Battleship Information

Battleship is a 2012 American military science fiction war film loosely inspired by the classic board game. The film was directed by Peter Berg and released by Universal Pictures. The film stars Taylor Kitsch, Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgård, Rihanna, John Tui, Brooklyn Decker, and Tadanobu Asano.

The film was originally planned to be released in 2011, but was rescheduled to April 11, 2012, in the United Kingdom and May 18, 2012, in the United States. The film's world premiere was in Tokyo, Japan, on April 3, 2012.

Plot

NASA discovers an extrasolar planet, called Planet-G by humans, with conditions similar to Earth and transmits a powerful signal from a communications array in Hawaii. Meanwhile slacker Alex Hopper gets arrested while attempting to impress Sam Shane, daughter of U.S. Pacific Fleet commander Admiral Terrance Shane. Stone Hopper, Alex's older brother and a Commander under Shane, is infuriated at Alex's lack of motivation and forces him to join him in the U.S. Navy.

By the present day, Alex is a hothead lieutenant aboard the Arleigh Burke class destroyer , while Stone is the commanding officer of . Alex is in a relationship with Sam and is in danger of being discharged from the Navy. Their ships join the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) in Hawaii.

During the exercises five alien spacecraft arrive in response to the NASA signal. Their communications ship crashes in Hong Kong, causing heavy damage and casualties there, while four others land in the water near Hawaii. Sampson, John Paul Jones, and the JMSDF Kong? class destroyer My?k? investigate, but are trapped when the alien mothership creates a force field, trapping the three warships. The aliens destroy the Sampson and My?k?, and damage John Paul Jones, killing the commanding and executive officers. Alex sees his brother die and takes command, albeit reluctantly and to the disbelief of the crew, as the most senior officer left on the ship. The John Paul Jones recovers survivors from My?k?, including Captain Nagata, with whom Alex is in a rivalry.

Meanwhile the aliens have taken over the communications array on Oahu. Nearby, Sam, a physiotherapist, is accompanying retired U.S. Army veteran and double amputee Mick Canales on a hike to help him adapt to his prosthetic legs. They run into scientist Cal Zapata, who informs them that the aliens are using the array to signal back to their home planet. He retrieves a radio that will allow Sam and Mick to contact the John Paul Jones and relay this information.

Back on the John Paul Jones, the crew faces difficulty because the alien force field has disabled radar functions. Nagata suggests using NOAA's tsunami warning buoys around Hawaii to track the aliens. During a night battle, the aliens and the humans exchange fire. The John Paul Jones sinks two alien ships, but is unable to hit the third. After briefly capturing an alien soldier, the humans learn that the aliens are sensitive to sunlight, and decides to lure the third alien vessel close to shore, where he and Nagata shoot out its bridge windows as the sunrise blinds the aliens. John Paul Jones destroys the last alien escort vessel only to fall prey to their mothership's long range weapons.

Fearing the aliens are contacting a larger invasion fleet, Alex needs to destroy the alien mothership. The survivors of the John Paul Jones and My?k? assume command of , a decommissioned battleship turned into a museum ship, and reactivate it with the aid of the retired veterans preserving her. In the ensuing battle, the Missouri severely damages the alien mothership, destroying its force field in process. Alex uses the last shell to destroy the communications array on the island, leaving the Missouri defenseless. However, with the force field down, jet fighters from the RIMPAC fleet arrive and save the crew by eliminating the alien threat.

A ceremony is held to honor the Navy personnel and Alex, who is promoted to Lieutenant Commander, is presented with a Silver Star and accepts Stone's posthumous Navy Cross and is also given command of a ship of his own. After the ceremony, Alex asks Admiral Shane for his daughter's hand in marriage. The admiral initially refuses but invites Alex to lunch to discuss the matter, referencing how Alex and Sam met.

A post-credits scene in Scotland shows three schoolchildren and a handyman running off in terror as an alien hand reaches out of an object they have just opened.

Cast

• Taylor Kitsch as Lieutenant Alex Hopper, an undisciplined U.S. Navy Weapons Officer assigned to .
• Liam Neeson as Admiral Terrance Shane, Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and father of Samantha Shane.
• Alexander Skarsgård as Commander Stone Hopper, Alex's older brother, Commanding Officer of .
• Rihanna as Gunner's Mate Second Class (GM2) Cora Raikes, crew mate and a weapons specialist aboard the John Paul Jones.
• Brooklyn Decker as Samantha "Sam" Shane, a physical therapist and Alex Hopper's girlfriend.
• Tadanobu Asano as Captain Nagata, JMSDF, Commanding Officer of the .
• Hamish Linklater as Cal Zapata, a scientist working on O'ahu
• Jesse Plemons as Jimmy "Ordy" Ord, undesignated Seaman on the John Paul Jones.
• John Tui as Chief Petty Officer Walter "Beast" Lynch, a crew mate aboard the John Paul Jones.
• Gregory D. Gadson as Lieutenant Colonel Mick Canales, a U.S. Army combat veteran and double amputee.
• Adam Godley as Dr. Nogrady, the scientist leading the Beacon program.
• Peter MacNicol as the U.S. Secretary of Defense.
• Joji Yoshida as Chief Engineer Hiroki

Production

Battleship was to begin filming in Australia's Gold Coast in 2010, but the production company changed location due to a lack of Australian government tax incentives and a high estimated budget of $209 million.

Filming took place in the United States on the Hawaiian islands of Maui and Oahu, as well as in Sherman Oaks, California to do a few apartment scenes and in Playa del Rey, California where they filmed a driving scene along with a shootout. Some scenes were also filmed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The Science & Entertainment Exchange provided science consultation for the film.

A Kong?-class destroyer of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force also appeared in the film.

Casting

Jeremy Renner was originally considered for the role of Hopper, but due to a conflicting schedule, the actor chose to star in a Paul Thomas Anderson drama filming at roughly the same time. In April 2010, it was reported that Taylor Kitsch had been cast as Alex Hopper, Alexander Skarsgård played his brother Stone Hopper, Brooklyn Decker stars as Sam, Hopper's fiancee and Liam Neeson as Admiral Shane, Sam's father and Hopper's superior officer. Barbadian R&B singer Rihanna makes her acting debut in the film, as a sailor. In an interview with GQ, Berg explained how he came up with the idea to cast her. He realized she could act after seeing her 2009 interview about the Chris Brown assault on Good Morning America with Diane Sawyer during which he found her "intelligent and articulate", and her appearance on Saturday Night Live. She accepted the role because she wanted "to do something badass" and also because it wasn't a role too big for her to play. Tadanobu Asano also has a role in the film as the commander of a Japanese Kong?-class destroyer. Double amputee U.S. Army Colonel Gregory Gadson, who had never acted before, plays Lt Col Mick Canales. He was cast after Berg saw a picture of him in the National Geographic Magazine.

The film marks the reunion between former co-stars Kitsch and Jesse Plemons, who previously worked together on Berg's TV series Friday Night Lights. Berg said he loves working with friends and explained he knew how comfortable Kitsch was with Plemons, "I know that he's really good for Taylor and he makes Taylor better. So, I wrote that whole part for Jesse." He added, "I never thought of it as a Friday Night Lights reunion. I thought of it as protection, bringing a trusted family member in."

Actual U.S. Navy sailors were used as extras in various parts of this film. Sailors from assorted commands in Navy Region Hawaii assisted with line handling to take in and out of port for a day of shooting in mid 2010. A few months later, the production team put out a casting call for sailors stationed at various sea commands at Naval Station Mayport, Florida to serve as extras. Sailors were also taken from various ships stationed at Naval Station Mayport, Jacksonville, Florida: , and USS were some of the ships that provided sailors.

Soundtrack

Due to his success with the Transformers franchise, composer Steve Jablonsky was chosen to score the official soundtrack. The soundtrack features original compositions from Jablonsky and features rock guitarist Tom Morello. Director Peter Berg stated: </ref>}}

Release

The film's world premiere took place in Tokyo on April 3, 2012. The event was attended by director Peter Berg, actors Taylor Kitsch, Brooklyn Decker, Alexander Skarsgård and Rihanna. Later on they initiated a Press Tour visiting Madrid, London and Cartagena de Indias to promote the film.

Box office

Battleship had better box office success in overseas markets than in the US where it had a moderate gross. The film earned $65,233,400 in North America and $237,602,860 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $302,836,260.

Outside North America, Battleship opened on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 in many countries more than five weeks before its North America release, earning $7.4 million. Through Friday, the film earned a 3-day total of $25 million. By the end of its opening weekend, it earned $55.2 million from 26 markets, ranking second behind the 3D rerelease of Titanic.

However, on its second weekend, it topped the box office outside North America, with $60 million. In South Korea, it achieved the highest-grossing opening day for a non-sequel and the third-highest overall ($2.8 million). In comparison to other Hasbro films, Battleship opening in the UK (£3.76 million) was behind the first Transformers (£8.72 million), but did better than G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (£1.71 million).

In North America, Battleship grossed $8.8 million on its opening day (Friday, May 18, 2012), with $420,000 originating from midnight showings, and finished the weekend with $25.5 million. It settled in second place for its opening day and opening weekend behind Marvel's The Avengers. Its opening weekend grosses are well below the anticipated $35"$40 million range that Universal and director Peter Berg were hoping for.

Critical reception

The film has received mixed to negative reviews from critics. As of May 19, 2012, Metacritic has given the film an average score of 41 out of 100 based on 39 reviews, while Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a "rotten" score of 34% based on reviews from 204 critics, and reports a rating average of 3 out of 10.

Megan Lehmann of The Hollywood Reporter thought that the "impressive visual effects and [director Peter] Berg's epic set pieces fight against an armada of cinematic clichés and some truly awful dialogue." Empire magazine's Nick de Semlyen felt there was a lack of character development and memorable action shots, and sums up his review of the movie in one word: "Miss."

Many reviews panned the "based on a board game" concept driving the film, although some, such as Jason Di Rosso from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National, claimed the ridiculousness of the setup is "either sheer joy or pure hell " depending on how seriously you take it", while de Semlyen "had to admire [the film's creators] jumping through hoops to engineer a sequence that replicates the board game." Several compared the film to Michael Bay's Transformers film series in terms of quality and cinematic style, with Giles Hardie of The Sydney Morning Herald claiming that the movie "finds the same balance between action-packed imagination and not taking the premise seriously that made Michael Bay's original Transformers such a joyride." Andrew Harrison of Q magazine called the film "crushingly stupid". A review written for the L.A. Times also implied disappointment, with writer and film critic Kenneth Turan criticizing the sci-fi action flick's "humanoid aliens", stating that they are "as ungainly as the movie itself, clunking around in awkward, protective suits." He called the content "all very earnest", but added "it's not a whole lot of fun."

Other critics were less harsh for Battleship: Writing for Time, Steven James Snyder was somewhat positive because he had low expectations of the film. He wrote, "The creative team behind this ocean-bound thriller decided to fill the narrative black hole with a few ingredients all but absent from today's summer tent poles " namely mystery, nostalgia and a healthy dose of humility" and described it as "an unlikely mix of Independence Day, Pearl Harbor, Jurassic Park and The Hunt for Red October". Giving it a B+ grade, Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly said, "For every line of howler dialogue that should have been sunk, there's a nice little scene in which humans have to make a difficult decision. For every stretch of generic sci-fi-via-CGI moviemaking, there's a welcome bit of wit." The Washington Post gave the film a three-star rating out of four commenting it is "an invigorating blast of cinematic adrenaline". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a mildly positive 2½ stars, calling the film "an honest-to-God third act, instead of just settling for nonstop fireballs and explosions, as Bay likes to do. I don't want to spoil it for you. Let's say the Greatest Generation still has the right stuff and leave it at that."

Accolades

List of awards and nominations

Award	Category	Recipients and nominees	Result
Annie Awards	Best Animated Effects in a Live Action Production	Willi Geiger, Rick Hankins, Florent Andorra, Florian Witzel, Aron Bonar	rowspan="8"
Golden Trailer Awards	Best Sound Editing
	Best Summer Blockbuster 2012 TV Spot
Houston Film Critics Society	Worst Film
Golden Raspberry Awards	Worst Picture
	Worst Director	Peter Berg
	Worst Supporting Actor	Liam Neeson
	Worst Supporting Actress	Brooklyn Decker
		Rihanna
	Worst Screenplay	Jon Hoeber and Eric Hoeber	rowspan=2
	Worst Screen Ensemble
Saturn Awards	Best Special Effects	Grady Cofer, Pablo Helman, Jeanie King and Burt Dalton
Teen Choice Awards	Choice Movie Breakout	Rihanna
Visual Effects Society	Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual-Effects Driven Film		rowspan="2"
	Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture

Home media

Battleship was released on DVD and Blu-ray disc on August 20, 2012 in the United Kingdom, and on August 28 in the United States and Canada.

Video game

A video game based on the film, titled Battleship: The Video Game, was released on May 15, 2012 to coincide with the film's international release. The game was published by Activision and developed by Double Helix Games for PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360, and developed by Magic Pockets for Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo DS.

Board game

Likewise, Hasbro has re-released several editions of the classic board game: in addition to the regular fleet-vs.-fleet game, an advance version featuring the alien vessels has been released.

See also

• American Warships, a mockbuster film, featuring one of USS Missouri's sister ships, USS Iowa.