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Berg doesn't sink this "Ship"

One has to imagine that the pitch meeting for "Battleship" ended with someone saying, "It's so crazy that it just might work." And you know what? It pretty much does.

Based on the beloved board game of the same name, "Battleship" doesn't bother overmuch with the exposition. Simply put: Aliens have landed in the Pacific Ocean. Why are they here? To blow things up. Will the US Navy stand for it? Hell, no! Will humanity prevail? Probably!

In spite of the 131 minute running time, the script, by Erich Hoeber & Jon Hoeber ("Red") uses little time on details, instead rolling out the clichés like they're going out of style. Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch, "Friday Night Lights") has spent most of his life writing checks his butt can't cash, can't live up to the standards of his stalwart older brother, has somehow become a lieutenant in the navy and, is dating the Admiral's daughter (Brooklyn Decker, "Just Go With It") and has so much potential but just never seems to live up to it. The good news is that Mr. Kitsch and his stringy hair are both perfectly suited to play the arrogant pretty-boy tough guy with a heart of gold, mostly because the role requires little or no acting. Ditto for Ms. Decker, whose sole purpose is to be desirable. Not a real stretch for her. Not in the least.

Alexander Scarsgard does his best Tom Skerritt as Hopper's older brother, Commander Stone Hopper, and Rihanna looks great in her uniform. Liam Neeson positively sleepwalks through the thing as Admiral Shane, but his sleepwalking is still pretty fun to watch. Bonus points to anyone in the audience who can find Jerry Ferrara ("Entourage"). According to the credits he's in there somewhere.

"Battleship" also adds the nice touch of using actual combat veterans and does so much more naturally than the recent "Act of Valor". In the supporting role of injured veteran Lt. Colonel Mick Canales, Colonel Gregory Gadson is good enough to make you not realize that his day job is Director of the US Army Wounded Warrior Program, and this is his first foray into Hollywood. Kudos also to the retired crewmen of the USS Missouri, who serve as extras and (mostly) effectively deliver the one-liners they are given.

The plot, such as it is, is full of holes ranging from the mildly improbable (how is Kitsch's character not only in jail, but a naval officer?) to the flatly absurd (an Iowa-class battleship fishtailing through the water), but somehow it doesn't really matter. Director Peter Berg, who has shown his ability to keep an audience on the edge of its seat in "The Kingdom", extends that same frenetic pace throughout the entire second half of "Battleship", giving the audience little time to experience disbelief, let alone suspend it. Unlike the similarly bombastic "Transformers", however, Berg's explosions, sound effects, and gigantic robots don't disorient. For the most part, they are kept just a notch below the level of overwhelming, and effectively engage the audience, rather than alienating it. The ship combat is, simply put, thrilling and the film dares the audience not to cheer at the sight of the titular battleship giving a full-on broadside to the alien mother-ship. And anyone who doesn't crack a smile at the convoluted grid-search sequence the writers (very cleverly) managed to work in clearly never spent a rainy afternoon intoning, "B-5", "C-3", "A-6"...