Campy, occasionally romantic...

Rating: 8/10 (13 September 2004)

Reading a lot of other reviews, I get the sense this movie isn't very popular. Granted it's got a fairly star studded cast - Bruce Willis, Liv Tyler, Ben Affleck, Steve Buscemi, Michael Clarke Duncan, and all those other familiar faces you know you've seen before. That could be one of the film's faults - they stocked their hopes on a popular cast, and didn't pay enough attention to the plot itself. As far as plot, I'm always entertained by disaster movies, particularly the disaster part. For me, the best part of the movie is the foreboding atmosphere built up by the superficial damage that the tiny fragments create. Everything after that is just filler. At the same time, I personally feel the one other strong point is the romance between Tyler and Affleck, and the conflict they have trying to build their relationship around the cynical father, Willis. That's a guilty pleasure of mine - a sweet romantic story thrown in peril by extenuating circumstances. Overall, it's a satisfactory effort at film-making. Armageddon is campy action-fun, the kind of movie made for a rainy Friday night or Saturday afternoon.