Armageddon

Armageddon- PG-13

By Jonathan Goodsell

Armageddon is a Jerry Bruckheimer production and is directed by Michael Bay. It stars Bruce Willis, Liv Tyler, and Ben Affleck. Armageddon tells the story of a meteor the size of Texas careening towards earth. If the meteor were to hit, it would be a "global killer" and "not even bacteria would survive". NASA comes up with this plan that would prevent the meteor from colliding with our beloved planet. The plan: drill a hole into the center of the meteor and drop a nuke in it. They call upon the help of Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) and his famous oil drilling team to help. Stamper and his crew agree and go through astronaut training in a matter of days to prepare for the mission of lifetime.
Seeing it was directed by Michael Bay, I was skeptic to watch this at first. As famous as the name is, it's not necessarily for good reasons. His latest hits, the Shia LaBeouf starring Transformers series, has left a lot to be expected and has shown Bay's love for over explosive, CGI filled and plot lacking film. But hey, with Bruce Willis starring I had to give it a try. Yet Michael Bay gave me everything I was expecting, painfully long scenes of chaos while asteroids were hurtling through sky scrapers or spaceships were flying through debris. However I was fully surprised by the acting, the only thing that made the movie enjoyable. The ever present humor as Bruce Willis attempted to prevent the love interest between his daughter, stunningly played by Liv Tyler, and ever fun to watch Ben Affleck. All the other members of Willis's crew also provided constant humor as the red neck oil drillers they were. The stressful and ever pressured NASA director played by Billy Bob Thornton also did a fantastic job pulling off character and bringing us back to earth (literally) to the drama of the situation.
I'm not saying the plot couldn't have used a bit of work, but for a easy-going end-of-the-world movie, you can't ask for a lot more. The script and story line were alright, you got a good laugh when you needed to, you felt the drama and suspense of the problem, and the love interest wasn't to mushy for guys but still loving enough for the girls. Armageddon was a lot more enjoyable then fellow end-of-world films like John Cusack's 2012.
It was a fairly mild PG-13, at least it could have been a lot worse. The scenes between Tyler and Affleck are very sensual but not explicit. You sit there and wonder if your going to need to press the fast-forward button on your remote, but it never quite gets there; though some may choose to still skip them. There is a brief scene in a strip club though that I did fast forward over. The language wasn't terrible but still worthy of the PG-13 rating. It's what you'd expect from people facing the end of the world. The destruction scenes are very tense and painfully long. You see a satellite explode, asteroids hitting and destroying cities, and there are several tense scenes up in space as they try to destroy the asteroid. There was very little blood at all though. I can only recall it in one scene at all, and even then it wasn't gruesome or terribly disturbing.
So all in all, I rather enjoyed the film. It wasn't a guns a blazin'  action thriller, nor was it a chick flick or a drama. It was just a fun filled ride.Michael Bay didn't completely overdo his ever present terror and CGI and the acting was marvelous to watch. I wouldn't recommend for little kids as it is tense and would frighten them at scenes. But teens and adults alike would enjoy the film, it could even make a good date night movie. So in my reviewer opinion, I am giving Jerry Bruckheimer's Armageddon a well deserved 7/10