More entertaining, but less satisfying

Rating: Null/10 (9 November 2000)

Since this movie and DEEP IMPACT used essentially the same scenario, and appeared at almost the same time, one has to suspect they were out to compete with each other. After watching both, I felt ARMAGEDDON was more fun, more entertaining, and more upbeat, but I'm afraid I still found it the less satisfying of the two.
After a meteor shower makes mince meat out of Manhattan, NASA discovers that's only a preview of coming attractions. An asteroid is heading for Earth, and if something isn't done, it's the end of the world as we know it. NASA decides to blow it up from inside, and asks oil drilling expert Harry Stamper to go into space and guide the astronauts who'll be drilling the hole to put the bomb in. Stamper agrees, but on one condition. He doesn't trust the astronauts to do it right, and wants to take his own crew instead. The problem is, these guys have never been trained for space flight, much less logged any actual time up there, and they're not exactly prime astronaut material. Okay, this shaky crew does make for a lot of genuine humor that actually enhances the suspense, because it increases the doubt as to whether they're really gonna be able to save the Earth. At the same time, you start to like these guys, so you can work up a vested interest in their fate the doesn't depend on the Earth being in danger.
But whatever might have been good about taking the plot in this direction, I thought it created two major problems. First, the mood of light-hearted adventure that was perfectly fine for a movie like STAR WARS seemed royally inappropriate for a movie hat dealt with something as serious as the impending destruction of the Earth. Granted, STAR TREK IV went for the same mood and dealt with the impending destruction of the Earth, but that was a hypothetical future Earth, threatened by something that was pure science fiction. In this case, we have a present-day Earth, threatened by something definitely within the bounds of possibility. The movie even begins by telling you it has happened before. Perhaps if ARMAGEDDON had been done as an out-an-out dark comedy, along the lines of DR. STRANGELOVE  which is actually alluded to in this movie  it would have worked for me. DR. STRANGELOVE showed deliberate, calculated contempt, but ARMAGEDDON just shows poor judgment.
And that poor judgment involves not only mood but credibility. I find it hard to believe that NASA would have taken the pretty-please- with-sugar-on-it approach with Stamper. Rather, I think they would have MADE him cooperate in whatever way the military MAKES people cooperate when there's no time to argue. And if they didn't MAKE him forget about taking his own crew instead of their astronauts, they would have at least MADE him forget about that night on the town right before the mission.
Still, ARMAGEDDON does give you a lot of cool mayhem and destruction right at the beginning, rather than making you wait through three quarters of the movie, and it is more uplifting. I also thought its view of how the general public would react was more believable. And ARMAGEDDON got one fact right that DEEP IMPACT got wrong. If something that big hit the ocean that hard, it wouldn't just make a tidal wave. It would flash-boil the water and make it rain. But I'm afraid those selling points weren't strong enough to make me feel this was the better of the two movies.
Now if only someone would make a movie out of the definitive novel on the subject, LUCIFER'S HAMMER.