'Battleship' Sinks Itself with First Trailer

When it was announced a few months back that a movie was being made based on the popular game Battleship, I laughed aloud and said to myself, "For real?" The idea just seemed ridiculous and, quite frankly, uninteresting. Now that the trailer has gone up online, my original feelings about the movie have not changed. It looks absolutely terrible.

The first problem with the trailer for the "action-adventure" movie is that it seems completely misdirected. For some reason, whoever put the trailer together felt the need to spend 30 seconds of its 2 minute and 10 second running time making sure we know there is a love story involved. Then we spend another 20 seconds establishing tension between the girl's father and her man. Nothing happens in this trailer for the first minute that would make any fan of action or adventure want to see this film.

When the action does finally pick up, we get some sort of rehashed "Transformers" - looking ship/robot firing on the battleship. Wow. How original is this? To add insult to injury, it appears that the alien ship fires missiles that look like pegs (yes, you read that right) and embed themselves into the side of the battleship.

An official synopsis for "Battleship" has been released to give us more insight into the plot. The movie tells the story of "an international Navy fleet engaged in a very dynamic and intense battle against an alien race known as 'The Regents.' The aliens come to planet Earth on a mission to build a power source in the ocean. Upon their visit, they come in contact with a navy fleet."

Here is something that might make "Battleship" interesting. "The film is also [supposed] to show both sides of the story, from the aliens' perspective, as well as the humans." It would be nice to see a movie that takes us into the minds of the aliens and get an idea of what they are thinking for once. It beats seeing another movie where the story is simply "Humans are good and aliens are bad -- we have to kill them."

The trailer for "Battleship" has proved beyond any doubt that Hollywood believes there are no new ideas to be found anywhere. The addition of aliens as the primary foe for the movie just goes to show how little they knew there was to work with in order to get a movie onscreen based on a game where you guess where someone's ships are.

I do feel like congratulations are in order for Hasbro. The toymaker found someone who would make a $200 million commercial for their game. You definitely cannot beat that kind of promotion.

"Battleship" stars Liam Neeson, Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgard, Brooklyn Decker, and Rihanna. Yes, again you read that correctly -- Rihanna. Peter Berg ("Friday Night Lights," "Hancock," "The Rundown") directed the movie. "Red" and "Whiteout" writing team Erich Hoeber and Jon Hoeber penned the screenplay. The movie comes out through Universal Pictures on May 18, 2012.

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