While the movie Armageddon is still fresh in my mind, I'll say
this-it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I'll even go as far as to say
it was pretty fun. Maybe that's because I got to sit in the front and throw
popcorn at the screen. Maybe because the popcorn was free. And maybe because
I didn't have to pay for the ticket. Yeah, it was mostly that, but I'll
give the movie some credit-there were some damn funny parts. Unlike most
American movies, this one had a rather well developed set of characters and
some jokes that were funny. (Everyone knows what I'm talking about-those
movies that are supposed to be comedies and there's nothing funny about them.
They're just sad. For Richer or Poorer is one that comes to mind.)
I'm not going into the great lines, you'll have to see it for
yourself.
Structure wise, there are at least 3 things wrong with
Armageddon. The first one is its length - 2½ hours, at least 45
minutes of which was crap which should've been cut out. You don't put every
scene you film into a movie, it's somebody's job to choose.
The second thing is that the movie couldn't decide on its genre. Was it a
fantastical comedy or a science fiction tragedy? No, these are not two ways
of saying the same thing. It's very important for a movie to know what it's
trying to say and where it's headed. This movie didn't. Rather, it was a
collection of gags and random tearjerkers. However, I see this as a positive
thing-Hollywood filmmakers are finally trying to do something more in depth
than your average action flick. The plot? I'm not even going to go there,
except to mention the most gaping plot hole-the time it takes for the
asteroid to hit the earth is 18 days. But if you add up all the time it takes
for the team to actually get up there is great discrepancy. Expect the same
kind of continuity and insight from the rest of the plot.
Great movie? No. Not even a good movie. But it is worth seeing. If I had
to pay for it, I'd pay maybe $2.
One more thing-no American movie can resist poking fun at the big bad
communists (in Russia's case, the ex-communists). Look for the most
stereotypical Russian cosmonaut you have ever seen. This guy probably wasn't
even Russian! This makes me so incensed... but, that's another story all
together.
Remember to look for Steve Buschemi. He's great!
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