American Battleship (2012)

.........I like this film! I’m sorry! I can’t believe it myself! Another Asylum film which is actually good! Well, in my opinion anyway. Granted it’s most likely due to the fact that I absolutely hated the original film which this Asylum production is copying, but there are still aspects which I do like.

In this film, the USS Iowa. Manned by Captain Winston (Mario Van Peebles), Lt. Caroline Bradley (Johanna Watts) and Dr. Julia Flynn (Nikki McCauley) is scheduled to become a museum, however on its final outing aliens invade, giving the ship a final mission. Meanwhile on land, General McKraken (Carl Weathers) is trying to persuade the Secretary of Defence (Elijah Chester) from declaring World War Three.

First of all, the aliens attack straight away, so there is an actual reason to fire back at them; these aliens are actually hostile. There is an actual threat, rather than ‘Battleship’ where it’s shoot first ask questions later. Secondly, the ship is on its last mission before being decommissioned, this gives a valid reason as to why its weapons are still online and the ship has live ammunition. They bring in special shells, but I digress.

Thirdly, the characters are actually LIKEABLE! Captain Winston is a dedicated leader who looks out for his crew, Caroline is friendly and helps at every opportunity, and Julia is a loveable person who actually has information which helps fight the aliens. McKraken tries to prevent the Secretary of Defence (SoD) from declaring war on North Korea and China (Most likely bringing in Russia as well), while SoD is just trying to keep control of the situation and look out for his country.

Actually, speaking of the SoD and McKraken, their scenes don’t feel like they intrude on the plot, unlike Samantha’s in ‘Battleship’. There’s an actual point to their scenes, where each one provides updates with what’s happening with the outside world and the ever increasing threat.

 

The effects are Asylum standard rubbish. The alien ships look absolutely awful, as do the aliens and their weaponry. Actually, while I do admit I liked the pellet reference in ‘Battleship’ to the original board game, those pellets didn’t really seem to be effective artillery, as they do tend to miss the target. In this film, the aliens use missiles which actually lock-on to the target, making them more lethal.

The alien ships have a reason to be damaged too. While they have cloaking devices, they’re not equipped with shield generators. I’ll have to give the film a special kudos as well, the make-up is pretty decent, in particular the agent who was blown up by his own side’s artillery; he truly looks like a victim of bombardment.

The acting is pretty good too, they can actually portray emotions and can do them on cue. That being said, like ‘Grimm’s Snow White’, there are some instances of bad acting from supporting cast members.

So, yeah. Pretty decent actors, good storyline, and actual likeable characters. The Asylum version is a far superior film (Sort of) to its proper version. Even much so that Universal is attempting to sue the Asylum for copyright; not that the Asylum is a stranger to being sued for copyright, but this kind of shows how frightened they are of a rip-off. Anyway, if you hated ‘Battleship’, then you will love this version.