Suspend your disbelief - you have to

Rating: 6/10 (3 November 2004)

Right before the turn of the millennium, all these apocalyptic Armageddon films (Deep Impact, End of Days, even South Park Movie anyone?) were hugely popular. Fascinated by the seemingly impending disaster of the Y2K phenomenon, we moviegoers flocked to the theaters like sheep to see these films, caught up in a monotony of "End of the World" scenarios. However, Armageddon somehow stood out compared with the others.
Maybe it was the cast. The star filled cast of Willis, Thornton, Affleck, Tyler, Buscemi, and Wilson is a start, but the performances were actually quite good under the circumstances. Harry Stamper (Willis) is believable as a lifelong oil driller. Affleck, not so much, but in the defining role of his career (to that point), he did a good job. Though the scripting of his love for Stamper's daughter (Tyler) is cheesy at best, by the end of the movie there seems to be a real connection between the two. It's not by any means a masterful script, but then nor does it pretend to be. It's a special effects action romp on an imaginary asteroid hurtling towards the earth at (literally) breakneck speed. Forget how corny it seems that the setbacks keep occurring one after another. Forget the mistakes with the actual physics of space - "Fire in space? How?...There's no air!" as well as a scene where someone tosses a pipe in the air and it actually comes down ("This asteroid is so big it has its own gravitational pull?") - Forget all that. If you analyze anything here, it won't work. But then if you analyze the Ninja Turtles, Spider Man, or the X-men, they won't work either. While Armageddon will undoubtedly fall short of the ranks occupied by those comic book/video game (and now film) deities, that doesn't mean it can't be enjoyed, even by those of us who do have, and like to use, our brains. Just sit down, grab some popcorn, suspend your disbelief, and watch the movie. And when it's over, don't discuss it except to give praise to the actors where it is due, talk about the cool effects, or mention the awesome Aerosmith song "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing." To apply reason and rational evaluation to a film in this genre would be as catastrophic as, well, an asteroid the size of Texas slamming into the earth.