Shallow, Bloated Film

Rating: 1/10 (14 December 1998)

I think this is a shallow, bloated, over-produced film. Directed by Michael Bay, who did an excellent job on "The Rock," Armageddon's 2 1/2 hour running time is very long. The characters are cartoonish, very sketchily drawn. Despite the heavy subject matter, there's more clowning around in this movie than in most comedies. The attempts at humor in this film were lost on me. I mean, is this comedy, drama, adventure or suspense?
The script was not convincing in any of these areas. Bruce Willis has done excellent work in 12 Monkeys, The Fifth Element, Pulp Fiction and other films. Here, Armageddon's desultory, louder-is-better approach works against him, Liv Tyler, Billy Bob Thornton, etc. This movie really disappointed me.