Why do people hate ARMAGEDDON - whats wrong with it????

I was just wondering why so many people seem to think that Armageddon was such a big flop and was not a good film, when the likes of “ waterboy” received such massive praise.

I am a real fan of Armageddon and definitely put it ahead of Deep Impact as it is more realistic if you know what I mean, in they way it unfolds.

Armageddon to me had a great story line with a love tale, a friendship tale and a heroic tale. I found the dialogue good, and some people say the acting was poor. It had some of the greatest actors of our generation in there I mean to list them:

Bruce Willis, Ben Aflek, Owen Wilson, Liv Tyler, Billy Bob Thornton, Will Patton, Steve Buscemi, William Fichtner, Michael Clark Duncan, Keith David and many more, I fail to see why many people despise it and was just wondering if you could tell me and I would be glad to reanalyze my favourite film.

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james adams

Two words:

Michael Bay

I can't stand this guy's style of direction. The love story in the film was ham fisted and vomit inducing. The scene with the animal crackers is what I consider to be one of the worst scenes ever put on film. I could barely get through it.

Bay doesn't know the meaning of the word subtle. This is the biggest problem with this clown. The silly moral plays in the film aren't handled well, as we are force fed themes on patriotism and family. These are good concepts, but they are slammed down our throats, in typical Bay fashion. We aren't dumb, but Bay likes to think we are.

Then there is all the logistical silliness that occurs. So, if the asteroid is "as large as Texas", why do they only have to drill, what was it, 900 feet? That makes no sense. This is just one of the many "um, huh?" issues with the whole premise of the film.

All the characters are cartoonish archetypes, as well. Again, no subtlety. Meanwhile, the film wants to be taken seriously, but nothing about it is serious.

Lastly, although I could probably go on for a bit longer, you talk about great actors, but then list a couple of good actors and a bunch of hacks. Liv Tyler? She sure is hot, but she isn't a top notch actress, by any stretch. Aflek? Wilson? Come on now...Keith David? The guy is a decent character player, but he is barely B-list...

As for being better than Deep Impact... I didn't like that crap-fest either!

For films of this nature, I will take Danny Boyle's Sunshine any day of the week.

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Well, I'm not a hater of that movie so maybe I'm not the right person to answer this. In response to your specific queries, I don't think Armageddon is any worse than The Waterboy (don't really see the similarity but ok) and haven't seen Deep Impact. I also think just as much of it as any of the following films:

Twister, Atomic Twister, Deep Blue Sea, Battlefield Earth, Tornado, Megasnake, Frankenfish, Mansquito, Independence Day, War of the Worlds, Blood Surf, The Omega Code, Reign of Fire, Gargoyle, Leprechaun in the Hood, most John Woo films that I've seen, Mission to Mars, Pterodactyl, The Abyss, Volcano, Dante's Peak, and countless others.

Maybe you should say what it is that stands out about Armageddon. I mean, the mere fact that it has those actors doesn't make it good, I mean, how to they respond to the directing that makes their performances interesting. How many movies that you have seen have "a love tale, a heroic tale, and a friendship tale"? What makes those things stand out in this one?

You obviously like it a lot, enough to call it your favorite film. Why would you care what other people think of it? Just curious.

As for the film, I thought it was a decent and fun sort of film to watch on a saturday night... a good popcorn movie. I don't think there are any really deep issues addressed or any real acting chops displayed in it but it's not that kind of movie. Not to say, of course, that the actors involved aren't capable of compelling performances as many have proven that they are.

In a nutshell, it's not the kind of film I'd list as my favorite film, but it's okay with me if you do.

Because it's a crappy, cliche' film marketed towards teenager who like to fill their minds with junk-food for the brain.

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I still haven't seen Armageddon.

I don't know that I have heard of people hating it all that much, but my experience is that no one is all that impressed with it, because like others have said, it is a pretty cliche film and the love story is really hard to watch. The rest of the ideas in the film are capable of being done obviously without seeming really poorly done, but that love story and scenes are just bad. Overall it was a somewhat entertaining film, nothing great and not one I am likely to watch again, but decently entertaining.

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"As I was walking up the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
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I kept waiting for Willis to lasso the asteroid… I did kinda like the song by Aerosmith the first time I heard it though… but by the second time…

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Apparently no one in that movie knew the slightest thing about the drilling industry or space travel. And talk about your "um, huh?", the whole idea was to put a drilling crew on the asteroid, so why were the the space craft packing atomic cannon or death rays or whatever that was they used to shoot the asteroid? With weapons like that, they could have shot it to pieces from a distance without ever having to risk a landing.

They obviously don't know anything about cat houses either, or they wouldn't have had one of the drill crew spending all of that big, big bonus in one in just one night. Shoot, one couldn't spend that much in a month, even if the girls were gold-plated. He didn't spend it--he got rolled!

I did get a laugh out of the opening scene with Bruce Willis driving golf balls at the folks aboard the Greenpeace ship, although in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but pity the oil company's PR man who would have to cleanup that politically incorrect event.

But after that episode, it was all downhill for the rest of the film.

Oh right. I forgot they had weapons on board, as well. I do think they tried to cover it, by saying they couldn't deflect it enough with the current weapons they had available. All the more reason they would have had to drill much, much deeper to reach dead center. At least they had animal crackers.

Wait, Ben Affleck is one of the greatest actors of our generation? Did someone call another Dark Age while I wasn't looking?

Anyway, I bear no particular grudge against that movie. It's a little pathetic how keenly it chases the mid-life crisis demographic (Bombastic Aerosmith soundtrack, roughnecks blowing lumps of rock up in space, some sort of fatherhood moral that only makes sense after five tins of strong beer) and the script's dumb as gravel, but it's still a decent Saturday night popcorn flick. Big stupid overblown blockbuster, not suitable for physicists, actual astronauts or anyone who notices the Palme d'Or logo on DVD covers.

Because it was only a fad back then, a craze. Taken up with great enthusiasm for a brief period of time, it has turned awful now...

Nope. I never liked it.

Ha! I hadn't thought about that aspect. Maybe it deserves to be lumped more with Wild Hogs and Space Cowboys than Megasnake (about the little snake that could) then...

The song was alright, but I didn't like the context of it being in the film. I always dislike having a pop song marketed as a tie into a movie.

The first time I heard the song was on the radio... the second time was while watching the video... which just kinda ruined it for me... and, for the most part, I normally like Aerosmith's music.

I love Armageddon and get mocked by family and friends about it constantly. It doesn't matter, that movie makes me laugh. I have lines memorized and I watch it every three months or so.

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Pretty much any movie where real men show eggheads and nancyboys the real way to do things, really. Like Deliverance, for example...

Now that would be an interesting topic for a film essay. Compare and contrast how Armageddon and Deliverance reinforce and debunk the concept of what it is to be a man, male bonding and how men deal with nature.

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I'd write it but it'd involve watching Deliverance again, and I like Ned Beatty far too much to see... that happen to him more than once in a lifetime.