Battleship Review

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Sha Shewakar
  • 2.5/5

In 2005, a planet designated "Planet G" is discovered to be a potentially habitable planet with conditions similar to Earth and a communications array is built by NASA in Hawaii a year later, designed to send transmissions to the planet to establish contact with any intelligent life. Meanwhile, Alex Hopper is arrested while attempting to impress Sam Shane, the daughter of Admiral Terrance Shane. His brother, Commander Stone Hopper, forces Alex to join the U.S. Navy in order to improve his life.

In 2012, Alex and Sam are in a relationship; Alex serves as a Tactical Actions Officer as a lieutenant aboard USS John Paul Jones while Stone is the commanding officer of USS Sampson, but Alex is in danger of receiving a disciplinary discharge. During the 2012 RIMPAC exercise, five alien spacecraft arrive. Their communications ship is damaged upon colliding with a satellite and crashes in Hong Kong causing many deaths while the other four plunge into the waters off Hawaii. Sampson, John Paul Jones, and Japanese destroyer JDS Myōkō are ordered by Admiral Shane to investigate, and they discover a floating structure. When Alex touches it, it generates a force field that encloses the Hawaiian Islands, isolating them and the three destroyers from the rest of the world, while jamming all radar and communications in it. Three alien warships surface and in a resultant engagement, the Myōkō is destroyed, the Sampson is lost with all hands including Stone, and the command crew of John Paul Jones are killed, with Alex, the next senior officer, assuming command. The fight is ended when John Paul Jones disengages to recover the survivors from Myōkō including its commanding officer, Captain Yugi Nagata, whom Alex began a rivalry with after he inadvertently kicked Alex in the face during a soccer match earlier. The aliens launch drones designed to cause heavy damage to attack Hawaii.

On Oahu, Sam is accompanying retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and double amputee Mick Canales on a mountain hike. After becoming aware of the aliens' presence, they encounter scientist Cal Zapata who informs them the aliens have taken over the communications array, and Mick determines they are planning to use it to re-establish military communications with their home planet. Aboard John Paul Jones, naval personnel capture a semi-conscious alien, which forms a telepathic link with Alex, showing him their history of destroying worlds. Other aliens arrive and retrieve their comrade, but Alex leads a team to prevent one who stayed behind from sabotaging the ship. He lures the alien into the sights of the destroyer’s 5-inch gun, which obliterates the alien. Examination of the captured alien's helmet reveals the aliens are sensitive to sunlight. Ashore, Sam, Nick and Zapata recover his spectrum analyzer from the aliens and use it to radio John Paul Jones to inform them the aliens intend military telecommunication with their home planet in four hours.

As night falls Captain Nagata suggests a strategy of using the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tsunami warning buoys around Hawaii to track the alien warships without radar. This allows John Paul Jones to destroy two of them. They lure the remaining warship eastwards at dawn, as Alex and Nagata shoot out its bridge windows, blinding its crew and allowing John Paul Jones to destroy it before the drones sink the American ship.

The survivors return to Pearl Harbor and commandeer the previously decommissioned World War II battleship USS Missouri with the aid of the retired veterans preserving her, restoring her to battle readiness. Going to the communications array, they are confronted by the floating structure, revealed to be a giant mothership. Missouri is able to severely damage the mothership and disable the force field, and Admiral Shane immediately summons fighter jets from aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan. Meanwhile, Sam, Mick and Cal attempt to stall the aliens at the communications array. Alex chooses to use the Missouri's last shell to destroy the communications array, rendering the Missouri defenseless from drones launched by the foundering mothership. Just before impact, the drones are destroyed by Royal Australian Air Force Boeing F/A-18 fighter jets which then finish off the mothership, saving Missouri and eliminating the alien threat.

A ceremony is held to honor the military personnel, where Alex is promoted to lieutenant commander and presented with a Silver Star and his brother's posthumous Navy Cross. Admiral Shane promises Alex will soon have a ship of his own while he is also offered a chance to become a Navy SEAL. After the ceremony, Alex asks Sam's father Admiral Shane for her hand in marriage. The admiral refuses, but shortly thereafter invites Alex to lunch to discuss the matter.

In a post-credits scene, three teenagers and a handyman in Scotland discover a crashed alien pod. When they open it, an alien hand reaches out, and they run off in terror.

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