Retro Film Review: Armageddon (1998)
(SPECIAL NOTE: Capsule version of the review is available here.)
There were, there are and there always will be naive idealists who prefer seeing world as it should be rather than as it is. When it comes to goč,s, such people still cling to notion that commercial success of Hollywood blockbusters still has something to do with films' quality rather than hype. It took rather long and depressive series of 1990s Hollywood atrocities for some of them to face cataclysmic realisation that their entire world was built on self-delusion. It is, therefore, quite easy to imagine Armageddon, 1998 disaster epic directed by Michael Bay, having a fitting title for some of its viewers.
Armageddon, highest-grossing Hollywood film of 1998, was originally devised as rival project to Mimi Leder's Deep Impact. Both films dealt with the celestial objects on collision course on Earth and efforts to prevent such disaster and subsequent extinction of all life. Armageddon, made for twice as much money as Deep Impact, begins with a prologue describing how a single meteor managed to wipe out all dinosaurs. 65 million years later team of NASA scientists led by Dan Truman (played by Billy Bob Thornton) is faced with a same problem - Texas-size asteroid is approaching Earth and the effects of collision are to obliterate even the tiniest life form on the planet. In the meantime, expert oil driller Harry Stamper (played by Bruce Willis) is facing another problem - his young and attractive daughter Grace (played by Liv Tyler) is having a relationship with his worker A.J. Frost (played by Ben Affleck). Stamper's attempts to deal with the situation are temporarily suspended when he gets called by NASA. Truman and his team have decided to launch two space shuttles to the asteroid, drill the holes in it and detonate nuclear bombs. Stamper is supposed only to give advice, but he insists than only expert drillers can do the job. NASA relents and pushes Stamper and his colleagues through crash course of astronautics. Once in space, Stamper and his team are going to experience whole series of problems that threaten not only their, but the lives of the entire world.
Armageddon in many of its elements shows the signature of its producer Jerry Bruckheimmer - loud soundtrack, plenty of action, spectacular explosions, characters with plenty of macho posturing. It also easily gives away the style of its director Michael Bay, because the word "shredding", rather than "cutting" is more appropriate description of the way film is edited. There is hardly any shot lasting longer than few seconds and the rapid series of images often distracts audience from noticing problems with plot. This technique is best suited for action film, but Armageddon is, unfortunately, supposed to be an epic and, apart from few scenes during which smaller pieces of meteor wreak havoc on few of the world's cities, first part of the film is dedicated to the character development. That section of Armageddon is almost painful to watch, not only because of Bay's poor directing, but also because of the inept writing by this film's screenwriting committee (ten people were rumoured to be involved in creation of script, only three are mentioned on the credits). Characters are series of cliches, dialogue is atrocious and the attempt to bring female audience to theatres with Titanic-style romantic subplot spectacularly backfires because Tyler and Affleck lack chemistry. Unlike Titanic, poor plot and characterisation isn't going to be compensated with authenticity - whatever happens on screen doesn't have much to do with even the most basic scientific facts. Special effects of Armageddon also seem unfinished in some scenes (including the one with leaves viewers with impression of grass growing on asteroids).
Just like Godzilla, this film was also savagely attacked by critics in 1998. But audience this time didn't pay much attention to their opinion, although both films show approximately same level of quality. The reason for Armageddon's success could be summed up in somewhat better (and less arrogant) propaganda campaign and better sense of comedy. There are few scenes in the film that work as very good parody of Kaufman's The Right Stuff. The characters who are supposed to be comic relief are indeed comic relief. Steve Buscemi is wonderful in the small role of a driller affected by "space dementia", while Peter Stormare almost steals the show as drunk, unshaven Russian astronaut who joins American mission from his gradually disintegrating space station. Those are the reasons why Armageddon is not going to be complete waste of time for viewers.
One of the greatest ironies of Armageddon lies in the fact this film was the most watched of its time only to become the most unwatched film. Both of those had little do with film's quality. The film's opening scenes, during which New York's skyscrapers fall down, were repeated in real life three years after the premiere, making the scene unbearable for New Yorkers and all those affected by the gruesome events of September 2001. Creators of this film also learned how cruel and heartless this world could be.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.film.reviews on March 4th 2004)
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