Forget ‘Jack Ryan’, Prime Video’s Sci-Fi Military Thriller Is Worth a Weekend Watch

Prime Video recently returned to the world of one of its first hit television shows with Jack Ryan: Ghost War, which sees John Kraskinski reprising his role as the titular super spy. Add in the fact that Ghost War is packed with enough action and bloodshed to rival Reacher, and it’s no wonder that it’s rocketed up Prime Video’s streaming charts in the past week. Those same streaming charts are currently home to another military-themed movie that has a science fiction flair. This movie also holds the title of being one of the worst box office bombs of all time, and nearly ending one actor’s career.

Said movie is Battleship, directed by Peter Berg and featuring an ensemble cast that includes Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, Liam Neeson, and Rhianna in her acting debut. Currently, Battleship sits at #6 on Prime Video’s U.S. charts, according to FlixPatrol. That’s a far cry from Battleship‘s theatrical records, as it ended up losing Universal $150 million and was brutally ripped apart by critics. So what exactly is contributing to Battleship‘s surprise resurgence on streaming? There’s a key element that might explain why it’s been a major draw for Prime Video subscribers.

‘Battleship’ Is a Tug-of-War Between an Alien Invasion Movie & War Thriller

Image via Universal Pictures

The major reason for Battleship‘s poor critical and box office reception lies in the strange update that Berg and screenwriters Jon & Erich Hoeber made to the source material. While the Battleship board game features two opposing naval forces engaged in battle, the Battleship movie decides to pit Kitsch’s Alex Hopper and a crew of naval officers against a group of alien invaders. Yes, this is a movie that features the Navy duking it out with aliens. Apart from the aliens utilizing bombs that resemble the pegs that Battleship players use and a tense sequence where Alex’s crew utilizes radar to target the invaders’ ships, this is a movie that bears very little resemblance to its source material. Berg even admitted at a WonderCon panel how little his movie resembled the game it was named after.

“Battleship’s a unique experience. It certainly doesn’t have any direct correlation to the game. That being said, it was a lot of fun to try to find way to reference the game. If you look at the ordinance that the enemies use, it looks a bit like pegs. Both of our ships’ radar systems have trouble seeing each other, so they gotta try and predict where the enemy is so that they can go after them. And there were some other things that were kind of fun.”

While the alien aspects of Battleship might be out of place, Berg does show his appreciation for the military by featuring actual veterans and naval officers in the cast. A group of veterans helps Alex’s crew operate an actual battleship in the movie’s climax, and another subplot features Lieutenant Colonel Mick Canales, a double amputee played by Gregory Gadson — who’s actually a Navy Colonel and double amputee. This was Gadson’s first acting role, yet he turns in a great performance that makes you wish he was the hero of the movie. It wasn’t enough to save Battleship from a critical thrashing, as reviews unfavorably compared it to Michael Bay‘s Transformers movies.

The Director of ‘Battleship’ Is Tackling Another Major Franchise

While Battleship might have flopped at the box office, it doesn’t mark the end of Peter Berg’s time tackling military-based franchises. Berg is set to direct, co-write and produce a Call of Duty movie at Paramount alongside Taylor Sheridan, though he’s already faced an uphill battle after an interview in which he called video game players “weak”…which isn’t the right approach one would want to take when adapting a video game series based on military conflicts. Taylor Kitsch is faring far better, as he not only turned in a better performance in Berg’s Battleship follow-up Lone Survivor, but also anchors one of Prime Video’s biggest franchises with The Terminal List and its spin-off series, The Terminal List: Dark Wolf.

Battleship remains an odd beast; despite having a less than stellar theatrical run, it’s finding a new audience who probably appreciates how bonkers it is or that the military action is enough to overlook the science fiction elements. If you want to have a laugh with your friends, it’s worth a weekend watch.

Release Date

May 18, 2012

Runtime

131 minutes