An effects-laden Hollywood blockbuster that works

Rating: 6/10 (8 July 2015)

Another big-budget brainless blockbuster film, this bombastic offering is surprisingly enjoyable. Definitely the more entertaining of the two asteroid films released in '98 (the other being the more intelligent, but rather stodgy DEEP IMPACT), this kicks off with an effects-laden opening which shows a shower of meteorites hitting New York and demolishing/blowing up just about everything in sight.
Of course, it has to go downhill from there, and some characterisation mixed with lame comedy filler follow for a short while. Thankfully things soon pick up with the exciting space mission and the two and a half hour running time literally flies by. There are lots of dollops of sickly sentimentalising thrown into the mix too, for good measure, but these aren't dwelt on, thankfully enough. Thankfully the producers realised that they were catering for a primarily male audience and made the film a macho testosterone-pounder instead. And it's a good one!
This film's style is to have loads and loads of quick exciting scenes edited together really fast so the action keeps cutting from place to place. While this is fine occasionally, for two and a half hours it becomes a bit overdone and tiring but thankfully I didn't notice too much. A lavish score adds to the pace and for once the special effects aren't the star of the show; I think this is why this film was a success, because it's about people more than it is about the latest in CGI technology. Sure, there are lots and lots of (good) computer effects but these only serve as a backdrop to the characters in the story.
A good cast also help to smooth over any cracks in the film and it becomes easy to forgive. A baldy Bruce Willis is the hard-bitten hero who predictably enough gets to save the planet, I liked his performance but he showed he was capable of much more than the one-dimensional hero in THE SIXTH SENSE. Billy Bob Thornton (so good as Jacob in A SIMPLE PLAN) gets to emote and look extremely stressed as the poor guy stuck on the ground while Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler supply the sentimental dross which I could have done without. An ever-amusing Steve Buscemi lends the comic angle as the astronaut suffering from "space dementia" while familiar faces like Owen Wilson (THE HAUNTING), William Fichter (imagine a young Christopher Walken), Michael Clarke Duncan (THE GREEN MILE), Jason Isaacs (EVENT HORIZON) and Keith David (THE THING) fill out the welcome supporting cast. Even Peter Stormare (the thug from FARGO) appears as an overacting Russian!
Extra fun comes from guessing who dies next and the action doesn't disappoint either with plenty of tense moments. Armageddon is not exactly intelligent entertainment but it's a fun, easy to view film with the budget all on screen and with plenty of laughs and thrills along the way. You can't say fairer than that!