Michael Bay's Armageddon

Rating: 6/10 (23 October 2006)

Plot: A huge Comet is headed for earth. As it does not consist of one big piece, but of a cloud of rather small pieces plus a main rock the size of Texas, little impacts are recorded long before the big one is scheduled for collision with earth. Harry S. Stamper and his drill team are selected to land on the main comet as they are the only ones who can work the special drill Harry developed. Their mission is to drill 800 ft. into the comet to place a nuclear explosive device. The explosion of the bomb will break the comet in two, and the two pieces will pass earth on both sides. This task has to be accomplished before a certain "dead" line, or the comet parts will not fly by, but hit earth.
The movie, has its few pros and cons. The pros are that the visuals were stunning. Seriously, I have never seen New York like that before. Raining meteorites the size of a basketball, a 150mph flaming basketballs for that matter hits New York and destroys almost half of the city. Flaming cars go flying everywhere and the Empire State Building crumbles to the ground. hmmm. The destruction of Paris was a sight to behold. A very huge asteroid about the size of Vatican (this isn't the main asteroid, its still in space, this is like the one that got off earlier) hits right in the middle of Paris and *poof* one flick of the finger and Paris was blown to bits. You can see the famous Eiffel Tower collapse and be reduced to rubble. Some Asian country unfortunately got hit also by the meteorite shower. It hits all the places it can possibly hit. But, that's not it. Wait until you see their perilous journey through space. The effects were outstanding. I have to say, though I am not a scientist, the planets, asteroids, comets, meteors and all that Heavenly stuff were accurately visualized. Another pro is that they blended all the genres successfully. One scene gives you a taste of intense action, another gives you a tearful of drama and on the other hand you'll laugh at the witty comments and one-liners. It was blended well. The actors were very good too. Bruce Willis gives an excellent portrayal as the leader of the ragtag crew Harry Stamper. Billy Bob Thornton was great too. Though he is not in the frontlines, I can feel his character's feelings through his emotions. Other casts include Steve Buscemi as 'Rockhound', the genius of the team. Michael Clarke Duncan as 'Bear', the big, husking brute that's a force to reckon with. Owen Wilson's character (Oscar Choi, the Geologist) though died earlier than I expected gives off some witty one-liners that I can't forget. Ben Affleck, gives a good acting. Some parts of him in the movie were great, some were not. I dunno. I can't feel him in some of the scenes. But, that was SOME parts only. All in all great choice for a cast list.
Sound score were top-notch. It gives you the mood that you are in space with them. The only con I noticed is a major plot loophole: Isn't it easier for NASA to train professional astronauts to drill than train expert core drillers to be astronauts? My 2 cents.
Anyhoo, 7/10. Overall, job well done.