Posts
Dubious of the premise from the announcement that Hasbro's relic of a game would be translated to the big screen, I admire how Berg took a lesson from Bay and Emmerich and decided to morph this idea into an alien invasion set to the backdrop of the Hawaiian islands and a mock Naval training exercise gone awry. Subplots of romance, redemption, heroism and leadership, and survival are tenderly and meticulously placed so as to not upset the natural order of eye popping special effects and explosions.
Taylor Kitsch redeems himself for John Carter (who can blame him, the payday must have been too much to pass up on). He channels his Friday Night Lights role of Tim Riggins, and plays the gruff and delinquent Lieutenant Hopper who is living under the shadow of his successful brother, and trying to win the affection of his love's father, who happens to be the Admiral of the fleet that he's working with. He's impulsive and maverick. It's a typical archetype thrown into a situation where he needs to grow up quickly to save humanity. A convenient storyline, but Berg wastes no time accelerating the back story to get right to the action. During a training exercise, aliens land and create an impenetrable force field that keeps the fleet outside, while they create a beacon on Oahu to call for reinforcements. However, there are a handful of ships that are stuck on the inside. Strategic battles ensue, cliche chains of command and heroic decisions lead to the final battle, which I must say is pretty damn cool.
The film moves quickly, staging the next big fight while moving the story forward, and not wasting time with details like continuity, or even remote realism. Berg delivers exactly what is expected, and I was actually pleased that time wasn't wasted trying to explain the questionable plot points. The explosions are the real star of the film. You know that when a Navy warship arms, and aliens attack, the clash is epic. There is even homage to the classic game with a tense scene of blind hunting using a coordinate grid. Touche, Peter Berg.
Liam Neeson plays the Admiral, and he coasts through his lines, only taking screen time when he has to. Brooklyn Decker is the impossibly gorgeous girlfriend of Kitsch's Hopper, and she plays the role with a bit more grace and a bit less eye-candy than Michael Bay would approve of. Alexander Skarsgard is Kitsch's brother, the responsible and mature voice of reason in his life. The rest of the cast is a mishmash of Navy personnel and unknown actors. The one exception is Rhianna, who is head-scratchingly bad. She must be an attempt to appeal to a different demographic, but to say she can't act is an understatement. She is painful to watch on the screen. To my chagrin, she is establishing quite a film career with upcoming roles in a Seth Rogan comedy and the next Fast and Furious film. The aliens are given a humanoid appearance, which makes this seem like a more reasonable fight. Despite the obvious technological advantages, they seem beatable, unlike so many of the other invasion films of recent memory.
My biggest complaint is that although my math is a bit rusty, four minus three is still one as far as I know. The film ends all too abruptly, and it's like Berg just shut the water off at the end of the shower, not even taking time to wash the soap off. It's nice to not have to sift through the melodramatic carnage, but the resolution jumped straight to the credits. I truly can't wait until Hasbro rolls out GI Joe: Retaliation this summer, and then the much anticipated big screen productions of Risk and Candyland (that's not a typo).
This is a fun movie to watch. Get some popcorn and don't expect too much. Kitsch will be an action star soon. 8/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment