Not a tremendously complex plot here. When Nasa discover a Texan sized asteroid heading at a great rate towards the Earth, they hatch a plan to land on it’s surface and drill into it, before planting a bomb that will split the rock in 2 and save the planet. So they call on the service of the worlds finest deep core driller, one Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) and his rag tag crew. They will have just 12 days to prepare for space, before attempting to complete the mission on the asteroid.
Like I said, not complex and if you watch closely there are a few plot flaws ands minor discrepancies, but action films can get away with these as few people put the plots under the microscope. The action moves along at a very fast pace for most of the film, and a few scenes aside, the energy rarely lets up. The idea itself is based on a very true scenario, this may happen at any time as there are so many asteroids about. This is told to us at the very start of the film, it says of how a rock wiped out the dinosaurs, and how it WILL happen again. It’s quite a scary thought, although I don’t think Nasa would go about saving the planet in the same way as this film.

The cast for Armageddon is a mix of A-List stars and unknown quantities, but I think it’s one of the better casts recently assembled. Willis is very good as the head of the drilling operation and all round heroic kind of guy. His passion for the job at hand, combined with his protective love for daughter Grace (Liv Tyler) show him as a deeply emotional man, yet rather hard on the surface. Willis plays the role brilliantly, combining his action experience from Die Hard with a newer, emotional side of himself.
Tyler plays his headstrong daughter, and she is one of the weaker actors in the film. But this is partly down to her character being a little too variable. At times she is headstrong and determined but then follows that with a display of weakness and emotion. Liv does her best with the role, but I feel there were better actresses around who could have done the job.
Billy Bob Thornton plays Nasa mission control man Dan Truman, and his is a performance to rival Ed Harris’ controller from Apollo 13. He is always calm and calculated on screen and portrays an image of coolness, yet with sublime feelings under the surface that he daren’t show for fear of others knowing them. He has to remain in control so the job can be done, and he plays this role superbly. Ben Affleck is Willis’ right hand man, a junior still learning his trade, headstrong and foolhardy but a good man, he also has a thing going on with Willis’ daughter. This leads to conflicts between the 2 as an unsteady father-son like relationship develops. Affleck plays the part better than I had expected, he shows a deep desire for the part and his passion throughout is excellent, he also delivers several comedy lines very sharply.
But Armageddon’s jewel in the cast is the support actors, the people who make up Harry Stampers drilling team. Michael Clarke Duncan plays the giant “Bear” and he shows why Willis wanted him for the role. Steve Buscemi is on top form as the bored genius Rockhound, and many of his scenes steal the stage from his illustrious co-stars. Will Patton plays the older, wiser member of the team, and his performance is excellent, as is that of Peter Stormare who does an excellent Russian accent as cosmonaut Andropov.
Overall the cast helps take the film from decent action flick to the emotional highs that it manages to reach. Their togetherness and on screen partnerships make for excellent viewing and a great sense of camaraderie between the characters.

Michael Bay has had a vision for this film. Not content with making an action space flick, he has really tried to convey emotion and desperation to us. He shows the devastating effects of the asteroid from the start, and always likes to remind us that it could happen. Some of the camera shots, like the take off of the missions or the moments of despair as problems occur are well shot and add to the films enjoyment. The dialogue on the asteroid is perfectly audible despite the background noise of drills etc. Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer have really tried to make this more than just an action film and on many levels they succeed. Whilst the film still displays many of the classic action traits, their ability to display the emotion of the situations is what sets it apart.

An amazing score accompanies Armageddon, but the songs used are a bit of a let down. The songs themselves are quite good (no better than using Beatles classic Come Together for when the group meets up at Nasa) but all the songs in the film are performed by Aerosmith (wonder why, no connection between Steve and Liv Tyler at all?) This ruins the atmosphere slightly, as the songs sound similar and you feel there was more urgency in getting another song in than actually picking a decent song. Fortunately the musical score saves the day, Trevor Rabin has come up with a soundtrack to suit the mood. The intense action scenes are well scored, with powerful themes used throughout, but there are scenes with more emotion than action, and Rabin’s soft piano segments are the perfect foil for these moments. He has a few weak spots but generally the music suits the film perfectly.

The UK DVD release was a massive disappointment, While the picture was very clear and the sound taking full advantage of the surround sound abilities of DVD, there were no extras at all (criminal offence) and the picture wasn’t anamorphic and therefore has huge black lines either end (top and bottom) It was a real waste as the film is great and there were plenty of extras available……..
……as the US release proved, Criterion collections came up with a special 2 disc set which includes :

Overall.