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Armageddon Customer Reviews (85 - 87 of 90 Reviews)

A Fun Movie
This movie is fun, a little less serious than Deep Impact which came out about the same time, yet it had it's own perspective and plot.

Interesting concept using a well drilling team to place charges on a large asteroid.

Much of the movie involves the relationships of those on Willis's drilling team. There is comaraderie and infighting, yet, they get more serious as they get closer to take off and the rendezvous with meteor.

The special effects are a little more spectacular than those on Deep Impact, yet the scenes on the meteor itself are a little bit unreal.

The cast is an interesting broad spectrum of characters, many whom have come into their own since Armageddon. I think for special effects and action Armageddon is much better than Deep Impact, yet the plot and story of the latter is much better.

Armageddon though does show a group of very tough men with a challenging job ahead of them, taking things both in stride and with a sense of confidence.

Some Cool Special Effects But That's About It
To be foreward, Armageddon is not a bad film but it's one of those films that if the visual effects look cool that's the only reason a moviegoer would have for seeing it, and we don't want THAT to be the only reason.

This is a movie with visually stunning special effects and music but to me the plot is tired and the movie gets ridiculously long at some parts.

However, it seems many only saw this movie for the simple fact of Bruce Willis. Bruce Willis isn't a bad actor and while he doesn't overshadow anyone else you can't help but admit its why most people saw the movie.

The tired plot of an Asteroid approaching Earth so you send up people to blow up this Asteroid could've flowed better. You don't get the sense to care for these characters, you don't grow attatched to them like "Deep Impact". More over, the movie drags on for far too long. Some parts are tediously long and could've been shortened.

The music in the movie is POWERFUL music and definitely gives you this urgency feeling. The music is certainly one of the beter parts of this film and I recommend the soundtrack.

So if visual effects and...Bruce Willis is your thing in movies you'll absolutely LOVE this movie. If you want a movie with the same basic plot but a bit more plot driven then go with Deep Impact.

Bruckheimer and Bay's Space Movie
Jerry Bruckheimer's Armageddon is a lavishly and expertly produced space epic full of great effects and big stars. It's just too bad they didn't work on the story.

Armageddon begins with a destructive metor shower over New York city. This catastrophe signals the arrival of a doomsday meteor the size of Texas which will crash into the earth in two weeks. In an attempt to destroy the meteor, NASA officials enlist a rag tag group of deep core drillers led by Harry Tasker played by Bruce Willis in a very smirky performance.

The first hour of the film is Harry assembling his crew. These scenes are the most entertaining in the film as we meet the various characters in their wild surroundings. Director Michael Bay does a fair job of giving each supporting character a certain cinematic flair, and non more evident than in the Steve Buscemi's character of Rockhound. This segment of the film performs much like a comedy as we the audience view the heroes go through a grueling NASA training course. There are genuine laughs here as these scenes are editing together like a music video.

Where the film slows down is in it's romantic subplot and the entire second half. Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler are the young heroes of the film who fall in love against the approval of Harry Tasker (Bruce Willis) who is the father of Tyler's character. Affleck and Tyler are Armageddon's answer to Jack Dawson and Rose. Their romance is so unimportant to the main thrust of the film that it slows the story down. The film would be nearly an hour shorter if this subplot was dropped.

Another problem are the unsatifying space sequences. I don't believe that Bruckheimer or Bay have an affinity for space action. Space has a certain elgance in movies and in the right films (ie, Star Wars, Star Trek, 2010, Apollo 13) space action can be very effective. In Armageddon, the effects shots are too fast, the editing is too music video choppy, (we have Bay to thank for that), and the asteroid itself is completely wrong in terms of art direction and design. This asteroid looks like V'ger from the first Star Trek movie.

The film has some saving graces, the humor and acting are fine and the theme song from Aerosmith is very good. But the testosterone level mutes any nobility that these characters should be presented in. These guys are saving the world, and Michael Bay gives them scenes and attitudes which would be more appropriate in a beer commercial.

The Criterion DVD is somewhat satisfying with a commentary and some special features. The commentary sheds some light as to why this film wasn't as good as it should have been as Michael Bay and Bruckheimer arrogantly discuss what makes a great science fiction film and harshly critize the other asteriod movie "Deep Impact" which I suprisingly found to be superior to this film.

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