Battleship (the movie): battling aliens in the sea

The Navy forces of the world gather together annually in order to exchange experiences  and strenghten their collective brotherly bonds. This time, however, everything will be so much more different since an alien force has arrived in the Pacific ocean and there is nothing that can stop it from achieving its purposes ( to invade Earth of course and exterminate all humans in the process ). "Very original" but also very fun. Taylor Kisch (John Carter in John Carter of Mars  and Gambit in X- Men Origins. Wolverine ) plays lieutenant  Hopper , a hotshot that does not fit in  the Navy and is about to be kicked out for his recless behavior. Through an embroidered chain of events Hopper ends up being in command of a ship and leads its crew to face the alien threat, survive it and actually win. How? Well, it turns out that Hopper is a master in military strategy, a talent he discovers as he fights the aliens; and of course, there is a lot of convenient "facts" that help a lot as well. All in all, this is a movie that contains no sex, or foul language. There is lots of violence but not of the gratuitious kind and not gross scenes either. True, it's corny but it´s  also a reminder of what the human spirit can achieve under the gravest circumstances. I enjoyed the battle scenes that very much reminded me of the sea battles described by the Italian Emilio Salgari in his Sandokan novels where Sandokan (some sort of rebellious Malayan hero) triumphed every time against impossible odds. Also I liked seeing the old Missouri battleship (a museum these days) being used as a last time resource and responding like an old soldier that is called to help his country one last time. Rihanna also stars in a secondary role and even the U.S. president Barack Obama makes a cameo appearance. This film takes a lot from Independence Day, so don´t expect any originality, but if you like sci-fi, aliens, action, humor, romance, happy endings and Rihanna, this is the movie for you (only she doesn´t do any singing).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How do you say MIRADOR in English?

Image
"Hmm, why do I have this nagging feeling that someone is watching me watching?" In Spanish, a MIRADOR is any place that allows a privileged view of the surroundings. In English, a MIRADOR is a VIEWPOINT or a LOOKOUT. Another possible translation is VANTAGE POINT, though in a tourist context this term is a bit less common.
Read more

The Maps of Ship-Trap Island

Image
Once I had my high school students read The Most Dangerous Game, a short story by Richard Connell. Rainsford, the main character, is a professional hunter traveling by ship to his next hunting area, accidentally ends up in an island called Ship- Trap island. When he goes into the island he finds there are two men living in a palace in the island. One of them is a Cossack general and the other, his brutish servant.  The Cossack is called general Zaroff who is also  a game hunter but has become bored of hunting regular game and now uses the island's unique position to capture sailors from shipwrecks. He lets them go first and next after some time he hunts them down. Rainford's arrival who is worldwide famous presents Zaroff with a rare opportunity to find excitement in hunting again by hunting another hunter. Little does Zaroff know that Rainsford is The Most Dangerous Game in the World and hunting him will not be easy at all. My students enjoyed themselves at reading
Read more

How do you say EXAMEN SUPLETORIO in English?

Image
Darn! I wonder if there's a Make Up exam for this Make up exam! I remember that long ago I asked my distinguished and knowledgeable colleagues of that time to enlighten me and tell me the right English word for what we know in Ecuador as EXAMEN SUPLETORIO or EXAMEN DE RECUPERACION.  After hearing Recovery exam or Supplemenary test and even Supletory exam, I was not convinced so I decided to go to a higher authority and looked up one of those encyclopedic dictionaries from Oxford or Cambridge university (these were the pre-browser times) and found the right expression is MAKE UP EXAM which is taken when an exam has been missed or when a student needs to change one score with a more favorable one. The British say RECUPERATION EXAM which is perhaps more practical since to some people the term Make Up is confusing. Make-up is the word for the wearing of cosmetics. There are Make-up tests which are oriented to future Make-up artists.
Read more