Director: Michael Bay
Cast: Bruce Willis, Liv Tyler, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck
Stage: Home TV selection, a holiday day
Armageddon in short: It is just another day at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a few astronauts were repairing a satellite until, out of nowhere, a series of asteroids came crashing into the shuttle, destroying it. These asteroids also decimated New York soon thereafter. Then, NASA discovered that there is an asteroid roughly the size of Texas heading towards the Earth, and when it does hit the Earth, the planet itself and all of its inhabitants will be obliterated, worse, the asteroid will hit the Earth in 18 days. Unfortunately, NASA's plans to destroy the asteroid are irrelevant. That is when the U.S. military decides to use a nuclear warhead to blow the asteroid to pieces. Then, scientists decide to blow the asteroid with the warhead inside the asteroid itself. The only man to do it, is an oil driller named Harry Stamper and his group of misfit drillers and geologists. As he and his drill team prepare for space excavation...
Preps: Bruce per se. Don't need to say more. There is energy in the piece by default if you know he's in. Something he changed with Die Hard and let the trace in our hearts. Plus, superb cast. Have seen this several times and am aware of its faults. However, no action like saving the world, that can brighten my evening.
Reality: Storyline is similar to tons of pieces on the topic. Something is flying towards Earth and it will cause a great crash, up to the extention that it will blow the hell out of us and make us all freeze to death, if we somehow survive the crashing. Now, obviously you know that US has a backup plan and yes, Bruce is the man to save the world. Drilling oil, this is the US back up plan. Now, as we have seen Die Hard already, we know he can save the world and I believe the average viewer doesn't have anything against it. The crew, the training, preps, everything is upside down, but the curiosity speeds up as the movie delivers to the very end. Will they make it or die trying :) Another jewel in this piece is the music. Aerosmith gave a good taste to the movie, as well as some other performers. Crash itself and stages before it comes to the crash, are equipped with some nice pieces of instrumental music. Plus, we get to see how Nasa is supposed to work inside out. A special mentioning also goes to the effects of some crashings of the tall buildings and impacts some of the stones that are falling down, are depicted and vividly shown. Some great deeds are shown, as a some token just before they go on the mission. The day when you know you could end it dead and saving the world (which doesn't really bring redemption to your soul given you are dead and cannot inhale the fresh air anymore. Who wants to be a dead hero anyway. However, in this mission it is clearly shown what kind of assignements we sometimes need to cope with, even though we don't like them or accept them truly. Love between his daughter and one of his crew members is shown loveable and a bit naive. Still, it is a perfect role for Liv. I haven't seen her truly in some serious casts (in the sense she fits in the roles of sensitive dames, depressive women, touching spirits, etc. She feels fragile and should cast also in movies that support this. On the other hand, Willis as her dad, is the antipod in every cell he posesses. " I address you as the citizen of humanity", the glorious words of US president before he lets the wild 14 bunch on stage. No doubt, they will succeed. With a bitter taste of some lost souls. But what would a true heroic US movie be without fallen heroes, right;) ?
My personal rating: 6,0 (solid adventure, no hard feelings when you leave it in the middle to get something from the fridge. On the other hand, Willis rocks the boat as hard as he can to escort you to the end of this piece).
Armageddon on IMDB
