"Armageddon" by Michael Bay: Humanity in the brink of extinction

There are a few extinction movies out there that catch my attention and one of them is Armageddon by Michael Bay starring one of my favorite actors of all time, Bruce Willis. It was produced by world-renowned producer Jerry Bruckheimer and the screenplay by an equally famous J.J. Abrams.

The narrative of the movie is all about the tragic and heroic story of a man who was commissioned to dig deep into the comet for it to be blown up into two with the sole purpose of forcing it to miss the Earth entirely and therefore avoid the extinction of man just like what happened to the Dinosaur in the Cretaceous Period.

I like the narration at the movie's beginning showing how the Dinosaur goes extinct. The scene of an astronaut at the beginning of the movie now does not make sense to me because any object that is very close to Earth will be detected by an instrument. But hey, it is a movie so it is okay.

Then a command room in the Pentagon detected multiple bogeys and one officer was heard saying "This could be a surprise missile attack". I wonder if those radars that were controlled by the Pentagon were not able to detect those meteors much earlier that were approaching and what about NASA? Didn't they see it in their equipment a little bit earlier?

I like how they made those meteors strike Earth it adds to the excitement of the film but again, why didn't NASA and the Pentagon able to see the coming meteor on their radars in advance? But then it was answered in the succeeding scenes as one official saying that the budget crippled their capability to see the asteroid, let alone the meteor shower ahead of the asteroid.

That shooting spree with a shotgun by Harry (Bruce Willis) in an oil drilling structure is nuts. Is it even legal to fire a gun in an oil drilling structure? Wouldn't anything explode if it were hit by a bullet?

The succeeding scenes are anything I have never imagined. The craziness of Harry's men. Why would they avoid authorities at will? I think it is not an accurate depiction of how the government will pursue a person to do a job let alone prevent an extinction.

The scene when A.J. (Ben Affleck) sang "Leaving on a Jet Plane" seems to be lackluster (at least to me). I do not know, it's just it doesn't inspire or impress me especially when some of his colleagues tried to sing with him. Aside from that I also do not know why I don't like most of the drama scenes of the movie I am more interested in the scenes about the asteroid itself.

The transition of scenes while the President of the United States is talking is brilliant. Showing different people from different countries does make sense and shows that it is indeed a global event where mankind must bond together for a common goal, to avoid extinction.

There is one part of the drama of the movie that I like, it is when the kid points out to his mother about a "Salesman" but the mother tells him, "That is not a salesman, that is your daddy". Truly, this is one of the tear-jerker scenes of the movie. It is brilliant.

One of the moments that I have been waiting for in this movie is about the lift-off. It is always a marvel to see a spaceship firing its rockets. The only thing I am most curious about the lift-off is that it produces so much vibration when a space shuttle is living on the ground.

One thing that surprises me about this movie is that disaster happened even before all the crew was on the asteroid. The destruction of the Space Station is a brilliant idea that adds to the thrill of the movie.

The not-so-good fate of the Independence Shuttle added more excitement to the movie as it gives the viewer a lot more to think about and expect. Are they going to make and rendezvous with the crew of Freedom Shuttle? If yes, how is the remaining crew going to do it?

Then a twist to the story emerged when a high-ranking general was ordered to override the system. This means he is now in charge and the original plan has been abolished. This is the kind of drama that I am looking for in a stake movie like this, the suspense, the unpredictability, and how the men and women involved will react.

An unexpected twist in the movie comes when Rockhound (Steve Buscemi) succumbs to space dementia and as a result, he plays with a minigun and nearly hits Harry (Bruce Willis). So, they got him tied up inside the Freedom Space Shuttle. Also, it got very very messy when a general was ordered to remote detonate while the Flight Director tried to kill the uplink of the remote detonator for the nuclear warhead aboard the Freedom Space Shuttle while Harry (Bruce Willis) was drilling a hole in the asteroid for 800 feet.

The saddest part of the movie is when Harry (Bruce Willis) sacrifices himself to detonate the bomb as the electronics of the bomb are destroyed. I think Harry did it because if he would let A.J. do it her daughter would not forgive him and also because he is quite of age and A.J. is still young and could take care of her daughter better than him.

All in all the movie is great but some parts are just so messy and do not make sense. The tragedies on the asteroid surface are probably over-acting and the drama on the surface of the asteroid is just too long. The ending is over-thrilled but it is okay it is what makes a good movie.

That is all for now guys, catch you up with the next one. Wishing you all safety, good health, and abundance.