Bruce Willis saves the world - again

Rating: 8/10 (2 October 2011)

Armegeddon is defined in the movie as being the time in which the world ends. In the bible it is the name of a final battle where the world rises up against God and God fights back and wins. It is described as being a blood bath where blood is ankle deep. The reason it is called Armegeddon is because it is fought on the plain of Megiddo which, as one of my friends says, is a pretty good place for a battle. The movie, on the other hand, is a little like Deep Impact. I say a little because it seriously romps all over the former movie. Deep Impact came out first but after seeing Armegeddon you wonder why anybody would actually want to see Deep Impact. This is a much more well thought out movie with a singular plot and a lot of excitement. Deep Impact opens with a car crash and a government cover up and the period of excitement is watching a huge wave wipe out the east coast. Armegeddon opens with the destruction of the world and then goes straight into a meteorite shower striking New York city. They first think it is nukes but realise that they have a whopping great big asteroid coming towards them and they have only 18 days to prepare for it. Thus they find Stamper (Bruce Willis), the world's best oil-rig driller, and ask him to help them with the machinery to drill into the asteroid. He ends up taking his crew into space to drill into the asteroid. The movie is very entertaining with much more laughs than Deep Impact. The characters are a little light hearted and we can appreciate the jovial manner. Then there is the asteroid itself: it is a very fearsome thing that has a very Gothic feel to it. It is mostly shrouded in darkness and it seems to be alive as his attempts to stop the miners from destroying it. We know that it is not alive, but the problems that are continually mounting upon it create a situation of utter urgency. There is no end to the excitement in the movie, and the fact that a huge shower of meteorites is heading for the earth gives way for much more destruction than Deep Impact. Armegeddon is about the end of the Earth, but we all know that the world will be saved, we know from the beginning that they are going to destroy the asteroid. That is inevitable. What we watch the movie for is to see how we get to that spot. The psychology of the movie is what is interesting. There are fears that an asteroid will come our way and there is no way we can stop it, not with out technology. There is a fear in the populace that something like that will happen so what we have are movies that reassure us that no matter what happens, we can overcome such difficulties. A scientist theorised that such a thing could happen so everybody panics. We are sheeps and will believe anything that we are told, and we are being told that we have the power to stop the end of the world. The truth is we cannot. When Christ returns only those of us who follow him will be saved, all other will have to face his wrath. Thus Armegeddon is a good movie but puts false hopes in us.