The trailers for two movie adaptations of games came out recently: Battleship, starring Brooklyn Decker, True Blood‘s Alexander Skarsgard, and Friday Night Light‘s Taylor Kitsch, is based on the “You sunk my battleship!” board game. Knights of Badassdom, with Game of Throne‘s Peter Dinklage and (also from True Blood) Ryan Kwaten, is inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, “Live Action Role Playing” and “Cosplay“.

Battleship Trailer

Knights of Badassdom Trailer

Seeing these trailers together reminds me of a high-school film assignment. The rich, cool jocks chose a random subject (Battleship), and got their parents to pay for a blockbuster. Instead of thinking of a story, they just threw some aliens in and hoped it would all work out. Someone even pulled some strings and got Rihanna! It’s like a super sweet sixteen party.

Meanwhile, the nerdy dodgeball targets grabbed their Flip cams and gallons of fake blood, and started filming their friends goofing off. Aliens are “so mainstream right now,” so instead they went old-school and put in some demonic possession. They couldn’t get anyone really famous, but the hot girls from homeroom agreed to be in it.

These two films look like they turned oddly similar inspirations into totally different movies, and there’s room for every action fan between them. For rockin’ special effects and your favorite gorgeous stars, check out Battleship. For a low budget horror/comedy and cameos from cult celebrities, hit up Badassdom. And if you want a love story on top of it all, probably either will do.

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