Subject: Review: Armageddon (1998)

From: "Mark O'Hara" <[email-masked]>
Date: 16 Jul 1998 06:09:33 GMT

Thanks for the message about my X Files review.  Enclosed is one
for ARMAGEDDON.

Armageddon (1998)

a Film Review by Mark O'Hara

When ARMAGEDDON opened on July 1, my son and I visited the only cinema 
in our small city.  We entered the largest auditorium, which was the 
original theater, circa 1930's.  (Three much smaller screens were added 
recently to please the college crowd.)

For close to two hours we viewed the film, watching as NASA discovered 
they had 18 days to figure a way to save the planet from an asteroid the 
size of Texas;  we followed the escapades of the world's best 
oil-drilling crew, led by Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis), as they 
hurriedly trained to drill 800 feet into the asteroid and plant a 
warhead.  We arrived almost at the climax, both space shuttle crews 
coping with crises in outer space.  Then the projector quit!  Rather, 
the sound quit first, and we were treated to the amplified banter of the 
teenage staff until they realized the problem and killed the projector.

We were glad finally when the harried manager refunded our money;  they 
had monkeyed around so much, restarting the film and failing for over 
half an hour, that the narrative had lost all continuity for us.

So when we tried again today in a multiplex in the county seat, we knew 
most of what we would see.  And hear.  First of all, ARMAGEDDON is very 
loud, especially on state-of-the-art sound systems.  Starting with the 
title sequence, the fiery pieces of "ARMAGEDDON" break up and rush 
toward the viewer with menacing racket.  The explosions are deafening as 
well:  but they occur in context, and count as a convincing part of very 
slick special effects.  What I noticed during both viewing attempts was 
the bad science that happened each time large objects rushed through the 
vacuum of space.  They groaned and galumphed past each other like mad 
Jabberwocks, the space rock past the moon, the shuttles past the 
camera's eye -- whooshes engineered to inspire awe. 

Then there is the trite characterization.  Having already met most of 
the deep-sea drillers when Harry chases A. J. Frost (Ben Affleck) around 
after finding him with daughter Grace (Liv Tyler), we are subjected to 
countless scenes in which each crew member's eccentricities are further 
highlighted.  Moreover, we must sit through almost remedial explanations 
of space protocol, including Dan Truman's (Billy Bob Thornton) spelling 
out of the exact mission.  Apparently director Michael Bay and the 
multiple writers forgot that APOLLO 13 educated movie-goers about 
sling-shotting around the moon, as well as about the particulars of 
gravity.

The acting does not draw as many complaints.  Bruce Willis plays a very 
likable drilling expert, a leader well-liked by his crew.  His timing 
seems especially good during the action sequences.  Only toward the end, 
when Stamper has no less than two tear-jerking scenes that rival the 
sentimental schlock of Forrest Gump's talking to Jenny's gravestone, is 
the acting over the top.  And that is the script's fault.  Rock-faced 
Billy Bob Thornton smiles only a few times, but manages a solid and 
sympathetic performance.  Liv Tyler, the only female aside from a token, 
beautiful astronaut, acts well off Harry and off her love interest, A. 
J., her wide lips alternately pouting and puckering.  William Fichtner 
plays Colonel Willie Sharp, the shuttle pilot charged with ensuring the 
success of the mission, with expert coldness;  he's the closest to a 
human villain, though he reminded me of the psychotic SEAL in THE ABYSS.

Other strong points are editing and cinematography.  From sweeps around 
the NASA conference room to quick close-ups, from split-second 
backgrounds (that was Michael Bay in one, no?) to the simulated, 
striking aerial view of the double launch, the camera work tells the 
story with stylistic, often frenetic motion.  Once again, though, the 
script intrudes:  the result, well-shot but terribly clichéd montages, 
many showing Bay's vision of a type of classic America, people listening 
to news of the catastrophe, gathered in a Mayberry-like barber shop or 
sitting in vintage pickups, near American flags and farmhouses.  In one 
shot a group of boys even runs past a clapboard store sporting a faded 
campaign mural of JFK!  I got the notion I was back in the first days of 
the old theater, and could walk out into the slightly fuzzy, pure 
American air, the dust motes of nostalgia floating around me.

I enjoyed the ending more than I thought I would, after seeing the 
beginning and middle twice.  ARMAGEDDON is just above average as summer 
entertainment, but I would advise finding a theatre that is neither too 
cold nor too loud, and that owns a projector with a fully functioning 
platter system.

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