OK apart from Affleck

Rating: 6/10 (11 April 2007)

To be honest I don't feel Armageddon is a bad film. I found it entertaining and a decent way to spend an evening when nothing else was worth seeing. However there were quite a few things that annoyed me intensely.
Firstly the ridiculous romance between Liv Tyler and Ben Affleck. She could have chosen any other character. Steve Owen for example who is even the right age for tyler as you hear Bruce Willis commenting that Owen's character was "like 5 minutes older than her" Affleck is simply awful. By far and away the best character is surprise surprise Steve Buscemi, who delivered a great performance compared to the young lovers dribbling over each other using animal crackers as metaphors to the serengetti.
The second most annoying thing about this film is that I found the constant America F*** yeah style theme completely destroyed any story that this picture had. You just can't take it seriously when the American boy ran, with the American flag on his shirt to the American astronauts. Also all other forms of life other than America seemed completely obsolete in this film. Every country (especially the middle-eastern countries) always seemed to be in shadow. While every American setting was a slow-mo of some US kids running towards somewhere. Damn it was annoying!!!. Also the fact that the Russian cosmonaut seemed permanently stoned and the British genius is thwarted mentally by Bruce Willis when discussing the drill design. WTF?
Also most of the characters seemed to change or disappear! For example when the company of misfits have been told the outcome of the Earth, one character appears and then you don't see him again EVER! He is only mentioned once when Affleck is shouting hysterically at the Russian saying Two of his friends are know dead. I seem to only remember Steve Owen's lifeless corpse. One, not two.
Anyway back to character development. The characters which seem to change the most are Willis who goes from hard-core driller to sentimental Christian mentioning god every few lines. And Liv Tyler who changes from head strong rebellious 20 year old to weak minded soppy child by the end of the film. The only character that doesn't change (apart form the cosmonaut, but let's face it there hardly going to concentrate on him) is Affleck who is constantly screaming out ridiculous lines such as "Harry I love you". Not great.
To the positives, most of the characters were likable. Bear, Steve Owen and the guy who plays chick are decent characters. Also Steve Buscemi and the Russian were probably the best in my opinion. However this brings back the Affleck situation, and this is where the film falls. Nobody can like Affleck's character. Telling Bruce Willis to chill when Bruce is chasing him on the oil rig just makes himself looking pretty stupid. Also the relationship with Tyler, the I love you Brucey scene and an poor overall performance are strong reasons to say that Affleck was pretty bad I'm afraid.
Liked most of the characters, OK story, decent no-brain Saturday night film but several serious flaws makes Armageddon an average film.