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
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
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