Battleship (2012)

[DoubleD]

Think again.

I just threw up in my mouth.

[d4mi4n]

Think again.

I just threw up in my mouth.

Just wanted to quote you Mason.

[Highland_3]

You could land a plane on Rihanna's forehead. That's all I really have to say with regards to this cinematic masterpiece.

[Mason]

You could land a plane on Rihanna's forehead. That's all I really have to say with regards to this cinematic masterpiece.

This whole "forehead" craze is ridiculous. The media love to have something to talk about.

[d4mi4n]

From Wonder Con:

Berg explained his connection to the Navy, saying, “My dad was a Marine and a huge Navy war historian. They would go on trips to every Navy museum across the country, and his father would interrupt the lecturers about their facts. “Usually, he was right,” Berg laughed. The director’s own love of Navy history led him to a project about The Essex, a whaling ship that provided Herman Melville with the inspiration for Moby Dick. The story also has an interesting, if commercially poisonous, wrinkle. “The boat got sunk and all the crew had to eat each other,” Berg revealed. “That wasn’t popular with the studio.”

He admitted there’s a certain amount of skepticism surrounding Battleship, as the children’s guessing game doesn’t lend itself to obvious interpretation. He countered with the game’s emotional engagement. “What I love [is] the simplicity of the game,” he said. “When I say, ‘Hit’, I’m trying to kill you as brutally as possible, and you’re trying to kill me, and that’s a good start for a movie.”

The director then teased a clip from the film. “We want this movie to be fun, we want it to kick ass,” he said. “It’s meant to be a piece of summer popcorn madness.”

The scene itself revolves around Alex, played by Taylor Kitsch, and his attempts to get a burrito for Decker’s character Samantha. It involves crashing through a convenience-store ceiling, the police, and a severe tasering.

“You see the seeds of determination in that young man,” Berg said.

Morrow asked Decker what her character sees in Alex. “I think every woman can relate to falling for a fixer-upper,” she said. “It’s attractive when you’re in your early 20s.”

Skarsgård, who plays Kitsch’s older brother Stone, described their relationship on screen: “Stone’s philosophy has always been to let Taylor’s character make mistakes.”

Asked about the scale of the action scenes, the actor recalled how Berg created a certain reaction shot that appears in the trailer. “He wanted a shot of me when the glass hits my face,” Skarsgård recalled. “I show up on the day and there’s what looks like a World War II cannon, and Pete said to look straight into the barrel and we’ll shoot you with air and it’ll blow you off your feet.” The shot required little acting, as the cannon did exactly what the director said it would.

Brooklyn Decker in "Battleship"

Decker also experienced Berg’s unusual way of eliciting a reaction. In one scene where he wanted “snot bubbles” from her, the director hid in the bushes with a machine gun. When he called action, he started firing. “I think he got the reaction he wanted,” she said.

Calling the story a “perfect segue into the next clip,” Morrow showed a scene in which Alex come face to face with an alien – one that’s recognizably humanoid with facial hair resembling porcupine quills. The two tussle, and Alex is fed telepathic images of an alien battlefield. After the alien escapes, Alex is left with the feeling that, “We’re going to need a new planet.”

For Berg, the aliens were key to keeping the picture fun. While trying to avoid a real-world enemy, he drew inspiration from a Stephen Hawking documentary. “He talked about Goldilocks planets, [which are] similar to Earth and, in theory, have a climate that could support life,” he said. According to Berg, space agencies are targeting these planets with high-frequency signals. “Hawking said that this a stupid, horrible idea.” This gave the director the notion that the aliens are answering an invitation. Instead of peaceful contact, though, “things just went south.”

Morrow asked Berg about shooting on the ocean. “It’s the stupidest thing you can do,” he answered. “You should never do it.”

The director remembered a call he received from Kevin Costner shortly before filming began. “I feel compelled to come and tell you all the things we did right on Waterworld and all the things we didn’t,” Berg recalled Costner saying. They talked for three hours about the perils of that movie’s ocean filming, which included a seasick cinematographer, and crew member appropriating a dinghy, quitting, and yelling, “I hate the water!” as he sped away.

“He got me prepared mentally, and we had our crew ready,” Berg said. “To be able to go out in to the ocean is something I really love about this movie.”

Seeing this preeety soon, words of wisdom: it's going to be great.

[SilverHeart]

That stupid slow motion, rewind, then regular speed thing was insanely annoying in the first trailer. I hope to god that isn't actually in the movie.

Actually, I hope it is. It will spell instant death for this film.

[d4mi4n]

That stupid slow motion, rewind, then regular speed thing was insanely annoying in the first trailer. I hope to god that isn't actually in the movie.

Actually, I hope it is. It will spell instant death for this film.

It's not in the actual movie.

[Mason]

That stupid slow motion, rewind, then regular speed thing was insanely annoying in the first trailer. I hope to god that isn't actually in the movie.

Actually, I hope it is. It will spell instant death for this film.

It's not in the actual movie.

Wait, you are actually excited for this movie?

[SilverHeart]

Oh hell no. I was just kind of hoping they wouldn't actually do something that dumb.

[Mason]

Oh hell no. I was just kind of hoping they wouldn't actually do something that dumb.

I was talking to m4st4.