Battleships charm offensive continues with a look at the ships, both Human & alien.

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All week various websites have been fortunate to have set visits reporting on different aspects of the movie. Two days ago the director (Peter ‘Hancock’ Berg) described what the aliens were doing loitering about near Hawaii and how they were a recon group, an alien version of the classic 5 ship (4 ships and a submarine) from the game.

Battleship movie: Director explains why aliens are in the story and... it still kinda doesn’t make sense.(Some Spoilers)

A real life Battleship Game Board?

Now this next piece of information will confirm the most popular bit of speculation I’ve seen since the trailer hit to a somewhat mixed response not much more than a week ago: Namely the creation of a game board within the film. No I’m not talking about some surreal, cosmic Marvel comics’ style giant game board made by a giant supreme alien, I’m talking about that moment in the trailer where the aliens create a massive invisible dome that reaches up to the sky: You know that part where you all went “Aha, I bet that’s the game board! Well those of you who knew that it was a trailer for a film based on the game anyway. Here’s what I mean...

Isolation Dome 

OK now I know it seems like a considerably, contrived, convenience (Ah alliteration) but hey it follows on from Berg’s desire to have the alien presence, at least in the beginning, small in number so as to even out the odds for the human race. The force bubble is an alien weapon that allows them to narrow down the theatre of combat. Only those forces within the bubble are in play and outside assistance from air or seas is unable to get in and assist. (Another Transformers parallel here; given the Decepticon ring of steel around Chicago in Dark of The Moon.) The Isolation Dome, as it is called, helps the film to have the adversaries engage in a game of tactics and skill rather than who has the bigger guns or larger forces.

The ships themselves are divided by class, just as the recon is in the Battleships game. The Mothership is the equivalent of the Aircraft Carrier class; there are three ships called Stingers, which hare the fast moving equivalent of the Destroyers ad their fifth ship (which I mentioned on Tuesday) is the communications vessel, which is responsible for all the trouble in the first place.

In another explanation that I’m not sure makes complete sense, but I’m willing to (as always) see how it actually works on screen, is the design of the ships. They are not especially useful in the air, as they have been specifically designed for operations in / on water. As reported a few days ago they are hybrids of science / research vessels and warships with significant weapons. These include the game peg inspired magnetic mine thingys seen in the trailers. So whilst I’m finding the sea use designed ships a trifle bizarre I’m going to see how it all plays out, rather than spend 10 months ripping it to shreds based on a small piece of the puzzle.