This week's news about our absolute top favorite movie project may be the best yet. A long, distinguished career may have found its capstone:

Neeson's a fine actor, capable of communicating a great, soulful anguish and intelligence. "Battleship" couldn't be any better if Jessica Simpson was playing a nurse who was marooned when her submarine was attacked and she floated to the surface to safety.

Did we mention there's attacking aliens in this movie? Intelligent life that crosses great distances in self-contained space vessels, only to be defeated by something that floats on the water and fires big heavy projectiles? I'm guessing the Battleship defeats the entire alien horde, but it may suffer catastrophic damage. Previously I'd thought Tom Arnold would shout the must-have line, "You sunk my battleship!" Now I'll bet it goes to Neeson, who says it with grim conviction before he punches the main alien in the face.

Then it's revealed that the sinking was actually a computer generated mirage, and the Battelship is okay and everyone's fine except for that one guy, who dies in a heartbreaking scene right after the aliens are defeated, but his dog survives, and the captain adopts the dog as the ship's mascot. That's my guess, anyway. It'll probably be even cooler. This movie is going to be so good.