Time: 150 Minutes
Age Rating: M
Cast:
Bruce Willis as Harry S. Stamper
Billy Bob Thornton as Dan Truman
Ben Affleck as A.J. Frost
Liv Tyler as Grace Stamper
Will Patton as Chick
Steve Buscemi as Rockhound
William Fichtner as Colonel Willie Sharp
Owen Wilson as Oscar
Michael Clarke Duncan as Bear
Peter Stormare as Lev Andropov
Ken Campbell as Max
Jessica Steen as Co-Pilot Jennifer Watts
Keith David as General Kimsey
Chris Ellis as Flight Director Clark
Jason Isaacs as Ronald Quincy
Director: Michael Bay

Armageddon is an end of the world sci-fi action film which is still quite fun today, even if its not one of Michael Bay’s best by any means.

Armageddon is very fun to watch. It is a disaster movie so of course it is over the top silly and it also has some cheesy dialogue, but is even absurd in other unexpected ways, which made it more enjoyable if anything. The film is about oil drillers who train to become astronauts in order to drill through and destroy an incoming asteroid before it destroys Earth. Its very dumb and has plenty of plot issues, but that’s easy to ignore. A big chunk of the movie is just the character training and preparing to get into space, so its really only the back third where it gets into those big action sequences. But is generally fun throughout, even with the slightly overlong runtime of 2 hours and 30 minutes.

The film also really benefits from a big cast who deliver good performances, from Bruce Willis in the lead role, to Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Steve Buscemi, Owen Wilson, Billy Bob Thornton, Michael Clark Duncan, Keith David, Jason Isaacs, William Fichtner and Peter Stormare in supporting roles. 

Michael Bay’s direction was also a big factor in the film being as entertaining as it was. There isn’t as much destruction throughout as you’d expect, but those sequences are great. The action scenes are well crafted and are on a large scale, helped by the solid visual effects and sound effects.

Armageddon is a bit overlong, but is otherwise an enjoyably silly and entertaining sci-fi disaster movie, benefitting from the fun action and cast.