Following the great Jerry Bruckheimer tradition of being big on explosions and short on actual cinematic originality, Armageddon still manages to entertain for the whole of it's 2 and a half hour length. All you as the audience need do is ignore the ridiculous plot, continuity problems and stereotypical acting (Bruce Willis is more guilty than anyone here), switch off your brains and enjoy.
After a space shuttle and satellite are destroyed by an unexpected meteorite shower and much of New York totalled (isn't it always?) NASA picks up a 'planet-killer' asteroid as big as Texas on a collision course with the Earth.
With only one course of action open, mining the asteroid and blowing it apart, NASA chief Dan Truman (Thornton) secretly hires the world's best drilling team, led by Willis, to fly up and do the job. What follows is the usual fish-out-of-water scenario of a misfit crew being trained in zero-g work before embarking. So far, so predictable.
What lifts the film in my opinion are the superlative special effects and asteroid scenes, with the drillers and astronauts working as quickly as possible in order to save the Earth. Throw in a great 'destruction of Mir' sequence and you have some good, albeit mindless entertainment.
What lets the film down is the utterly appalling characters, obviously taken from the book or roughneck cliches, and the romance (or lack thereof) between Ben 'no-sexual-charisma-whatsoever' Affleck and Liv 'got-the-job-cos-of-who-my-dad-is' Tyler. Frankly, I wanted them to send her up there and have her blown into the sun or something, but I'm just not that lucky. |
