MovieChat Forums > Battleship (2012) Discussion > The real reason it was not successful

The real reason it was not successful

posted 9 years ago by udn-496-308812
14 replies | jump to latest

People who review this have it all wrong in my opinion. Even the recent development that the reason it was not popular is because it had no stars in it is wrong. This film is one of the best action films ever made in my opinion. The audio and production and even the general story is very good. The problem was not that it has a rihanna in, even though i thought that was a stupid move because recognisable faces kill the believability of the scene.

The reason why it was unsuccessful relative to the success that it actually deserved is because it favoured cheese over grittiness. The over the top patriotism towards the US and all the lines from the old vets that knew how to work the ship. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed the whole film even the chessy parts.

It had great humour and a very hot lead actress who did well. The problem was that it became unbelievable when the non actors were on the screen, the vets and rihanna.

I would very much like to see a much more gritty sequel to battleship. Outside of those two points it can not be faulted and in my opinion remains one of the best alien invasion films in spite of the points mentioned.

[–] mit800 9 years ago

It wasn't successful because it was awful.

[–] ecky-684-830837 9 years ago

Yup.Total rubbish.

[–] Inspector81 9 years ago

No, this film was unsuccessful because it was marketed all wrong and people thought it was nothing more than a Transformers rip off when in actuality it was as good as the first Tranformers film and better than its sequels. The scenes with the Battleship Missouri and the old vets was the best part of this movie and had nothing to do with it being unsuccessful.

[–] Kruleworld 9 years ago

by Inspector81
people thought it was nothing more than a Transformers

i thought it was better than Transformers, but that's not saying much.

"He's dusted, busted and disgusted, but he's ok"

[–] CGSailor 9 years ago

The scenes with the Battleship Missouri and the old vets was the best part of this movie and had nothing to do with it being unsuccessful.

Utter bullsh!t.
Those were the worst scenes as they were completely UNREALISTIC AND STUPID!
They were so stupid as to be insulting to Naval Veterans such as myself.

I joined the Navy to see the world, only to discover the world is 2/3 water!

[–] Kruleworld 9 years ago

Those were the worst scenes as they were completely UNREALISTIC AND STUPID!

I found myself grinning at this part. probably because of the IDEA of old men and old machines out-doing what young men and brand new ships couldn't...(kind of like what Nu-Battlestar Galactica did)

I wouldn't worry too much about realism and intelligence from a movie with aliens who fly their space ships into the sea...to fight Earth ships on the surface of said ocean.

"He's dusted, busted and disgusted, but he's ok"

[–] CGSailor 9 years ago

I found myself grinning at this part. probably because of the IDEA of old men and old machines out-doing what young men and brand new ships couldn't...

THAT has nothing to do with it.
PHYSICS has EVERYTHING to do with it.
it simply does not and cannot do what you see *beep* being done in the film. Take that ignorant as frak drop the anchor handbrake turn they pulled as an example... All that would happen in real life is they'd snap the anchor chain. Actually not even that as the waters off Hawaii drop off rather fast and I doubt the Anchor could even reach bottom. They're not designed nor meant for anchoring in open ocean.

I wouldn't worry too much about realism and intelligence from a movie with aliens who fly their space ships into the sea...to fight Earth ships on the surface of said ocean.

I have a feeling you are not too worried about intelligence, period.

When it comes to Aliens vs US Military... Sure it isn't realistic as there are no such aliens... that goes without saying.

But in a fictional setting... if you are depicting a mix of "fictional vs real world"..
The real world equipment has to operate as the realworld equipment does.

Take Starscream vs the F-22's in Transformers...

Even though Starscream is disguised as an F-22... it is a fictional futuristic robot. It can fly and maneuver to the limits of however the imagination of the creator wants it to.

But the F-22s it is fighting against are SUPPOSED TO BE real F-22s. They have to behave as real F-22s.

I joined the Navy to see the world, only to discover the world is 2/3 water!

[–] vfx_girl 9 years ago

CGSailor you and I are so totally on the same page!!

I think that you and I should begin to compile a list of science fiction films that do not measure up to our scientific standards. Then, send letters to the directors, producers, writers etc and demand that they blast those movies up a monkey's buthole after they set it on fire! Now, I need to prepare you for the initial resistance to our request, because there will be a lot of it! However, I am confident that once we explain our position we could succeed in removing many of these offensive films that were created simply for entertainment!

Okay, so we know Battleship is on the list. What else?

[–] Blueghost 9 years ago

See my other post on this topic.

Battleships fight other ships by hurling explosive armor piercing rounds at enemy vessels from other Earth bound nations. Fighting a space alien was just a dumb idea in the first place.

[–] Darwinskid 9 years ago

It wasn't that successful because it was released too soon after The Avengers and the marketing didn't exactly have "it" to really draw in a larger crowd. People thought the idea of bringing aliens into the mix of a live-action adaptation of a plotless board game was just too silly, and beyond Liam Neeson nobody in the film had proven to be a big box office draw or popular with the average movie goer.

[–] catdogpyro 9 years ago

It was a flop because it was based on a board game that it barely resembled whatsoever really. Plus, it occured to most people as a rip-off of the Transformers movies what with its familiar sound design and CGI. If you ignore all that, it was a straight-up *beep* movie.

[–] resmat-1 9 years ago

the general story is very good

What is good about the "general story"?

[–] udn-496-308812 9 years ago

The idea that the reason the aliens arrived is because of a message was relatively unique in high production film projects. All of the production was top notch. The lead actress and the actor in my opinion did a good job. The way in which people died and the initial protective dome was an unique idea. They were limited by the battleship idea to start with. So they had to integrate that idea in to the general story. If they had kept the paced of the first 30 mins throughout the rest of the film, they would have done an even better job. Overall it was entertaining in spite of the cheese and poor casting, the production made it worth while. I actually think it deserves a sequel more than a lot of films in the last 10 years. As usual I think it needs to cut cheese and aim for a 15+, which will make the younger audiences want to watch it for decades to come.

[–] CGSailor 9 years ago

It wasn't successful because it was utterly STUPID!

I joined the Navy to see the world, only to discover the world is 2/3 water!