Blu-Ray Review - Titanic (1997)

The Film:

Released in December of 1997, James Cameron's historical epic Titanic was almost written off before it was even released as an expensive flop waiting to happen and would certainly be the end of Cameron's directorial career.

But Cameron is one not to be underestimated and his grand vision for the story of the RMS Titanic which sunk on the night of its maiden voyage paid off with a grand box office where until his 2009 sci-fi epic Avatar it sat as the top grossing film of all time.

But why was it such that this did as well as it did, made as much as it made and had audiences the world over going not once, not twice but multiple times for a grand a vision as such?

The reasons are simple, first off the film has the look and feel of a glorious epic, the such Hollywood hadn't seen much of before and sadly hasn't seen much of since, every scene is brimming with small details such as the metal of the ship, the costumes, the bedsheets, the fine china, so much of those small things help to make an impressive visual fabric that makes the audience feel like they're part of this grand ship.

The second is Cameron himself, an ambitious taskmaster if ever there was one, his keen eye for detail is persistent throughout the movie, not once do you feel like that the grand scope of the climax overshadows the human drama nor do you get the feeling that it's all just so big in its scope, you simply stop caring about the human characters and in a day and age where we have directors just shooting everything up close and bombarding the audience with so much visual splendor that it bores you half to sleep, to have someone like Cameron doing the kind of big scale action direction that actually impresses audiences rather than send them to sleep is something to be grateful for.

But most important of all, the film is one that gives you your money's worth, you know going in how this will end and Cameron plays with that brilliantly by starting the film in the modern day and showing you how the ship sinks in a small computer animation which when you get to the film's spectacular climax you can just sit back and enjoy the spectacle of it all, the love story between Jack and Rose, the themes of class and shortsightedness by man and how it all ties together into a grand sweeping epic.

The Image:

Before converting Titanic to 3D for its re release in cinemas earlier this year to mark both the film's 15th anniversary but mainly the centenary of the Titanic herself, Cameron and his team undertook a major restoration of the film to bring it up to the highest standards of visual and sound quality.

And my lord what a restoration it is, the movie looks simply fantastic with not one tiny speck of dirt or age to hold it back, in the daylight scenes it looks as though you are really there on the boat and the night time scenes have sufficient light in them so that it doesn't look to dark, the film also has a very natural look to it as well in that it doesn't look to heavily color graded which can be a temptation when remastering older movies.

What also shines in this new transfer is the level of detail in the scenes, from the metal of the ship, the fabric of the rich man's jackets, the metal of Lovejoy's gun and even the streams of water as they make their way through the ship, this is simply a fantastic transfer.

The Sound:

As good as the image is, the sound is as good if not better, presented in DTS-HD 5.1 audio, Titanic sails with a grand new sound mix that captures every sound of the bustling ship, lines of dialogue and sounds that you may not have noticed in prior DVD transfers of the film and it expertly captures every moment of the film's climax.

And happily the mix has a nice balance to it in terms of the quieter moments and the action, what also shines in this is James Horner's score for the film which is a nice mix of Irish folk music and a traditional orchestral score.

The Extras:

Deep breath folks as there is a lot of stuff to be found in terms of extras, with two exceptions though most of it is ported over from the 2005 special edition DVD release but in this case that is far from a bad thing.

On the feature disc you will find three commentary tracks, all of them originate from the 05 DVD release.

The first is a solo track by Cameron and he goes into a lot of detail about the making of the film, the period of the time in terms of the female characters, the history of the ship herself, despite the film being 3 and a quarter hours long Cameron talks almost nonstop throughout, fans of the film might be familiar with this track but its certainly one that's well worth listening to now as it was then.

The second is a cast and crew commentary track that splices individually recorded comments together from many cast and crew members that talk about the making of the film from their own perspective, its an okay track but if I had to rank the three this one would be the weakest, still its worth a listen.

The third and final track on this disc comes from Don Lynch and Ken Marschall, both men were historical supervisors on the film and as such their track focuses on the historical side of the story, its a good track but will be of more interest to history buffs than to fans of the film.

Okay with those out of the way, its time to head to the second disc in this set (there is also a Blu-Ray 3D version available if that's your fancy) and there are a LOT of extras to be found here, all but two are ported over from the 05 DVD release but you will be very glad that they are here.

First is the "Documentaries" section, it contains two new documentaries exclusive to this release:

The first one is "Reflections of Titanic" and runs just over an hour and can be watched as a whole or in any of its 4 parts, this doco details the genesis of the film, the production as well as the release of the film, the phenomenon that followed and the recent 3D conversion.

This is an okay doco and its worth watching but its also the kind of making of that you will most likely watch only once as it borders on feeling like a puff piece rather than a proper making of doco like Charles de Lauzirika's "Dangerous Days" which detailed the making of Blade Runner warts and all.

It was rumored that documentarian Ed Marsh had made a making of doco for the film to go on the 05 DVD release that did go into the production of the film in more detail only for it to be scrapped at the last minute which is a big shame as Marsh's "Under Pressure: Making the Abyss" documentary is one of the very best making of doco's you'll ever see and given the enormous success of Titanic, I would've liked a similar doco detailing this production and the success that came afterwards.

One fun thing I did see while watching this doco was how much Don Lynch resembles Stephen Lang who appeared as the colonel in Cameron's Avatar, the resemblance was interesting.

Happily the second doco "Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron" more than makes up for any shortfalls the proper making of has, running at 96 minutes, it details Cameron and other nautical experts trying to piece together what happened on that fateful night.

Cameron narrates the doco and speaks with such detail and precision that's its hard to ignore watching it all in one sitting, Titanic and historical buffs should really enjoy this doco and its easily the better of the two in this section.

And that's all in terms of documentary material, from here we deal mainly with extras that come from the 05 DVD release.

And speaking of those, the next section is "Deleted Scenes", 29 in all plus an alternate ending for the film and an intro by Cameron explaining why the scenes might have been cut, Cameron also gives a small commentary on each cut scene and the alternate ending going into more detail on why he cut that specific scene and where it would've sat in the final film.

The quality of the scenes is on a par with the finished film and combined all 30 Deleted Scenes run for nearly an hour but they're worth watching even though you won't miss any of them from the final film.

After the "Deleted Scenes" section we go into the "Production" section, which contains most of the smaller extras that were created for the 05 DVD release, there are some goodies to dive into it so let's get snorkeling.

Behind the Scenes Vignettes: These small Featurettes were part of a branching option on the feature film discs in the 05 DVD release and have been ported here in full, they range from small interviews, VFX breakdowns, production footage and even a small one on the creation of that music video, together they run at just over an hour in length and are definitely worth a look.

Timelapse Construction Video: Pretty much what it says on the menu, a timelapse featurette regarding the construction of the 900ft Titanic boat set in Mexico, would've been quite a sight to see, Marsh provides an optional commentary for this featurette as well.

Deep Dive Presentation: This featurette is essentially a compiled presentation of the deep dive footage of the real wreck of the Titanic on the bottom of the Atlantic ocean, this feature also contains narration from Cameron who talks about his own passion for diving and about the technology used to film the wreck in her final resting place, some of this footage is quite eerie to watch but this feature is well worth a look.

$200,000,001 - A Ship's Odyssey: Essentially a gag reel but its one of the better ones you will come across, of highlight is members of the cast singing the theme song to the TV series the Love Boat.

Videomatics: These are effectively videomatics on two key sequences, the ship's sinking and the deep dive stuff regarding the real wreck at the bottom of the sea, some good stuff to be found here but if you watched these on the 05 DVD release they won't be new to you here.

VFX Breakdowns: This feature contains three VFX breakdowns and the full simulation of the ship's sinking that is used in the beginning of the film, again if you watched these on the 05 DVD release then you will have seen these before if you didn't then these are a good watch though the highlight is easily the simulation from the film in full.

That's it for the "Production" section of this disc, now we come to the fourth and final section on the disc and that is the "Archives" section, again there is a fair few things to find here so let's get to it.

"My Heart will go on" Music Video by Celine Dion: Yeah, you knew it had to be here, you've seen it before and most likely a lot of you had to endure it on a loop 24 hours a day 7 days a week when the film came out, so let's move along shall we.

Trailers: A fair selection of trailers are to be found here, from an interesting teaser trailer featuring concept art (a similar trailer was done for The Empire Strikes Back), the full US trailer, the ShoWest trailer talked about in the making of and even the recent 2012 re release trailer, trailer buffs will really enjoy this section as did I.

TV Spots: 8 TV spots can be found here and they're okay though most likely you'll watch them once and then forget about them.

Still Galleries: A lot of stills can be found here and there are a few galleries here as well, ranging from Cameron's original scriptment to production pics to initial artwork to storyboards to paintings and even a gallery of posters from both the 97 and 2012 releases of the film, you'll spend some time here as there is a lot to go through but you certainly won't be bored doing so.

Parodies: 3 Parodies round out the "Archives" section and this disc of extras, again like the Videomatic and Visual Effects sections in the "Production" menu, these originated from the 05 DVD release and are actually pretty funny for the most part though if you saw them on the 05 release then you aren't seeing anything new if you didn't then you will have some fun watching these.

The Verdict:

Despite my complaints about the making of doco made for this disc, Titanic sails in a grand way on Blu-Ray and when the 2 discs are combined they helped to make one of the year's best disc releases, fantastic A/V quality and a huge array of extras that vary in their scope will not leave fans disappointed, especially if you can find it at the right price, this is certainly a set that comes with a very high recommendation especially if your planning to replace your DVD copy with this one.

Blu-Ray Review - The Avengers (2012)

The Film:

Many years in the making, Marvel Studios finally debuted their long awaited adaptation of their Avengers comic book earlier this year to rave reviews and extraordinary box office (the current count in the US nears $620 million) but was the film itself deserving of such amazing success?

Well to me yes, yes it was mainly because this feels like a film that Marvel took their time in making starting with 2008's Iron Man and continuing with that year's The Incredible Hulk, 2010's Iron Man 2 and 2011's Thor and Captain America, each one playing their role in leading to this culmination in the Avengers in terms of lead characters, plot points and villains.

But such a daunting task needs an ambitious taskmaster to take the helm and steady the ship through such uncharted waters to the final stop of cinema screens all over the world and here was where Marvel pulled its ace in the hole and that was hiring writer/director Joss Whedon to helm the film in terms of directing and co-writing the script.

And an inspired choice he was, coming from hit TV series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the cult sci-fi series Firefly, he specialized in writing ensemble character pieces and flavouring pop culture references in them as well, though this initially didn't translate into a successful film career as 2005's Serenity failed to click with audiences but Marvel like to take risks with their films and they bet it all on Whedon to deliver the goods, which he certainly did in more ways than one, now having more freedom to not only do anything he wants but also have it be more than he ever dreamed of.

The Image:

Being a recent release, this should certainly come up well on Blu-Ray and it certainly does as this transfer is nigh on perfect and really highlights Seamus McGarvey's work as cinematographer on the film, the night scenes look particularly good with many details such as the cliffs and bush land able to be noticed and the action scenes in the sunlit streets of New York showcasing the seamless effects work between the CGI and Stunts.

The Sound:

As good as the Image is, its backed up by an equally good 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track and it's a fantastic audio mix that nicely balances the quiet scenes of dialogue and the full on mayhem in the film's final act, this will be a Blu-Ray that will become a showcase disc for some time and I can't say I would disagree with the reasons why as both the sound and image are near perfect.

The Extras:

But as so often with some disc releases, it becomes a case of two steps forward one step backward and its in the special features department where this disc comes up short, still let's take a look at what's here first off:

"Item 47" Short Film: An 11 minute Short Film kicks off proceedings here and it concerns a couple played by Lizzy Kaplan and Jessie Bradford finding a Chi'-Tauri weapon and using it to rob banks Bonnie and Clyde style but this attracts the attention of SHIELD who start to follow their trail, this is a fun little short with some good laughs to be found in it.

Deleted Scenes: 8 Deleted and Alternate Scenes are found here and I'll now look at each of them:

Alternate Opening and Ending: Both feature the SHIELD agent Maria Hill (played by Cobie Smulders, Aunt Robin from How I Met your Mother) and she is giving a briefing to the Security Council Fury talks to in the final film, both were clearly intended to book end the film's events and while it's a nice scene and it gives Hill more of a part in the film it's easy to see why they were cut as the film opens and ends nicely without them dragging down the length.

Loki and Barton Strategize: This scene however I wish had stayed in the film as it helps to give Loki's plan a little more depth and give Barton more screen time as a character rather than the strategic archer part he plays in the final film though its easy to see why it was cut out to begin with I wish it hadn't as it helped to deepen those two characters somewhat.

Steve Rogers - A Man out of Time: One of the deleted scenes that Whedon talked about while promoting the film was the scene with Rogers adjusting to life in the modern day world, it's a very nice scene that's wonderfully played by Evans and also gives you a bit more background about the cafe that's attacked in the final film but again its easy to see why it was cut out.

Nick Fury and the World Security Council: In this cut scene we see Fury give a longer talk to the Security Council about Barton falling under Loki's spell and needing a response team to fight Loki, this scene also shows some early Security Council footage and again it was best left on the cutting from floor.

Extended Viaduct fight: A slight extension of a fight scene in the film's climax between Hawkeye, Black Widow and some of the alien army on the New York Streets, this scene shows off some of the early green screen work and the actors standing in for the alien army in the production footage, again this was rightly cut out of the movie.

Fury and Hill Discuss the World Security Council: A short extension of a scene inside the Helicarrier between Hill and Fury discussing the World Security Council, not at all missed in the final film and am glad it was cut out.

Banner and Security Guard: An extended version of the conversation Dr. Banner has with the security guard in the warehouse (played by Harry Dean Stanton), it's a nice scene that helps to deepen Dr. Banner somewhat and give some clues as to how he could become the Hulk in the climax as well as reveal where the motorbike he used to get to NYC came from, length reasons would be the main reason this got the chop and I can't say I would want it back in the film.

Gag Reel: A 4 minute gag reel is included here and has some very funny moments, two of which featuring Tom Hiddelston and Mark Ruffalo almost stole the show as was a moment regarding Chris Hemsworth and his Hammer, well worth watching.

Featurette - A Visual Journey: A short featurette regarding some of the visual design of the films in terms of the sets of both the SHIELD complex at the beginning of the film and the heli-carrier, its a somewhat interesting featurette though you will most likely watch it only once.

And those sadly are the extras on this local Blu-Ray release, missing is a commentary track by Joss Whedon, a "Assembling the Ultimate Team" making of featurette, the "Live to Rise" music video by Soundgarden and an exclusive 95 minute documentary called "The Avengers - Building a Cinematic Universe."

All of them combined plus the addition of the film's trailers would've helped to make this a rather memorable release similar to this year's Blu-Ray release of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as it would've had a nice balance of informative and promotional extras, as it stands though those omissions from this release are very much felt as you go through the disc.

Then again given the film's enormous popularity it's hard not to think that there will be a proper special edition release of the film in the future which will delve more into the making of the film and the journey to bring the Avengers to the big screen to begin with, I hope that will happen.

The Verdict:

Despite the missing extras, there's plenty to like about this disc release, a rollicking adventure gets near perfect A/V quality and the deleted scenes and the short film help to lift a half complete selection of extras.

So I know what you're saying now "should I buy this disc", well that's the trick for chances are you've bought it already and it will give you a happy face as you watch it.

Film Review - Frankie and Johnny (1991)

Frankie and Johnny stars Al Pacino as Johnny, a man who has only just finished serving an 18 month prison sentence and comes to New York to start a new chapter of his life, Pfeiffer plays Frankie a woman who works at a small cafe and when the two meet after Frankie becomes the new short order cook, nothing can prepare them for the experiences that will follow.

Frankie and Johnny is surprisingly a pretty good rom com directed by Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman) and that is mainly down to the chemistry between Pacino and Pfeiffer who also worked together on Brian de Palma's 1983 gangster classic Scarface and that history shows in their scenes as they play off each other very well though Pfieffer is the show stealer here as she is something quite good in this and its proof she's not just another pretty face.

Another thing I also liked was that it stuck mainly to those two characters for the whole of the film, 99% of rom coms will normally throw in a 3rd wheel in the third act in the guise of someone going "Hi hun, remember me" and it would split the two lovers and throughout this movie I was waiting for that to happen and surprisingly it didn't, nice to see a rom com that had the guts to just stick with its simple love story all the way through without resorting to a gimmicky rival in the 3rd act.

So all in all, this one ain't too bad, 2 out of 5.

Game Review - Transformers: Fall of Cybertron (2012)

The Story:

Taking place after 2010's surprise hit War for Cybertron, Fall of Cybertron continues the story of the Autobots and Decepticons on the now dying world of Cybertron, Optimus and the Autobots have only one goal: to leave their home so their race can survive but Megatron and his Decepticon army want to exterminate the Autobots once and for all.

To say that I was excited for Fall of Cybertron is something approaching an understatement, having really loved WFC, I was eager to see what Fall would be like when I first read about late last year and High Moon Studios promising that this wouldn't be a retread of what came before but a follow up that would up the ante in terms of a darker story, more variety in terms of game play and a smarter AI experience, so did they deliver?

For sure, HMS delivered the goods with almost seemed to be a degree of ease with the game building in several brilliant character moments as well as some moments that will come as unexpected to be sure and some very cool nods to the 1986 animated movie that had me smiling with glee.

Visuals:

The Visuals in Fall of Cybertron are quite good, nicely reflecting the metal look of Cybertron though there is some terrain in the game which wasn't in War, the character animations are well done but at times the textures feel inconsistent with some coming out fuzzy.

The Controls:

The controls in this game easily outperform the visuals as they are consistently excellent and a big improvement from War, each character now has an in built dash ability and the special feature of that character is mapped to the one button and the vehicle controls are air tight, especially when you play as Starscream.

Though its the transition to the more melee focused characters Bruticus and Grimlock that most impressed me, not once do you feel like you've been thrown a different set of controls that you have to learn and it feels hard to readjust to them, the transitions between the gunplay and the melee sections are seamless and not hard at all to adjust to in terms of controls, just a slight rethink and your off and carving Decepti-Chops for Lunch and Auto-Bugs for Afternoon Tea.

The Gameplay:

Gameplay also saw an overhaul for this follow up with an emphasis put on more variety in terms of playable characters, their abilities and the environments and in this HMS have more than delivered with environments feeling much bigger in scope and size than they did in War, each character has a unique feel to them and their abilities are always fun to use, especially Optimus's control of Metroplex (a walking skyscraper) and Grimlock's T-Rex form which will carve even the toughest of enemies up as if they were nothing at all.

But that's not all, the weapons and AI have also been overhauled, new to this game is the Teletraan store where you can buy weapons, items and perks to aid you in fighting the enemy and scattered throughout most of the game are blueprints for weapons and abilities that you can then unlock for most of the characters to use in the game's other levels, a very cool touch.

As for the AI well it's a lot smarter than it was for War and if you aren't careful they'll pick you off especially the Decepticon Leapers, a rethink of the Brutes from War and much harder to defeat though when you play as Grimlock well then they're not so hard.

The Veridct:

Overall Fall of Cybertron exceeded my high hopes with some degree of ease and despite some patchy visuals, the game play and controls have been greatly improved from its predecessor and the game is well worth checking out.

Till All are One.

Film Review - The Raid (2012)

The Raid is an Asian action film that concerns an apartment building with 30 floors and housing a powerful drug lord, a SWAT team is sent in to retrieve him or die trying.

I went into the Raid with moderate hopes as it looked like an interesting action flick, a sentiment backed up with positive word of mouth, so does the film surpass the hype?

Surprisingly it does, the film establishes right away its tone and style with a lot of it being reminiscent of the Asian action films from the 70's and 80's, director Gareth Evans films the action in a very fluid and stylish way that when it gets to the physical fights its very impressive to watch.

If there is a fault to this film however it's that it does feel somewhat clichéd in terms of the cops not being that smart and some of the villains taking an eternity to go down but that really just sounds like a minor niggle.

So all in all, the Raid has some impressive action scenes and is one of the better action flicks of the last 10 years, 3 out of 5.

Blu-Ray Review - Jaws (1975)

The Film:

1975 was one of those years that just seemed in retrospect to be earmarked for the history books though no one could've ever predicted that for sure.

Though one of those moments of history became divisive the other became a phenomenon and that was the release of Steven Spielberg's Jaws, based on the bestselling novel by Peter Benchley (who also helped co-author the script) the story told of a great white shark that stalked and killed innocent people in the waters off a small coastal town called Amity and the efforts of three men (Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw) to stop it cause that shark would swallow you whole.

Its also hard to imagine the impact the film has had over the years since its original release not only on critics and film fans but also on nearly an entire generation of filmgoers that saw it in its initial release and became inspired to enter the business as a result, the only other film to have had a similar impact was George Lucas's 1977 juggernaut Star Wars which sprang from the seeds that Jaws's success planted.

The Image:

Jaws underwent an extensive restoration process for this new Blu-Ray release and Spielberg himself gave this new transfer his seal of approval and honestly who can blame him for doing so, this is a fantastic restoration and it really highlights the reality the film presents and its a reality that while I watched this film I kinda missed as so many films now are computer generated and as a result have an artificial look to them which you never can quite get out of your mind but here everything seems real and refreshing from the sands of the beach to the waves of the water.

The Sound:

The sound comes in a new 7.1 DTS-HD mix and the original 1975 mix preserved in a DTS-HD 2.0 mix, the 7.1 mix sounds fantastic, very clean and clear and also very balanced between the music and sound and the dialogue (sometimes some HD mixes have the dialogue scenes very low and the music and sound effects very loud) and it's just so refreshing to hear this film in this way as it makes you feel like your seeing it for the first time all over again.

The 2.0 Mix is the original mix from 1975 and while its somewhat clearer to hear the background dialogue and other sounds, it also feels very cluttered when compared with the new 7.1 mix but still I'm very happy that the original mix is on this disc.

The Extras:

There are a number of extras on this Blu-Ray release but first I must say that this release comes in a beautiful book like packaging that also has a medium sized booklet at the back of the case with bios, production notes, photos, storyboards and posters comprising its pages, will be a real treat for big fans of the film.

With that out of the way, lets dive into the on disc extras

Documentary - The Shark is Still Working - The Impact and Legacy of Jaws: Talked about for some years, this 2007 produced doco finally sees the light of day on this release and its well done with many interviews from cast and crew as well as fans and future filmmakers who were inspired by the film to enter the business themselves (some of those include Kevin Smith, Bryan Singer and Robert Rodriguez), for a fan made documentary this is very impressive and well worth a look.

Documentary - The Making of Jaws: Created for the 1995 20th anniversary laserdisc release of the film (a release that Bryan Singer liked more than the initial DVD release of the film in 2000) this 2 hour documentary covers just about every aspect of the film's creation with nearly everyone involved, its a thorough look at the making of a classic and it should not be missed.

Featurette - Jaws the Restoration: Probably my favorite extra on this set is a look at how the new restoration for Jaws was created and it is a fascinating watch, showing us some of the un restored scenes, how the film was cleaned up, how the new sound mix was created and even a few comments on the heritage of film from Spielberg himself, a great watch.

Featurette - From the Set: A Vintage featurette from the film's shoot in 1974 hosted by Iain Johnstone, it looks at the shoot and has comments from a VERY young Spielberg, recommended.

The Jaws Archives: 4 big still galleries covering Storyboards, Production Photos, Marketing and the Jaws Phenomenon, again a lot of ground is covered in these galleries though the last 2 galleries were more interesting for me and there's fun stuff to be found in the last, especially letters from Spielberg to Lucas and a fun drawing by Chuck Jones.

Deleted Scenes and Outtakes: A selection of Deleted Scenes and a 90 minute reel of Outtakes comprise this section, all are played in one stretch instead of just selecting the deleted scenes and outtakes separately in their own menu, some good stuff here but like the majority of deleted scenes they're best left out.

Theatrical Trailer: "It is as if God created the Devil and gave him... Jaws" says the ominous voiceover at the beginning of this trailer which are sadly becoming a rarity on disc releases these days and its very nice to see the trailer for this movie on the disc.

The Verdict:

If you're a fan of Jaws, you have to buy this release, a terrific restoration and a truly comprehensive selection of extras that not only cover just about anything you could ever want on the making of the film and its legacy but also don't bore you while you're watching them.

Film Review - Battleship (2012)

Battleship is based off the famous board game and stars Taylor Kitsch as Hopper, a man who's life is going nowhere until his brother played by Alexander Skarsgard (son of Stellan Skarsgard aka Captain Tupelov) where he suddenly finds himself faced with an alien visit and one that is far from friendly.

I went into Battleship with very low expectations as the trailer for the film really put me off and as a result I was reluctant to see it but I decided to do so in the end so were my low expectations justified?

Well surprisingly it was better than I thought it would be but only by the smallest of margins and that's mainly due to the film's second half which focuses on simply fighting the invaders with Battleships and director Peter Berg handles the action in those scenes competently though when it's all over you will be thankful of that as it does border on being too much by the end of the film and made me groan once or twice.

Apart from that there is very little else to like about this movie as almost the entire thing plays out like a vacuum in space but instead the vacuum sucks up 2 hours of a person's life as they watch this movie, the first half of the story is boring to watch, Skarsgard is wasted and Liam Neeson looks as though he'd rather be enjoying the Hawaiian sun rather than be in this movie and honestly, who can blame him.

You know, if you want a good action film that takes place on a US battleship, rent the 1992 Steven Seagal movie Under Siege, that was a fun ride with good acting and action direction and is also actually worth your time and your money, this movie is not, 1 out of 5.