Loud battle for a great story

MOVIE REVIEW: Rihanna stars in the 'Battleship'

SOMEBODY please help. I hate video games and comics and that's a metaphor. In other words, it's a figure of speech - read on and you'll understand what I mean.

Why do I hate them when they can be so entertaining, you may ask.

The answer is: I solely hate them when they're converted into movies and, no matter how I moan, that's how Tinseltown covers its overheads these days.

Sheer creativity where a film emanates from an original screenplay is hard to come by lately and that's so depressing if you're an ardent film fanatic like you and I.

And to irk us even more, moviemakers have the courage to subject us to mediocre acting from pop stars that call themselves musicians.

Welcome to the Battleship, starring Rihanna. Yes, the Good Girl Gone Bad hitmaker.

I guess the filmmakers envisioned that Rihanna's presence would bring thousands of customers of her age - basically, her fans - through the cinema doors.

I think she may just do that - she's pretty sexy in the army uniform and she screams as she shoots. Hey, stop fantasizing, you perverts.

Thanks God that her role as Cora Raikes, a convincingly tough weapons specialist, is not so major - otherwise the talents of Liam Neeson, for instance, would be meaningless.

So, as consolation, you can anticipate some Neeson's enigmatic touch, although the storyline and the plot are wobbly, to say the least, in this Transformers-wanna-be flick.

Oh, and the movie is out-and-out loud and too long. But then it's science fiction, and this genre has a tendency of ignoring the time limit.

Nasa, the US space agency, is the subject of fascination after spotting an extra-solar planet that has similar attributes as our Earth - there's suspicion that it harbours life.

The agency sends a signal from its communication centre in Hawaii. And guess what? Five alien ships rock up in response to the signal and havoc sets in as aliens open fire on the army.

The army, which faces four armed-to-the-teeth alien ships, has to fight back fiercely, otherwise . you know the story . the Earth will come to a crushing end.

In the background Lieutenant Alex Hopper gets on the wrong side of the law while falling for Samantha (Brooklyn Decker), daughter of commanding officer Admiral Shane (Neeson).

Problem is, Hopper intends to marry her but is afraid to ask her dad for permission.

My question is: are we going to see the end of movies based on comics (as we speak The Avengers is on circuit) or video games anytime soon? Somebody help. Please.