Not a masterpiece, but good fun besides

Rating: 7/10 (6 June 2010)

There are things wrong with Armageddon, but I don't think it is a bad movie. In fact I think it more as a guilty pleasure. It is shallow in the character development, the film is much too long by twenty minutes not helped by the sappy love-story subplot and Ben Affleck got on my nerves. With its faults it is entertaining, and I do think it is better than Pearl Harbor, which had amazing spectacle but was bloated and had an awful script. So what makes Armageddon entertaining? Well, the visuals are incredible, and the music is great. I liked the script, clichéd it may be but there was enough tongue-in-cheek for me to be entertained by, and the film realises it's a parody and that it is politically incorrect something those talentless hacks Friedberg and Seltzer should have already learnt by now. The direction is decent, and the acting was good, Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Will Patton and Steve Buschemi coming off best. Overall, no masterpiece by all means, but it is not Michael Bay's worst movie and definitely not the worst movie ever. 7/10 for the entertainment value and the visuals alone. Bethany Cox