I've Seen Razor Commercials With More Depth

Rating: 3/10 (6 January 2005)

Looking through the IMDb trivia section I see that Ben Affleck can up with the conclusion that it might be easier training astronauts to be drillers rather than training drillers to be astronauts , but then was told to shut up after pointing this out to the producers . Hey I thought this too and I'm sure that everyone who hated this dumb movie thought the same . When the cleverest person on the set is Ben Affleck you know the movie is heading for disaster . That's just one aspect that's wrong with the script , there's plenty of more like the sketchy and clichéd characters , the scientific blunders and the unrealistic scenario - A bunch of redneck oil drillers attempt to save the earth by travelling to an asteroid , just think about that for a moment and see how the concept quickly collapses
But it's Michael Bay's directing that's the major problem . It really is amazing and not in a good way with the camera locking on to characters when they're not doing anything , and too many slow motion sequences during undramatic moments , then when the action does start to hot up the camera intercuts between the action scenes far too quickly . This problem of Bay's style isn't as bad as the director's latter PEARL HARBOR ( But could Bay direct a worse film than PEARL HARBOR ? ) but it is very evident here . And seeing as I've criticised the script for it's lack of science much of the problem is down to Bay as much as the screenwriters . What fireballs on an asteroid with no atmosphere ?
There are two things that Armageddon deserves credit for
1 ) The special effects are very good
2) It makes DEEP IMPACT look like a masterpiece in comparison
But you do get the impression from watching this film Michael Bay would be better suited directing commercials for macho products like razors and aftershave . I much preferred the weepy , sentimental soap opera antics of DEEP IMPACT