A boardgame turned blockbuster

Film review: Battleship

MANILA, Philippines - Battleship was initially a game. Not the kind you play on PSP or the video arcade but a board game. In case you are not old enough to remember, that was the way most games were played a long time ago. One sits down with the opponents at a table where a board is laid out. Then depending on the type of game, you play against each other on that board, using tiles (Scrabble), tokens (Monopoly), or in the case of Battleship, little aircraft carriers, submarines or destroyers.

The point of the game is to come up with the right strategy to win a naval battle. It is really mostly guesswork or I’ve found out, cheating while writing the scores down. There were no computers then and you use pen and paper to record the scores. So whoever does the scoring can make somebody win or lose. It now all seems so dull and boring but there was a time when Battleship, the Hasbro game was considered exciting.

New electronic versions have surfaced these past years like the Naval Strike or the Battleship Fleet Command but for many people 20 years old and above, Battleship is a board game. Given this, it was very hard for me to imagine how something so sedentary could be turned into an exciting summer blockbuster. But they did it. Director Peter Berg and writers Erich Hoeber and Jon Hoeber knew the ingredients to use and just how to stir the stew to get the right taste.

The story stems from man’s desire to find out if life exists in other planets. A signal was sent into space and it received an answer. Not friendly as it turns out when Hong Kong is blasted to bits by the UFO in reply. So the routine exercises being conducted by the Battleship in the Pacific becomes a real war against the invading alien force. It is against this backdrop that the irresponsible Alex becomes a man and which Berg turns into a stylish thriller as exciting as today’s video games.

Berg made sure he had a full-proof formula. Battleship, the movie is a coming of age story. Taylor Kitsch who seems to be getting the big action hero build-up nowadays, he was also in John Carter, is Alex who is deteriorating into a bum and troublemaker. His life turns around when his brother, Stone, forces him to join the Navy to learn discipline. There, Alex not only finds the right girl, he also gets to save the world from invading aliens.

Battleship is an alien-invasion flick. Just like War of the Worlds and Independence Day, it is an action-packed adventure. Gone is the naval battle of old. This time around the fight is against violent aliens that could have come straight out of Transformers. In fact, the design, the colors, the sound, all scream Transformers. That is, save for lots of navy uniforms running around and the Battleship of the title.

Battleship has a powerhouse cast of young, very pop stars. TV leading men Kitsch, from Friday Night Lights and Alexander Skarsgard from True Blood are the close-knit Hopper brothers. Pop music diva Rihanna makes her acting debut as the very serious FBI agent Raikes. Take note, too, of Japanese star Tadanobu Asano who was Hogun in Thor. He does a good turn as Nagata. The acclaimed Liam Neeson as the Admiral provides acting credibility to the package. Then this is the first time I have seen or heard anything about Brooklyn Decker but the girl looks great and acts well.

The real star of the movie though is the special effects. Berg made sure he got the best and he had them everywhere possible. That spaceship changing into a fearsome robot filled with weapons is one for the books. And I thought nobody could outdo those Transformers. With enemies like those, it did look like the earthlings were sure to lose the battle.

But this Battleship can’t lose and it is here that the best, piece of writing in the picture comes to fore. Somebody comes up with the idea of ditching computers and fighting those bad guys the old-fashioned way. Just like the navy once did with the USS Missouri in the wars of long ago. The veteran battleship manned by the old salts is suddenly drafted back into duty to fight against aliens and I heard the Star Spangled Banner in the soundtrack. Sweet. Brilliant. Most heartwarming.

Come to think of it, Battleship ends pretty much like the way the original game was played. It sunk the battleship. Good that it was not ours.