Production companies taking huge risk with ‘Battleship’

Whenever a movie costs more than $200 million to make you better be damn sure it ignites the box office, but ‘Battleship’, based on a Hasbro game could be the biggest flop of all time.

Well, that’s totally unfounded since it hasn’t come out yet, but this kind of movie, although based on a hugely popular board game, may not draw audiences to the cinema. For one thing, when was the last time you played Battleship? What is the cultural significance of ‘Battleship’ in today’s world? After witnessing the Final Fantasy games put into a movie setting, there was just no way that they could ever transition the nuances of video game characters into movies. We have to remember that people playing board games or video games are not necessarily the ones that are going to race to the cinema to see those concepts put into a movie. ‘Battleship’ may prove to be a light hearted, over the top sea battle of aliens vs humanity, but that might just sound too silly for audiences to care.

I fear although Battleship has great production values, a strong cast, and some interesting additions like Rihanna in smaller roles, that might not be enough to get people like me to go to the cinema. Liam Neeson is a fine actor, and I won’t contest it, but there are no other big hitters that have that blockbuster appeal. ‘Taken’ was hugely successful, but that film was also unique and conceived brilliantly. There are many warning signs ahead of ‘Battleship’, so I cautiously welcome it’s success, but anticipate that it won’t be a big draw. I hope I am proved wrong.

Battleship Trailer (2012)