Originally written February 11, 2012

First let me say that I had originally misread the title as Battleship Pokemon. But anyway, this was the second movie I had to watch for my Cinema class in college, following The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, this is a silent film, and for that it automatically just has that dated feel for me. This is just another one of those kinds of movies that I have to say is definitely a classic in its time that helped revolutionize movies and progress towards the ones we have today, but watching it now it just doesn’t have the same effect.

Honestly, I’m not sure I got the full jist of the plot when I watched it. I know it’s about some Navy men on a battleship (the Potemkin, I would assume), and they don’t get fed well. They get pissed at the captain for giving them bad meat or something along those lines, so they fight back. It’s all over some bad borscht. And from there on some revolts occur in the streets as a result. It’s one of those propaganda kinds of films, and it seems like it was trying to depict a Russian revolution.

I do have to say, the scene that stood out to me was this one scene in the streets, where some citizens are fleeing down a huge flight of steps from the police. There’s so much commotion going on, and there’s a baby in a carriage. The mother gets killed, and someone gets shot into the baby carriage, which causes it to start rolling down the steps. That part was pretty intense. Other than that though, the movie just kind of didn’t do it for me personally.

Like I said, there was that one scene. But otherwise, I think the movie’s aim is to instill some fight into ya, and the movie just didn’t get me that pumped. I just watched it kind of going through the motions. The music was epic all throughout, but I just didn’t get that excited watching it, like I do from most movies. For my own personal enjoyment, I will say that it’s not a bad movie. I just didn’t care about it that much. However, even still I can’t deny that it needs to be appreciated as a classic. It’s one of those landmark films that in its time was legendary, and a lot of people still think of it like that (seriously, on Rotten Tomatoes it has 100%). It’s a very well made movie, it just didn’t quite deliver on the entertainment factor for me. Then again, maybe you can say I’ve been desensitized by the epic moments in current movies.

3/5