See it for the spectacle
Armageddon
Armageddon, the asteroid disaster movie starring Bruce Willis
that challenges Godzilla for this summer's big budget blockbuster
title, is actually very watchable. The plot is pretty
straightforward. A rock the size of Texas is about to destroy the
Earth, preceded by lots of little asteroids so we get some good
explosions and set the scene. The only way this big rock can be
diverted is if NASA sends a team into space to land on the
asteroid, drill a hole, and blow it up from the inside.
The suits and uniforms are forced, therefore, to call upon a team
of offbeat and crude oil rig drilling experts, led, you've
guessed it, by Bruce Willis.
The movie's strengths are in its special effects, which are
pretty amazing, and the presence of Steve Buscemi and Peter
Stormare, who provide welcome comic relief as sex maniac oil
driller and eccentric cosmonaut, respectively.
Willis does not have too much to do bar look heroic, but Billy
Bob Thornton is excellent as NASA's executive director.
On the minus side, the movie fails to build up sufficient
suspense. We never really believe that the world is about to end,
and if we do, we don't feel connected enough to care. The love
story between Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler is as pathetic and wooden
as this viewer has ever seen, and the movie generally fails in
its attempt to show the human relationships caught up in the
impending disaster.
So it ain't no classic and will not challenge for any of the
major acting awards in next year's Oscars, but as
action/adventure hokum, Armageddon looks like the bundles of
money that were spent on it and there are bangs and flashes
aplenty.
By Martin Spain
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