Disney / Buena Vista | 1998 | 150 mins. | Rated PG-13
Released in July of 1998, Armageddon became a box office smash. Despite largely negative reviews from critics, filmgoers flocked to theaters, leaving the movie with a gross of $553.7 million worldwide. Directed by Michael Bay, and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer—two men known for action packed odes to testosterone—reviews have tagged the film as shallow, silly, loud and over-the-top. While those criticisms aren’t without merit, Armageddon is also a great popcorn film; the kind of thing you can sit back and watch without having to think too much. And as a person who loves films, I think we need that kind of escapism, and not everything has to have a definable message.
Things begin with a ticking clock that runs throughout the course of the narrative. In 18 days, a huge meteor will hit and ultimately destroy planet Earth. This all comes to pass after Manhattan and the orbiting space shuttle Atlantis are destroyed by a violent meteor shower. It is then that a group of NASA’s top scientists led by Dan Truman (Billy Bob Thornton) discover that the huge meteor is headed straight for Earth. Since the meteor is too big to be destroyed by a missile, it’s decided that a powerful nuclear device buried near the core would be enough to break the rock up before it impacts. To accomplish the drilling, NASA brings aboard Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) and his crew of tough-as-nails oil rig drillers. The importance of the job has convinced Harry to re-hire A. J, Frost (Ben Affleck) after chasing him away at gunpoint from daughter Grace (Liv Tyler) in an attempt to save her from a blue-collar life. Stamper and his rag-tag crew train alongside the astronauts for the shuttle’s Independence and Freedom. The astronauts are led by Col. Sharp (William Fichtner), who’s highly disciplined military training stands in stark contrast to the no discipline drillers.
The shuttles are eventually able to launch, barely surviving a dock with a Russian space station to gather fuel, where they pick up cosmonaut Lev Andropov (Peter Stormare). After a dangerous slingshot maneuver around the moon greatly reduces the team’s numbers, they must still attempt an unprecedented landing (on a surface without 2 tandem meters of flat space) and then drill through thousands of feet of hard iron for the detonation to be effective. When venting gas destroys the remote detonation system, it’s short straw time for Harry, A. J. and the remaining crew.
That’s pretty much Armageddon in a nutshell as far as the story. The rest of the film involves explosions, some pretty neat special effects and a bit of character development for good measure. While the special effects add to the fun, several different subplots, such as the relationship between Stamper’s daughter, Grace and his employee A.J., make the film feel too long, and disrupts the overall pace of the movie. Character development is a good thing, but here we get too much detail.
Be aware that Armageddon creates its own reality to fit the story. However, No matter how unbelievable the plot is and no matter how much science the film ignores (“Shuttles can’t maneuver like that!”), the movie is very entertaining. It’s a glossy, action flick with bright special effects, a solid cast, and a so-ridiculous-it-works storyline. In other words it is the epitome of a summer popcorn movie that is high on entertainment and low on messages. If you haven’t seen Armageddon or have been waiting for its high-definition debut, definitely pick it up.
The AVC/MPEG-4 transfer is a pretty good one, with no visible artifacts and nice coloration. There’s plenty of detail, evident especially in close-ups, but detail also remains in darkened scenes. The only scenes where there seems to be a little more grain are a few exterior middle shots. Otherwise it’s a great-looking video, with natural skin tones and nice edge delineation. Armageddon is presented in 2.35:1 aspect ratio, according to the box, but it looks to measure closer to the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.39:1.
The audio is even better. The featured track is an English DTS-HD MA 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) audio that really spreads the sound naturally across the speakers, so that the explosions, the bumps and crashes, the drilling noises all seem to fill the room. There’s a nice wide spread across the front speakers, too, so the dialogue doesn’t feel “trapped” by comparison. Rear speakers are active for ambient sounds, too, which you’ll notice during some of the sequences at the training facilities. Additional soundtrack options are French and Spanish Dolby Digital 4.1, with English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles.
Unfortunately, the Blu-ray edition of Armageddon only includes a music video for Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” (SD, 5 minutes) and a pair of theatrical trailers (SD, 6 minutes).
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