Battleship
Metascore
41 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 39 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 39
  3. Negative: 13 out of 39
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  1. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    May 16, 2012
    83
    Battleship is a sound vessel floating in Hollywood's oil-slick sea of "Transformers" sequels and vampire riffs.
  2. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    May 17, 2012
    75
    An invigorating blast of cinematic adrenaline.
  3. Time
    Reviewed by: Steven James Snyder
    May 17, 2012
    70
    Here's an audacious, inventive and character-driven blockbuster with some wit sprinkled in for good measure. It's fun, and filled with a surprising degree of intrigue and suspense.
  4. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Nick Pinkerton
    May 15, 2012
    70
    And when the F-14s came out for a triumphant flyover, I looked around the room to find the moron who was applauding only to realize that it was me.
  5. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    May 16, 2012
    63
    The nicest touch is that Battleship has an honest-to-God third act, instead of just settling for nonstop fireballs and explosions, as Bay likes to do. I don't want to spoil it for you. Let's say the Greatest Generation still has the right stuff and leave it at that.
  6. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    May 20, 2012
    60
    One of the more enjoyably terrible movies of the year.
  7. New Orleans Times-Picayune
    Reviewed by: Mike Scott
    May 18, 2012
    60
    It's no "Das Boot," but Battleship is a boatload of popcorny fun.
  8. Arizona Republic
    Reviewed by: Bill Goodykoontz
    May 16, 2012
    60
    The movie drags on way too long, but there are things to like.
  9. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Megan Lehmann
    Apr 11, 2012
    60
    Those looking for big, loud sci-fi action will find plenty to like here as director Peter Berg (Hancock, Friday Night Lights) pumps up the volume on clashing military hardware and flag-waving heroics.
  10. Movieline
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    May 17, 2012
    55
    Actually, the picture is perhaps not quite as painful as you might be expecting, though probably not as enjoyable, either.
  11. NPR
    Reviewed by: Bob Mondello
    May 22, 2012
    50
    The story, by brothers Erich and Jon Hoeber, who also penned the clever, quippy, aging-assassin movie "Red," is cleverer and quippier than it has any reason to be, even if it makes not the remotest sense.
  12. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Joe Williams
    May 17, 2012
    50
    Proficient director Peter Berg ("Hancock") keeps the noise so deafening we can't think about how preposterous it all is.
  13. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Adam Litovitz
    May 17, 2012
    50
    Battleship has its moments, like the rare occasions when it nods to its origin: There's a nice eureka when we learn that evil alien ships can be outwitted, improbably, by plotting co-ordinates on a grid, à la your granddad's board game.
  14. New York Observer
    Reviewed by: Rex Reed
    May 17, 2012
    50
    Battleship is dopey, preposterous and unintentionally hilarious in all the wrong places, but as directed by Peter Berg, it is also energetic, fast-moving and bracing.
  15. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    May 17, 2012
    50
    This may sound thrilling, but it's not. Battleship plays ordinary and pedestrian because it's always been a job for hire, never anyone's passion.
  16. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Neil Genzlinger
    May 17, 2012
    50
    Has a plot as unambitious as a macaroni dinner, familiar and easy to eat and not particularly nutritious.
  17. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    May 17, 2012
    50
    Like "Transformers," which it rivals in relentlessness, Battleship comes with its own force field, a furious energy that renders criticism irrelevant.
  18. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    May 17, 2012
    50
    Mostly, Battleship is a noisy, overlong and numbing military-vs.-aliens saga with laughably bad dialogue.
  19. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Ben Sachs
    May 17, 2012
    50
    Once the special effects take over, Berg has little room to assert his personality (or tell a story, for that matter), and the movie feels like a chore.
  20. Variety
    Reviewed by: Guy Lodge
    Apr 11, 2012
    50
    Overlong and underwritten even by the standards of summer f/x extravaganzas, this Battleship will nonetheless float with many on the strength of its boyish, eager-to-please razzle-dazzle.
  21. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    May 16, 2012
    42
    Despite some promising early goofiness involving full-contact soccer and the quest for a chicken burrito, Battleship plays it regrettably straight most of the time, as if the fate of the world really might rest on how well the Navy can hurtle projectiles at alien warships. With eyes closed, the movie uncannily resembles a giant baby playing with pots and pans.
  22. Slate
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    May 17, 2012
    40
    This is the kind of summer movie that softens your brain tissue without even providing the endocrine burst of pleasure that would make it all worthwhile.
  23. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    May 17, 2012
    40
    Its shameless and nonsensical combination of ingredients finally won me over, after a fashion, when I realized that its gung-ho Navy-recruitment propaganda and retrograde gender politics shouldn't be taken any more seriously than the ZZ Top, AC/DC and Billy Squier songs on the soundtrack.
  24. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Joshua Rothkopf
    May 15, 2012
    40
    What's the word on the film debut of Rihanna, playing a sass-mouthed petty officer? Dreadful (ella, ella).
  25. Empire
    Reviewed by: Nick de Semlyen
    Apr 11, 2012
    40
    Miss.
  26. Total Film
    Reviewed by: Matt Glasby
    Apr 11, 2012
    40
    Misguided in the extreme. A scene in which Kitsch and co aim blindly for the broadest of targets – and miss by miles – proves painfully apt.
  27. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    May 18, 2012
    38
    It makes "Top Gun" look like the work of Orson Welles. At least the Tom Cruise movie remembered to cast actual actors.
  28. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Tom Russo
    May 17, 2012
    38
    If only there were more genuine rah-rah fun involved, instead of just endless, thudding, seen-it-all-before mayhem.
  29. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    May 17, 2012
    38
    Battleship has the IQ of a rutabaga and doesn't require much more intelligence than that to watch. Despite spending copious amounts of time with back story and so-called character development, it's really all about the explosions.
  30. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    May 18, 2012
    33
    The script is replete with howlers. My favorite, from Kitsch, after the aliens strike: "I've got a bad feeling about this." Indeed.
  31. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: M. E. Russell
    May 17, 2012
    33
    There's almost nothing to Battleship beyond its grindingly dull, digitally rendered naval warfare.
  32. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    May 16, 2012
    30
    This crass and hugely dumb aliens vs. multiple earthling navies should thrill the hyperactive 10-year-old inside you. Adults, on the other hand – and especially genre-fan adults – will be bored to tears and wishing Bay (or at least Jerry Bruckheimer) had something of their own on the marquee out front.
  33. Boxoffice Magazine
    Reviewed by: Pete Hammond
    May 15, 2012
    30
    Its endless parade of explosions, battles and general mayhem makes Michael Bay seem like Ingmar Bergman in comparison with Battleship director Peter Berg.
  34. Tampa Bay Times
    Reviewed by: Steve Persall
    May 17, 2012
    25
    Two flesh-and-blood performers stand out among the machinery. One is pop singer Rhianna, looking lovely as usual despite the military gear and quite comfortable with high-powered artillery. The other is Gregory D. Gadson, an Army veteran who lost his legs to a roadside bomb in Baghdad.
  35. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Amy Biancolli
    May 17, 2012
    25
    It's loud, it's large, it's stupid, and its best gag involves a chicken burrito.
  36. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    May 17, 2012
    25
    Way to go, Battleship: Take the crassest of cynical junk, slather it in jingoism and sell it as rah-rah fun for right-wingers.
  37. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    May 16, 2012
    25
    Battleship is a board game for children, so it stands to reason a film adaptation would also be aimed at kids. But did they have to gear it to really dumb kids?
  38. Slant Magazine
    Reviewed by: Nick Schager
    May 15, 2012
    25
    Shamelessly mimics Michael Bay's larger-than-life dialogue, sweeping cinematography, cornball romance, and military fetishism.
  39. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    May 17, 2012
    0
    The worst humans-fighting-aliens movie I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot of humans-fighting-aliens movies.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
4.6 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 291 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 42 out of 114
  2. Mixed: 32 out of 114
  3. Negative: 40 out of 114
  1. Zaphrozz
    3
    I'm a huge fan of Action-Movies, especially Transformers and stuff. When I see this movies, I accept that there is no great story, no plot or the other things that usually make movies good movies. In other words: I turn my brain of and simply enjoy the pictures.
    But this was impossible during Battleship. The whole movie is THAT stupid, filled with the most stereotype plot they could find. Honestly, Rihanna looks badass but is a unbelievable bad actor. In fact, the only good actor in the whole movie was Liam Neeson and he only appeared about 5 Minutes the entire movie. I saw it with a friend and we facepalmed all the time. Normally, I can consume the stupidity of action movies, but this was too much. And even the action scenes were not cool. Maybe I just don't stick with Ships shooting each other, but for me the action was totally forgetable. It is indescribable how dumb the movie is. And I mean for real. I'll just stop now cause I'm not able to describe this. Just don't watch it ever. Only when you are VERY drunk and when you skip the whole movie except the action scenes which are well made and can be a bit amusing for some people and this is the reason I'm giving this movie a 3.    … Full Review »
  2. rodrique
    2
    Noisy,dumb,and with one of the worst scripts i have already seen,this movie is Transformers 2 with ships.Despite some good visual effects by Industrial light and magic… Full Review »
  3. Bikerjames
    3
    Are the transformer movies too intellectually stimulating for you? If so, I have found a movie for you! Cornball, cheesy, implausible, loud, and more loud. Aliens with amazing technology and superior intelligence somehow can't communicate with their home planet without the help of our old school satellite dishes. Yeah, right. I would like to say that Rihanna was a terrible actress, but I'm not sure anyone could give a great performance with the horrible dialogue she was spouting. At one point, after losing over half the fleet and death is all around him, Taylor Kitsch says "I've got a bad feeling about this". Really? You finally have a bad feeling about it? The great Liam Neeson is rarely featured and is simply picking up a paycheck. Why hire a great actor and not use him? He probably read the script and refused to say the cornball dialogue. The special effects are terrific as you would expect from a modern day film made on a computer. There is only one small part of the film that uses the Battleship Game format and it's eye rollingly bad.… Full Review »
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