Review of Armageddon (1996) by Stephen Z — 13 Nov 2015

The thought of an extinction-level asteroid hurtling towards Earth is a terrifying thought. So the idea of a film about a desperate attempt to stop such an asteroid intrigued me. That's why I was on board with "Armageddon" for its interesting premise, but it lost my attention when it spent too much time on stuff I don't care about; on the oil rig, on the astronaut training, and on the overdone suspense and drama on the asteroid. This is a long movie that lingers far too long on...everything. It could've been trimmed down significantly to make the pace flow smoothly and efficiently. The pace of this film is seriously messed up!

But pacing issues are not the only problems "Armageddon" has. For a cast full of veteran actors - like Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton - and young talent - such as Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, and Michael Clarke Duncan - alike, there is a disappointing lack of good performances. Lastly, this is just an all-around unentertaining film. It's certainly not an action film, yet the drama and character development is so bad, I'm not sure you can justify this as a dramatic film either.

By the end of the movie, I found myself hoping that the asteroid would destroy Earth and this sloppy movie with it. Not only is "Armageddon" definitely not the terrific sci-fi/space epic I was hoping it would be, but it is not even a good film, period.