In a bar, Alex hits on the lithesome Samantha Shane ( Brooklyn Decker), who wouldn't you know is the daughter of the admiral of the fleet ( Liam Neeson). In the set-up, we meet a shiftless beach bum named Alex Hopper ( Taylor Kitsch), whose brother Stone ( Alexander Skarsgard) is a naval officer.

This despite the fact that they're remarkably humanoid when we finally remove the helmet from one alien's spacesuit, he turns out to look alarmingly like James Carville. We invite them, they come and we open fire. There's not one word of discussion about the aliens possibly just making a social call.

Of course, in the old B-movie tradition, our response to the alien visit is immediately military. ships, locks out all other ships and explains why our jets don't simply nuke the SOB. It's also handy that the aliens create a force field that forms an impenetrable barrier around their craft, which seals in three U.S. fleet conveniently already be near the splashdown point? It's involved in war games with allies such as Japan, which provides an excuse for a Japanese officer to take temporary command of one of our ships and thus boost the grosses of 'Battleship' in Asia.