Aliens are coming!

With an onslaught of jaw-dropping visual effects, non-stop action and a narrative that delivers some surprises, Battleship booms onto the screen with style and scale. For the genre and its target young male audience, it's got a bit of everything - an alien invasion, antihero who saves the world, personal conflicts, a splash of romance and sprays of humour to relieve the tension. There are good contrasts of tone and the characters are well established - or well enough - to give the story ballast.

Leaping from his role on Mars as the Civil War vet in John Carter to that of a recalcitrant naval officer turned hero, Taylor Kitsch holds his own and brings a welcome knock-about touch to what could otherwise have become overly earnest. It's sheer video-game entertainment and the 132 minute running time flies almost as quickly as the firework filled offensive between human and alien.

When we first meet Alex Hopper (Kitsch), he is trying to impress a girl in a bar. The lengths to which he goes to get her the chicken burrito she craves, tells us that he has a crazy streak and is prepared to go to any lengths to get what he wants. Brooklyn Decker (Swimsuit Illustrated model and wife of tennis star Andy Roddick) plays the obligatory shapely blonde and to her credit, does it convincingly. There's a running gag involving Hopper and her disapproving Admiral father (Liam Neeson), to whom he must pluck up the courage to ask to marry his daughter. But all these things are put on hold when Hopper sets off on one of the battleships for a naval exercise between 13 nations.

Then it's time for the large scale, impressive visual effects to take over as the star of this sci-fi thriller; the alien ship taking the form of a transformer-like robotic structure with a myriad of deadly moving parts. There are gigantic, revolving tyre-like structures whipping through the air with swirls and explosions and a magnetic field that keeps the rest of the world at bay. The effects are heavy-duty and relentless. I especially like the idea of using the battleship game grid as one of the interesting left-of-field tactics employed to find the enemy, when their location is unknown. The trick is to find the aliens' Achilles' heel; I'll say no more, except that a lizard called Penelope has something to do with the discovery.

Songstress Rihanna is a perky presence as Raikes, a gung-ho on-board marine while Japanese star Tadanobu Asano is terrific as Nagata. Watch for the touching story strand involving Mick (Gregory D. Gadson), the soldier with two artificial legs who believes he is only half a man, until he can prove otherwise.

Production values are excellent and the pulsating rhythmic score that underlies all the action keeps time with the pumping of our hearts. The climactic sequence in which a historic outdated battleship with its crew of old timers get into the action is a fitting display of the knock-your-socks-off finale before the story strands are neatly gathered and make way from the rocky seas to rest ashore.