A mega-pop star’s feature film debut is set to air on television tonight and fans can catch it on Film4.
The 2012 military sci-fi action film, Battleship, will be broadcast across the nation today and it features a stellar, star-studded cast.
Starring Rihanna in her maiden feature-length outing, alongside Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgård, Taylor Kitsch, Brooklyn Decker, Tadanobu Asano, and Hamish Linklater, the movie is loosely based on the popular board game of the same name.
The Peter Berg directorial — with a script written by brothers Erich and Jon Hoeber — was filmed in Hawaii and on the USS Missouri. The story sees small groups of warships battling it out against an extraterrestrial naval fleet in a bid to thwart their destructive plans.
The movie’s official synopsis reads: “Lt. Alex Hopper is a weapons officer aboard the destroyer USS John Paul Jones, while his older brother, Stone, is the commanding officer of the USS Sampson. Unknown to Alex, Stone or the rest of the U.S. Navy, alien invaders have arrived on Earth with plans to steal Earth’s resources. When a confrontation with the invaders knocks out the Navy’s radar capability, American and Japanese forces must work together to find a way to save the planet.”
The sci-fi action flick will air tonight, November 16, at 9pm on Film 4.
Battleship raked in a worldwide gross of $303 million against a mammoth production budget of $209–220 million, cementing its status as an underperformer at the box office and costing its makers millions.
Whilst boasting an impressive cast, the film earned a dismal 33 per cent in critics’ approval ratings and 54 per cent in audience scores on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.
While one critic, acknowledging the cast’s efforts, said: “The cast and crew of Battleship strive valiantly to win us over, but it’s not nearly unique enough for us to overlook its flaws, or fun enough for us to forget about its lack of creative inspiration.”
Another harsh review stated: “Unnecessarily long, unnecessarily loud, unnecessarily bombastic… just unnecessary. Like the alien attack in the movie, you don’t just watch this movie, you endure, hoping to survive another day.”
However not all reviews were poor, with one critic writing: “Everything that you think may happen will happen. But it’s the little differences in the process that make the movie enjoyable and its true filmmaking achievement.”
Audience reviews fared slightly better, with one fan writing: “I love this movie. I watched it 4 times in a week. I don’t pick apart a movie, I just like to watch something to get away. Cast was good.”
While another viewer stated: “This movie gets way too much hate, I think it is phenomenal for what it is, a game based off of a board game. This movie has some of the best one liners of any movie I have ever seen too.”
Battleship will be broadcast tonight, November 16, at 9pm on Film 4.
