Armageddon
A movie review by Monika Huebner Copyright 1998 Monika Huebner
Director: Michael Bay Cast: Bruce Willis, Liv Tyler, Will Patton, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare and others
The end of the world - many times invoked (in vain) by Jehova's Witnesses - now finally seems to loom over mankind. A giant asteroid races towards Earth and threatens to put an end to all life. NASA hopes to destroy it by drilling a hole in its surface and explode an atomic bomb in it. For this job they hire Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis), a drilling expert with an international reputation, to take his team to the asteroid and solve the problem once and for all. Time is running out because the approaching object was discovered late only when all of a sudden showers of meteorites rained down on the USA and caused considerable damage. The newly asigned astronauts can't waste much time on training, they just have to pass a physical. And the race against time commences.
CHAOS IN SPACE would have been a good name for the movie, but ARMAGEDDON of course sounds more dramatic. After DEEP IMPACT this is the second movie this year dealing with the subject of celestial bodies colliding with our planet. But compared to DEEP IMPACT this movie's motto is: Think Big. The asteroid about to hit Mother Earth is the size of Texas. The asteroid that ended the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago and left a 200 km wide crater is thought to have been 10 to 20 km in diameter. An object the size of Texas is likely to make a much bigger hole. Our solar system hasn't suffered collisions of this kind since it emerged in this remote corner of the galaxy.
But let's suspend disbelieve on this issue. It's a very dramatic idea that would have made a thrilling movie loaded with special effects. The special effects are quite stunning, and the audience doesn't have to wait till the last minute. New York is knocked flat and a few other sights outside the USA are doomed as well, for balance's sake. The movie starts with a bang. It's believable that the asteroid is discovered only when it's already quite near Earth. Near collisions with asteroids have happened in recent years as everybody can verify with NASA.
Harder to believe is the fact that a bunch of civilians is shot into space to save the Earth. It's like watching a bunch of small boys play astronauts in a real life setting. A bunch of boys who watched STAR WARS too many times. Or perhaps they were never allowed to play out their fantasies with action dolls. Sorry, but I guess to really enjoy those scenes you simply need a Y-chromosome.
Bruce Willis is in his element for the first time since the DIE HARD series. And he doesn't have to deal with mere trifles like skyscrapers, airports or major cities. He can be a true heroe and save the Earth. His adversary is just a dead rock instead of a group of vicious terrorists, but who cares. The asteroid gives him at least as much trouble as all the terrorists in the DIE HARD movies. Just one question: what's next? Saving the solar system or the whole galaxy? It doesn't get much bigger than that, but then he may soon be too old for the tough hero part anyway. So let's not begrudge him the triumph over the forces of nature. He uses his opportunity to be mucho macho. His daughter doesn't have much to say, but with a father like that she probably should be content to sit adoringly at his feet and do whatever he bids.
The rest of the team remains liveless. Some of them are living targets anyway. Killing off a few less important heroes adds to the suspense. Steve Buscemi can't save the day. The only bright spot in the movie is Peter Stormare as Russian cosmonaut Lev Andropov who for the last 18 months lived a solitary life on a Russian space station and therefore is a bit strange. Thus he provides the humor for this noisy action flick by messing up his new American friends with his bizarre ideas. He's the best choice for this wacky part, even if you can't help asking yourself why a brilliant actor like him accepts a part in this kind of project.
ARMAGEDDON will probably make people happy who thought that there wasn't enough action in DEEP IMPACT. Go find a theater with a big panorama screen and a digital sound system that is turned up till the seats vibrate. Don't see it on video. With the benefit of a big screen and great sound gone ARMAGEDDON is just an embarrassment. The noisily promoted movie lives up to the promises of its makers only in terms of volume.
Homepage: Book and movie reviews http://sites.inka.de/sites/darwin
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews