Film Review: Armageddon: abridged

copyright: Mike Way, posted: 7-10-98

Ahh, the summer movie season. Each year Hollywood produces dozens of movies that become the stock of water cooler chatter every place from local restaurants to the mall. This year's crop has produced everything from the pedantic to the pathetic among which Armageddon is an unexpected exception and delight.

Armageddon starts more realistically where Deep Impact, the other summer ‘end-of-the-world’ blockbuster ends. The film opens with carnage and destruction accurately demonstrating what a ‘miles wide’ piece of space rock the could do if it hits the earth.

The movie itself is an extremely well written and dynamically plausible premise. Essentially a 100 mile wide asteroid is speeding toward earth at 22,000 mph. The asteroid, made of iron and rock is breaking apart with chunks hitting the earth approximately eighteen days before papa bear arrives in earnest bringing with it not just mama bear and the kids, but the end of the world.

The planet killer must be split in order to miss earth. Dan Truman (Billy Bob Thornton) decides to bring in Willis and his crew of Keystone Cop-like deep core oil drillers to land on the asteroid, drill 1/5 mile into the rock, set off a nuke, return to earth and live happily ever after. Well shucks, it just doesn’t quite work out that way and that is the compelling story in the story.

The cast is headed by Bruce Willis who as stars go, simply sparkles. You’ve got a literal ‘all star’ cast here and the magic works. You won’t know whom you’ll like better, Billy Bob Thornton (Sling Blade Oscar Winner) as mission controller Dan Truman or Bruce Willis fresh from The Jackal and Mercury Rising as Harry S. Stamper, owner of an off-shore oil drilling company. Thornton (Truman) is so good, so believable, so affable and endearing as the mission controller that sets the cadence to the film that never lets up. His quick wit, down home common sense, and impeccable timing, silently and unconsciously guide you through an emotional roller coaster that I witnessed causing grown, hardened men, to weep in one moment and to be doused in hysterical laughter in the next.

Then there’s Steve Buscemi who you’ll remember as the converted pedophile in "Con-Air". Steve delivers a simply delicious performance. The script, written by a gaggle of writers headed by Jonathan Hensleigh and Robert Roy Pool, is filled with warmth, wit, realistic drama and stark edge-of-the-seat excitement.

Way high kudos to Will Patton who played "Chick", the savvy, always reasonable silent hero. It’s likely that Thornton and Willis will be considered co-stars which will make Patton’s performance a possible for ‘best supporting’ nod come next March. There’s a scene when Chick is permitted to hug his young son for the first time that is the very definition of a tear jerking scene. The asteroid itself is a special F/X star in it’s own right. Named ‘Dottie’ by it’s discoverer and how it came to have that name is one of the more hilarious moments of the film.

This film allows you to witness heroism in it’s most natural state. There are no campy clichés or staged scenarios to attenuate heroism. You are allowed to see men and women who are afraid, riveted with fear, overcome their individual phobic demons to do the undoable when not doing would mean unparalleled disaster. General Kemsey, is believably performed by Keith David. His character is tense, real, and absolutely expected.

We are treated to the specter romance in an unconventional venue and acquired sonship from an earned perspective in the triad between Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, and Liv Tyler. The love story is fresh, believable and not steeped in overt sex. It’s a tender story of Liv Tyler’s metamorphosis from father love toward her Dad, to romantic love granted to her prince played by Affleck.

There is another unexpected star in this film and that star is the brilliantly different special effects for which Industrial Light and Magic had no part. The principal photography is by John Schwartzman who also shot last year’s hits, "The Rock" and "Conspiracy Theory". Schwartzman’s work is so near perfect, it will almost stop your heart. There is a destruction sequence in which an asteroid fragment hits Paris. The special F/X are absolute eye candy, beautifully produced and photographed. Director Tony Scott puts you right there at the launch pad when the shuttle launches. You’ll swear you can smell the liquid oxygen and feel the multi-million pound thrust from the SRB’s.

The musical score is appropriate and moving. The soundtrack features four songs from Aerosmith. Even so, the movie sounds and feels like borrowed Crimson Tide’s score. Stay for a while after the credits roll. There is some footage intermixed with the credits that makes a great epilogue.

So should you fork over a few bucks for this one? You bet! Should you wait to see it on video? Absolutely NOT! See it as a family as there is nothing objectionable for audiences of any age. It’s a great fun movie from a Producer/Director Combo that has never failed.

See you at the movies

Mike Way