Life as we know it is going to end due to an asteroid the size of Texas, taking out all life on the planet, from bacteria all the way up to humans. We’re not exactly talking a new premise here. But this is the stuff summer blockbusters are built on.

“Armageddon” is the typical summer action blockbuster: packed full of impressive and extraordinary visual and audio effects, lots of action and a commendable storyline. The story’s no Academy Award winner, but as action movies go, "Armageddon" is strong a ll around.

I sat through the movie, my eyes and ears completely satisfied with the film, as long as I suspended belief about certain aspects, such as the number of to-the-wire close calls. The visuals and audio special effects completely bring the film to put on a level higher than others of its genre (and completely blowing away the earlier summer disaster movie, "Deep Impact").

As soon as the burning title came on, I could tell the effect crew put in overtime on this film. The logo explodes, and the shards fly in all directions. The DTS sound system made the shards sound as if they were flying all around the audience. When I hea rd this and realized this was but the beginning, I knew I was in for an audio/visual treat.

Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) is an expert oil driller, with a crew around him that he trusts and confides in, plus A.J. Frost (Ben Affleck). Stamper doesn’t like Frost because of his attitude and the fact that he is in love with Stamper’s daughter, Grace (Liv Tyler).

Tyler comes across as a bit of a spolied brat and adds nothing to the so-called drama of the picture. Her attempts at being sensitive yet strong make her come off as shallow and self-centered, though I feel sure this wasn’t the way the script wanted her t o be portrayed. It’s difficult to entirely put the blame on Tyler, though, as she’s put in commendable performances in the past in films such as “Stealing Beauty,” “Heavy” and “Empire Records.”

I went into the film, not knowing much more than that the world was in danger of extinction and a crew of astronauts were to save the day, but as the film starts, it’s about a group of normal blue-collar workers on an oil rig. I was really intrigued and c urious as to how this group was to be linked to NASA later in the film.

It turns out that Stamper and company are sent into space because they know drilling the best. While it’s a simple thing, it’s something that’s not seen too much in the genre. Instead of the heroes being guys trained to be such, they’re closer to normal g uys thrown into a situation. I guess that’s been done before, but not as well.

While the story had too many close calls and too many things coming down to the wire, overall, the film had a decent story. The writers should also be commended for keeping one-liners to a minimum, one my biggest pet peeves about summer blockbusters. Laug hs can be achieved without resorting to lame lines of dialogue.

If you wait for it on video and watch it on a 13" TV with a mono VCR, you won’t be impressed half as much. The film is really watchable because of the effects. Take the impressive special effects away, and it can be lumped with just about any other action movie that’s been released the past few years. More than anything I’ve seen recently, the sound enhances the film. Ambient noise was constantly hovering in the background: from the underwater noises of the crews’ training to the beeps and hums of the shuttles, the surround sound gave a sense of being there and helped make the impressive effects even more imp ressive.

My only real complaint is the number of close calls, lucky breaks and down-to-the-wire sequences. The cliche of a timer counting down to the final second before being disarmed is present and really shouldn’t be. (The heroes were disarming a nuclear bomb, and it was obvious the writers weren’t going to end the movie with everyone dying.)

Affleck’s character in particular seemed to posses a rabbit’s foot, horseshoe or something that kept him alive and driven through the film (the writer’s may want you to believe it was the love for Grace that drove him to continue, though I don’t buy it). Affleck’s character survives a nasty crash landing on the asteroid’s surface, a weightless jump across a huge valley in a tanklike drill machine (imagine "Knight Rider" in a vaccuum) and a huge, explosive fire that destroys an entire Russian space station . Suspend your belief through all this, and the movie is completely enjoyable and entertaining.

The film was a little long, though I didn’t realize it until after we had left the theater. The action is constant and time flew in the theater as fast as the rock and rubble on the screen. The effects and technology used in the film is seamless. Never o nce did the environment look like a set or a computer-generated environment. This genre continues to rake in audiences and the big bucks because of production like this. Also, I’m sure "Armageddon" makes George Lucas proud, as the THX/DTS sound system is used to its fullest, from subtle noises to big explosions.

Originally posted at NandoNext.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 1998 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Film, Movie Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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