provoked" or "started" a damn thing.

You're assuming that it was a security feature and not simply that the pylon had a current running through it as part of it's basic function. The thing he touched had writing on it. For all we know that Writing said "danger, high voltage".

Sending people over to investigate was a dumb move itself. But really, touching things at random is also dumb.

 

[Sindatur]

^^ It might put a dent in the ones with Taylor Kitsch in them.

Yea, poor thing. Wolverine wasn't even liked by the Genre fans, then John Carter, well received by Genre fans, but, panned by critics and didn't make nothing, and now Battleship a couple months later.

 

[DarthTom]

I think a lot more will depend on how well Prometheus does.

However, should it give some studio second thoughts about greenlighting the next stupid Baysplosion movie, or Hungry, Hungry Hippos: The Motion Picture, we'll all be richer for it.

Aside form Star Trek XI in the past 5 years, a lot of sci-fi really hasn't done that well either on TV or on film.

[and before you say it, I don't consider Avatar nor Transformers to be 'traditional' sci-fi in terms of aliens, space ships etc.]