To be honest, the idea of a film based on a type of board game just seemed lazy to me. However with BATTLESHIP, at least to me this seemed like just an ‘idea’ and use of the title, because from what we have seen, the game of Battleship was nothing like this! In fact the film feels like a cross between TRANSFORMERS and BATTLE: LOS ANGELES, and it could go either way in terms of quality.
Peter Berg, the director of the film recently conducted an interview with Heat Vision where we naturally spoke about the film, and made mention of the game connection.
When asked about the film being faithful to the game, his response was “Battleship’s a unique experience. It certainly doesn’t have any direct correlation to the game. That being said, it was a lot of fun to try to find way to reference the game. If you look at the ordinance that the enemies use, it looks a bit like pegs. Both of our ships’ radar systems have trouble seeing each other, so they gotta try and predict where the enemy is so that they can go after them.” He also added that he hopes fans of the game will enjoy the references.
He also made mention of the intention with the film, which I found rather interesting. “Battleship was intended to be a film that is truly a fun experience in the movie theater. It doesn’t mean it’s not scary, it doesn’t mean it’s not intense, it doesn’t mean you don’t get sad. I wanted to make a fun film, so shoot me if that’s a crime. I actually wanted to make a film that a 40-year-old lieutenant from the Marines, back from three tours in Iraq can come home and take his wife and kids to and for two hours just have a really good time in the movies.”
Also just released for the film is a new video, showcasing … aliens! You can check that out below!
BATTLESHIP hits screens in the US on May 18th, so we shall see how it ultimately turns out then.