Battleship
Universal Pictures | Release Date: May 18, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
41
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
21
Negative:
13
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumMay 16, 2012
Battleship is a sound vessel floating in Hollywood's oil-slick sea of "Transformers" sequels and vampire riffs. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMay 17, 2012
An invigorating blast of cinematic adrenaline. Read full review
70
TimeSteven James SnyderMay 17, 2012
Here's an audacious, inventive and character-driven blockbuster with some wit sprinkled in for good measure. It's fun, and filled with a surprising degree of intrigue and suspense. Read full review
70
Village VoiceNick PinkertonMay 15, 2012
And when the F-14s came out for a triumphant flyover, I looked around the room to find the moron who was applauding only to realize that it was me. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertMay 16, 2012
The nicest touch is that Battleship has an honest-to-God third act, instead of just settling for nonstop fireballs and explosions, as Bay likes to do. I don't want to spoil it for you. Let's say the Greatest Generation still has the right stuff and leave it at that. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 20, 2012
One of the more enjoyably terrible movies of the year. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMay 18, 2012
It's no "Das Boot," but Battleship is a boatload of popcorny fun. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 16, 2012
The movie drags on way too long, but there are things to like. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterMegan LehmannApr 11, 2012
Those looking for big, loud sci-fi action will find plenty to like here as director Peter Berg (Hancock, Friday Night Lights) pumps up the volume on clashing military hardware and flag-waving heroics. Read full review
55
MovielineStephanie ZacharekMay 17, 2012
Actually, the picture is perhaps not quite as painful as you might be expecting, though probably not as enjoyable, either. Read full review
50
NPRBob MondelloMay 22, 2012
The story, by brothers Erich and Jon Hoeber, who also penned the clever, quippy, aging-assassin movie "Red," is cleverer and quippier than it has any reason to be, even if it makes not the remotest sense. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMay 17, 2012
Proficient director Peter Berg ("Hancock") keeps the noise so deafening we can't think about how preposterous it all is. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Adam LitovitzMay 17, 2012
Battleship has its moments, like the rare occasions when it nods to its origin: There's a nice eureka when we learn that evil alien ships can be outwitted, improbably, by plotting co-ordinates on a grid, à la your granddad's board game. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedMay 17, 2012
Battleship is dopey, preposterous and unintentionally hilarious in all the wrong places, but as directed by Peter Berg, it is also energetic, fast-moving and bracing. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranMay 17, 2012
This may sound thrilling, but it's not. Battleship plays ordinary and pedestrian because it's always been a job for hire, never anyone's passion. Read full review
50
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerMay 17, 2012
Has a plot as unambitious as a macaroni dinner, familiar and easy to eat and not particularly nutritious. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 17, 2012
Like "Transformers," which it rivals in relentlessness, Battleship comes with its own force field, a furious energy that renders criticism irrelevant. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 17, 2012
Mostly, Battleship is a noisy, overlong and numbing military-vs.-aliens saga with laughably bad dialogue. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderBen SachsMay 17, 2012
Once the special effects take over, Berg has little room to assert his personality (or tell a story, for that matter), and the movie feels like a chore. Read full review
50
VarietyGuy LodgeApr 11, 2012
Overlong and underwritten even by the standards of summer f/x extravaganzas, this Battleship will nonetheless float with many on the strength of its boyish, eager-to-please razzle-dazzle. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasMay 16, 2012
Despite some promising early goofiness involving full-contact soccer and the quest for a chicken burrito, Battleship plays it regrettably straight most of the time, as if the fate of the world really might rest on how well the Navy can hurtle projectiles at alien warships. With eyes closed, the movie uncannily resembles a giant baby playing with pots and pans. Read full review
40
SlateDana StevensMay 17, 2012
This is the kind of summer movie that softens your brain tissue without even providing the endocrine burst of pleasure that would make it all worthwhile. Read full review
40
SalonAndrew O'HehirMay 17, 2012
Its shameless and nonsensical combination of ingredients finally won me over, after a fashion, when I realized that its gung-ho Navy-recruitment propaganda and retrograde gender politics shouldn't be taken any more seriously than the ZZ Top, AC/DC and Billy Squier songs on the soundtrack. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMay 15, 2012
What's the word on the film debut of Rihanna, playing a sass-mouthed petty officer? Dreadful (ella, ella). Read full review
40
EmpireNick de SemlyenApr 11, 2012
Miss. Read full review
40
Total FilmMatt GlasbyApr 11, 2012
Misguided in the extreme. A scene in which Kitsch and co aim blindly for the broadest of targets – and miss by miles – proves painfully apt. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithMay 18, 2012
It makes "Top Gun" look like the work of Orson Welles. At least the Tom Cruise movie remembered to cast actual actors. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTom RussoMay 17, 2012
If only there were more genuine rah-rah fun involved, instead of just endless, thudding, seen-it-all-before mayhem. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 17, 2012
Battleship has the IQ of a rutabaga and doesn't require much more intelligence than that to watch. Despite spending copious amounts of time with back story and so-called character development, it's really all about the explosions. Read full review
33
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 18, 2012
The script is replete with howlers. My favorite, from Kitsch, after the aliens strike: "I've got a bad feeling about this." Indeed. Read full review
33
Portland OregonianM. E. RussellMay 17, 2012
There's almost nothing to Battleship beyond its grindingly dull, digitally rendered naval warfare. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovMay 16, 2012
This crass and hugely dumb aliens vs. multiple earthling navies should thrill the hyperactive 10-year-old inside you. Adults, on the other hand – and especially genre-fan adults – will be bored to tears and wishing Bay (or at least Jerry Bruckheimer) had something of their own on the marquee out front. Read full review
30
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondMay 15, 2012
Its endless parade of explosions, battles and general mayhem makes Michael Bay seem like Ingmar Bergman in comparison with Battleship director Peter Berg. Read full review
25
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 17, 2012
Two flesh-and-blood performers stand out among the machinery. One is pop singer Rhianna, looking lovely as usual despite the military gear and quite comfortable with high-powered artillery. The other is Gregory D. Gadson, an Army veteran who lost his legs to a roadside bomb in Baghdad. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliMay 17, 2012
It's loud, it's large, it's stupid, and its best gag involves a chicken burrito. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 17, 2012
Way to go, Battleship: Take the crassest of cynical junk, slather it in jingoism and sell it as rah-rah fun for right-wingers. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMay 16, 2012
Battleship is a board game for children, so it stands to reason a film adaptation would also be aimed at kids. But did they have to gear it to really dumb kids? Read full review
25
Slant MagazineNick SchagerMay 15, 2012
Shamelessly mimics Michael Bay's larger-than-life dialogue, sweeping cinematography, cornball romance, and military fetishism. Read full review
0
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMay 17, 2012
The worst humans-fighting-aliens movie I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot of humans-fighting-aliens movies. Read full review
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