I am not sure what it is that irritates me so much about the upcoming “Battleship,” though I think that I will give it a shot.  First, the movie is budgeted somewhere in the ballpark of $200 million.

That’s $200 million dollars for a movie based upon a Hasbro board game.

Now, Transformers was hardly Oscar-caliber, but it at least had characters (sorta).

Then I just know that someone, either on screen or in the audience is going to say something like, “A1,” while someone else will soon exclaim: “You sank my battleship!”

When this happens, I swear battleships will not be the only things that go to a watery grave.

Then there’s Universal finding the money for “Battleship,” yet when Guillermo Del Toro’s wanted $150 million–$50 million less–to spend on his passion project, a version of H.P. Lovecraft’s “At The Mountains Of Madness,” with Tom Cruise in the lead, and James Cameron producing, they balked. 

Sure, he wanted to all that moolah on an R-rated horror film, but you have to admit–whether or not it was profitable, which I think that it would have been–that it would have been a fascinating film.

Speaking of Old Ironsides, , the trailer looks like Peter Berg was aiming for a sequel to “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.” that no one asked for (but we are going to get anyway).

By the way, speaking of Del Toro, if anyone has any news on Pacific Rim, I would appreciate the info.