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May 18, 2012

At the Movies: 'Battleship' loud, dumb but stays afloat

By CHRISTY LEMIRE
AP Movie Critic

“Battleship” is big, dumb fun that knows it's big, dumb fun and enthusiastically embraces its big, dumb, fun nature.

Director Peter Berg has crafted an almost fetishistic homage to Michael Bay — like Bay's “Transformers” series, this is yet another action extravaganza inspired by a Hasbro product — with its epic set pieces, swaggering bravado, panoramic skies and cheesy romance. It doesn't lean all the way into parody, but rather feels more like a faithful and knowing approximation of a very specific, muscular genre: one of those the-world-is-ending-we're-all-gonna-die movies. And because it's a little cheeky and doesn't seem to take itself totally seriously, it's more enjoyable than one might expect from a movie based on a board game created in the 1960s.

Battleship

Director: Peter Berg

Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Brooklyn Decker, Liam Neeson

Rating: PG-13

Running time: 131 minutes


 
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