AHC: Save "Battleship"

Ming777

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Could there have also been some 40-50 year old veterans from the Gulf War and up to the Mo's decommissioning?
 
I'd get rid of the aliens, and just have film be about two crazy admirals that hate each other, and one day deicde to settle there differences in a very real way...
 
In the vein of "Save John Carter," here's "Save Battleship." I didn't think it was a bad movie, but it barely made back its production costs (and did most of that in the foreign markets), and it might not have broken even at all when marketing and the like is taken into account.

Here're some of my ideas on how to fix it:

*Someone who gets the "join the Navy or go to jail" offer is in all likelihood going to start out at the very bottom of the totem pole. Maybe if it's clearer he has a college degree (one could throw in some social commentary about unemployed or underemployed graduates here), that could explain why he's even a commissioned officer in the first place.

Maybe they could have some montage sequence of him thriving under military discipline and possibly doing something heroic to earn promotions (like saving the captain after a suicide boat bomb a la the Cole)?

*Improve the dialogue, or at least how it's delivered. I nearly laughed at "YOU'RE JOINING ME IN THE NAVY."

*More alien aliens instead of humanoid gecko-eyed bearded things. With that budget, they could have made them all giant spiders or squid-critters like Battle Los Angeles.

*More out of Liam Neeson, since they're already paying for him. Maybe he can get authorization to use nukes to try to crack open the shield engulfing Hawaii and agonize about using nukes or the crew who will get cancer later in life after they run a radioactive gauntlet toward the hole they blow in the shield, assuming they can even breach it.

(However, one of my friends say this would make it a better movie but not a better ACTION movie since it's really introspective.)

*Ditching the "Battleship" moniker and calling it "Invasion: Hawaii" or something like that to avoid the "THEY MADE A MOVIE OUT OF A BOARD GAME." However, they actually have an in-universe explanation for why the combat functions like the board game AND how they bring in an actual battleship for the climactic fight. Plus "Clue" wasn't a bad movie and the "Battleship" tie-in might've gotten it attention it wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

*Change the release date so it's not competing with The Avengers and Dark Shadows.

Just to get my usual crass self-promotion in, many of these suggestions I've already posted on my blog, here and here.

How About instead of having the Main character being a screw up. Have him be the top of his class in the Navy Academy and then once he in the navy, he involved with a accident and the blame unfairly is placed on him. Because Up to now, he always be the best, he does not know how to handle failure. So he has the ability but he be put in supply and his career is over.
This would be a more interesting character then the one they did.
 
I swear I had the idea of the following movie in 2007: Some amphibious aliens attack the world with EMP, disabling all modern ships, so the Navy has to send the USS Constitution against the aliens. But it's no Battleship.
 
was Jumanji ever really a board game though? I thought they invented the 'magical game' for the movie...

It was a book first. I don't know when the actual board game came out, but I did have it growing up.

(However, the fact it was a book first kind of kills my argument.)
 
How About instead of having the Main character being a screw up. Have him be the top of his class in the Navy Academy and then once he in the navy, he involved with a accident and the blame unfairly is placed on him. Because Up to now, he always be the best, he does not know how to handle failure. So he has the ability but he be put in supply and his career is over.
This would be a more interesting character then the one they did.

That actually works, and is probably more realistic than him joining the Navy as an alternative to jail and yet somehow being made third in command of a destroyer.
 
Ditch any mention of aliens. Set it in an alternate WW2 where the Japanese finally get the decisive battle they wanted, and show two hours of the Yamato and Musashi fighting all four of the Iowas.

So, a variant of the Yamato's last mission, except the Iowas gets some action instead of the carriers? Oh yes, please.

Make sure one of the Alaskas got sunk while you're at it. :D

Marc A

P.S. If it must be in the modern era, how about a SOTS-type invasion? It would force the world's militaries to re-commission their old warships... :p
 
So, a variant of the Yamato's last mission, except the Iowas gets some action instead of the carriers? Oh yes, please.

Make sure one of the Alaskas got sunk while you're at it. :D

Marc A

P.S. If it must be in the modern era, how about a SOTS-type invasion? It would force the world's militaries to re-commission their old warships... :p

If it takes place in World War 2, the task force will be under the command of Admiral Neeson. And after one of the American ships get sunk, he will anguishedly scream "You sunk my battleship!".
 
Another possibility is doing something like the Old Seven Carrier books from the 1980's. The Chinese wipe out the US modern electronics and the navy has to relaunch older World War Two ships and planes with out the modern electronics to fight the enemy.
I think that there was a script called Liberty on the Hollywood Black list a few years back that had that plot.
 
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