Customer Reviews

Armageddon 98

5 star:		(468)
4 star:		(178)
3 star:		(94)
2 star:		(81)
1 star:		(333)

 

 

In 1998, "Armageddon" was the second highest grossing movie that year (to date: $201 million), just behind "Saving Private Ryan" (to date: $216 million). It has since grossed $554 million worldwide.
The original Touchstone DVD release was non-anamorphic. The Criterion release was slightly improved, but still the video was non-anamorphic. This long awaited blu ray release is worth the wait, and represents the definitive version of this movie.
Video: This 1080p AVC MPEG-4 transfer (aspect ratio 2.35:1) looked fantastic, considering the age of this movie. The blacks are inky black with lots of details. The picture was full of vibrant colour. The special effects, although dated, still looked awesome. (4.5/5)
Audio: The DTS MA 5.1 mix is much improved from the previous lossy Dolby Digital mix. The result was simply awesome. One could close one's eyes, and just hear discrete sound from individual speakers. The bass also rocked the entire house. To hear Aerosmith singing their #1 hit "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" was very satisfying. (4.5/5)
"Armageddon" is a fun fun adrenaline-filled pop-corn film experience with stunning imagery. This blu ray video is totally superior to all previous "Armageddon" home video releases, which featured non-anamorphic video. They looked so bad today that I do not even feel like a double dip. If you like explosions, space shuttles, with a love story, this is the movie for you.
One minor point: When the Russian astronaut banged on the computer in the Space Shuttle to restart the engine, he noticed that the parts were "Made in Taiwan". And when I looked at the 3D glasses that I sneaked out from IMAX a few weeks ago, guess what, they were also "made in Taiwan". Some things simply don't change.
This blu ray disc is highly recommended.

For me, this is an incredibly difficult movie to review and critique. I feel that the movie did a phenomenal job of developing the story; however, the acting in the movie left something to be desired.

In case someone has not seen the movie, I do not want to give much of the story away. An asteroid, classified as a global killer (a global killer meaning that if it impacts earth, there will be total destruction of life), is on a collision course with earth. NASA comes up with the idea of landing on the asteroid, drilling a hole, and dropping a nuclear weapon in the hole and blowing up the asteroid with the intent of splitting it in two and altering its path so it misses earth.

While it is a simple story, the movie does an exceptional job developing the plot into a 2-hour movie. The movie incorporates a "gloom and doom" plot with a second story of love, romance, and hope. The first plot is about an oil driller and his band of misfits attempting to work with a group of highly educated astronauts and military pilots to drill a hole on the asteroid (and of course the work together as well as Worcestershire sauce and ice cream). The second story line involves one of the oil drillers falling in love with the owners daughter. The relationship reminds me of a terrible "teen-age" relationship with the seemingly perfect love that young people share coupled with a resentful father who seems to not want to lose his daughter.

It is difficult to explain how well the two story lines integrate without ruining the movie for someone who has not seen it. While the plot is superb, the acting in the move is just so-so. I thought the acting of the three headline actors (Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, and Liv Tyler) was weak at best; they had their great moments, but mostly their acting seemed almost emotionless. I did think a couple of the lesser known actors (mainly Michael Clarke Duncan as "Bear" and Peter Stormare as the Russian astronaut) were incredible in this movie.

Personally, due to the overwhelming depressing plot about the end of the earth, I don't think this is a movie I would cuddle with on the couch with a new date. However, I nonetheless think the plot is excellent and I do highly recommend seeing this movie. I give the movie 5 stars for how the movie integrates the two story lines together and develops them into a great plot, not the acting in the movie.

Okay, there's a reason that we go to the movies...to escape everyday life and just enjoy some good old fun for a couple of hours and this movie does it. I don't know, maybe I'm just a Bruce Willis fan, but this movie did entertain me and it's on cable right now and I'm watching it, which is what compelled me to write and defend this fun movie because everyone else is trashing it!

Je comprends pas pourquoi, mais ce film, qui est un blockbuster, est vu par beaucoup de gens comme étant un classique. Je suis de cet avis!! J'adore ce film et je le recommande fortement , si vous ne l'avez pas vue bien-sûr!

While Deep Impact gave me more of an experience, and it more the type of movie I'd watch at home, Armageddon is more the type of movie the mainstream movie-going public wanted back in the 98. Armageddon serves as effective action movie, a very effect romance movie, and all-around great pop-corn flick.

Armageddon is based on the Idea of an asteroid on a collision course with earth and a team odf deep sea oil drillers (lead by bruce willis) that is sent along with a team of traditional astronauts to land on the asteroid and plant nukes to destroy it. if this sounds familiar it's because it was done very similarly though with a different attitude in "Deep Impact" which was released around the same time. While "Deep Impact" was a Disaster movie in every way, focusing on the effects of this natural disaster on society, individuals lives and the world in general... Armageddon is told from a more... "hollywood" viewfinder.

Instead of taking on the persona of a disaster flick, Armageddon does a nice job of transitioning a sci-fi/disaster movie plot as a medium via which to deliver an action romance movie. The romance in Armageddon is done well, with Bruce Willis's daughter and one of his crew being involved in a passionate love affair that is going on underneath daddy's nose. The 'disaproving father' dynamic isn't the most original but makes an interesting emotional angle, especially at the end. The effects in armageddon are good, but the movie is more centered around the action-based and love-inspired events of our characters rather than the ramifications this disasterous event would have on our planet. You'll see some nice CGI impacts, but most of the effects are space based here.

The real way in which armageddon becomes a good movie is the way the action, romance and intermittent humor is in a very nice balance throughout. You'll laugh... you'll cry (or want to cry)... and you'll be on the edge of your seat more than once. This is what the mainstream asks of a movie, and in the end is the main reason Armageddon is remembered as being better than deep impact by most people I know. Indeed Armageddon does feel like a better, more consisten cinematic endevour than it's rival, though it lacks many dimensions to it that "Deep Impact" picked up perfectly.

All things considered most people will be pleased with Armageddon, whether you're looking for a fun, action movie to pass the time, or a heart throbbing romance. The end of the movie will leave you feeling satisfied, and entertained, where as the end of Deep Immpact will leave you feeling sad and disconcerted as you ponder the sobering realities of the basis of the plot. I saw this movie in the theater and everyone enjoyed it.

This is the sort of movie that makes me afraid for the future of the human race. Seriously. You watch something this bad and read thousands of positive reviews on Amazon and it just makes you wonder. Where does such a trend end? Will future generations find it entertaining and worthwile to smash their heads with hammers?

After watching Armageddon I am sort of reminded of the release of The Arrival and Independence Day where both movies dealt with a similar plot and one tried to be somewhat realistic while the other went the campy B route. The same can be said of Deep Impact and Armageddon. Like Independence Day, Armageddon is a big budget B movie. Also like Independence Day, it is a lot of fun.

In this movie an unseen comet slams into the Asteroid Belt and sends a bunch of rocks toward Earth. A brief, but very destructive, meteor shower precedes the main event that will be played by an asteroid the size of Texas. In the eighteen days that Earth has left a team of the world's fines oil drillers is assembled and sent into space to plant a nuke to blow up the asteroid. A simple plot.

During the course of the movie we realize that the writers no nothing about Oil drilling, oil companies, astronomy, NASA, gravity, or most any other topic raised in the movie. There are a number of things I found particularly amusing. The first was the rough-neck driller (Bruce Willis) who is also the owner of the Drilling Company and drilling rig and is also a multi-millionaire. The rest of the drillers also seem to earn far more that their real-life counterparts. I was also amused at the fact that with all life on Earth being threatened, including bacteria, that the President of the United States has the authority to scrap the mission to save the world (there are at least five countries directly involved in the operation).

Among some of the other amusing points are the space shuttles (with a metal skin and not ceramic tiles) have the maneuverability of an F-14 Tomcat. They do some wonderful daredevil flying that is a credit to Top Gun (and without atmosphere yet). The asteroid, which resembles a giant black snowflake, has some gravity. There is enough that people don't move any differently than on Earth but little enough that a jump can carry you for miles or break out of the gravity well. Then there is the aging space station that blows up. Although the fuel is in a pod at the end of a long extension, there seems to be highly explosive material in every inch of the station. The first meteor that hits lands next to a guy arguing with another guy. The other guy is struck dead (no pun intended) and resulting in a hole that goes through to the subway system but leaves the first guy just a little dusty.

While Armageddon is a B movie it does have elements of other classic films including The Right Stuff. I also liked the pro NASA and pro Space Program plugs that keep popping up (Thornton is excellent). This is a fun movie but the plot and continuity have more holes than the average storm-door screen. If you want a fun movie, this is the one to watch, if you want something a bit more serious, check out Deep Impact instead.

Director: Michael Bay
Cast: Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, Will Patton, Steve Buscemi, Michael Clarke Duncan.
Running Time: 151 minutes.
Rated PG-13 for violence and some language.

"Armageddon" opens with a NASA spacecraft being torn apart by numerous small asteroids, destroying the ship and killing all of the inhabitants. Large cities across the country are then bombarded with meteors, causing NASA to investigate the strange phenomenom. They conclude that a massive, mother asteroid the size of Texas is on course to directly hit the planet Earth, killing all civilization and life as they know it.

NASA excecutive director Dan Truman (Thornton) decides that the best way to defend the world against this devastating threat is to hire a group of oil diggers (?) and actually send them onto the meteor (?) in order to plant an explosive inside the middle of it (?) so it can be destroyed before it makes contact. Bruce Willis stars in an adequate performance as the leader of the ragtag team of riggers, taking his team (which includes daughter Tyler and her lover Affleck) to the core of the planet's brink of elimination. While the story is so farfetched and ridiculous to be that realistic, fine performances throughout coupled with some hilarious, quirky dialogue saves this film from being a run-of-the-mill special effects guru blockbuster.

Superb special effects, riveting and off-the-wall cinematography created by the one-and-only director Michael Bay ("The Rock"), a fantastic musical score featuring the Aerosmith great, "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", and a touching, powerful ending. Fun, enjoyable; this rock-em, sock-em roller-coaster of a film is what summer movie-going is all about--even if its on DVD.

Watching "armagedon" was like watching "The Right Stuff" dumbed down for an audience of subhumans.

Bruce Willis ought to be condemned to living out his life in a garbage can for having had anything to do with this rubbish.

I guess if you believe that it'd be easier to train twelve roughnecks to be astronauts than it would be to train twelve astronauts to be oil riggers, then maybe you'll be stupid enough to accept the premise of this peice of unadulterated drivel.

There is a part in this movie I think does get slow, and you want it to move on to the exciting part, but by the end you will (well maybe not but I do) get weepy. No matter how mnay times I've seen this film, by the end I need tissue!!! The special affects are awesome, and the movie has a human touch that's unexpected. The cast in the film is GREAT!!!! The movie is about some guys who normally drill for oil being called upon to save the world. They do it in their own special way, but sadly everyone does not make it back, but they all become heroes. I LOVE this movie.