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Review #56: Armageddon.
A massive asteroid is heading for earth, it’s big enough and ugly enough to cause the death of every living thing on earth, including bacteria.
Bruce Willis, an oilrig millionaire and his team of employees are called into action by NASA to prep a drill team so they can land on the asteroid and drill a hole, then drop a nuclear bomb into the hole and save the world.
Cue lots of fish-out-of-water humorous training montages and full on explosive CGI action.
It’s a typical Michael Bay film, loud, brash, and explosive with elements of boyish humour and contains very little in the way of real life and has very outlandish plotpoints.
It’s well written in terms of dialogue and storytelling and expands the characters and their lives relatively well.
The CGI is also extremely well rendered, the practical effects are seamlessly mixed in and it’s exciting in the action stakes, but really, at its core, it’s a brainless actioner smothered in special effects.
Some of the scenes are quite disturbing too, one scene in particular shows the New York Twin Towers being hammered by meteors. Most TV stations remove said scene when airing the movie.
The main fault is the actual premise: NASA sending oilrig workers into space as astronauts after a week of training, because genuine astronauts can’t be trained to use a drill properly. Even Ben Affleck has been quoted putting the film down.
The other problem, is Michael Bay’s timing. It’s very similar to Transformers, daytime one minute and night-time the next, then suddenly it’s two days later. It loses the audience, you never know what’s happening or why.
The acting is probably the best thing next to the CGI. The all play their parts as good as they could and are very engaging.
Oilrig boss, Bruce Willis, is decidedly grumpy and take-charge, occasionally showing a softer side toward the end.
Ben Affleck is probably at his best, most of the time his acting is wooden and nauseous but he’s actually very likeable as Willis’ rebellious soon-to-be-son-in-law.
Billy-Bob Thornton steals the show as the NASA big-knob who calls Willis and his men into action. He encapsulates the character brilliantly and really draws the audience into his scenes.
All in all it’s an action movie that will appeal more to teenagers and has the occasional hit of teary tragedy and touches of loud humour.
It’s a very enjoyable film but if you’re after a meteor/disaster movie that has a bit more storyline, better characters and depth (ahem), watch Armageddon’s release-date-rival called Deep Impact.
My rating 70%
A massive asteroid is heading for earth, it’s big enough and ugly enough to cause the death of every living thing on earth, including bacteria.
Bruce Willis, an oilrig millionaire and his team of employees are called into action by NASA to prep a drill team so they can land on the asteroid and drill a hole, then drop a nuclear bomb into the hole and save the world.
Cue lots of fish-out-of-water humorous training montages and full on explosive CGI action.
It’s a typical Michael Bay film, loud, brash, and explosive with elements of boyish humour and contains very little in the way of real life and has very outlandish plotpoints.
It’s well written in terms of dialogue and storytelling and expands the characters and their lives relatively well.
The CGI is also extremely well rendered, the practical effects are seamlessly mixed in and it’s exciting in the action stakes, but really, at its core, it’s a brainless actioner smothered in special effects.
Some of the scenes are quite disturbing too, one scene in particular shows the New York Twin Towers being hammered by meteors. Most TV stations remove said scene when airing the movie.
The main fault is the actual premise: NASA sending oilrig workers into space as astronauts after a week of training, because genuine astronauts can’t be trained to use a drill properly. Even Ben Affleck has been quoted putting the film down.
The other problem, is Michael Bay’s timing. It’s very similar to Transformers, daytime one minute and night-time the next, then suddenly it’s two days later. It loses the audience, you never know what’s happening or why.
The acting is probably the best thing next to the CGI. The all play their parts as good as they could and are very engaging.
Oilrig boss, Bruce Willis, is decidedly grumpy and take-charge, occasionally showing a softer side toward the end.
Ben Affleck is probably at his best, most of the time his acting is wooden and nauseous but he’s actually very likeable as Willis’ rebellious soon-to-be-son-in-law.
Billy-Bob Thornton steals the show as the NASA big-knob who calls Willis and his men into action. He encapsulates the character brilliantly and really draws the audience into his scenes.
All in all it’s an action movie that will appeal more to teenagers and has the occasional hit of teary tragedy and touches of loud humour.
It’s a very enjoyable film but if you’re after a meteor/disaster movie that has a bit more storyline, better characters and depth (ahem), watch Armageddon’s release-date-rival called Deep Impact.
My rating 70%
