Amazon.com video review:
The latest testosterone-saturated blow-'em-up from producer
Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay (The Rock, Bad Boys)
continues Hollywood's millennium-fueled fascination with the
destruction of our planet. There's no arguing that the successful duo
understands what mainstream American audiences want in their
blockbuster movies--loads of loud, eye-popping special effects,
rapid-fire pacing, and patriotic flag waving. Bay's protagonists--the eight
crude, lewd, oversexed (but lovable, of course) oil drillers summoned
to save the world from a Texas-sized meteor hurling toward the
earth--are not flawless heroes, but common men with whom all can
relate. In this huge Western-in-space soap opera, they're American
cowboys turned astronauts. Sci-fi buffs will appreciate Bay's
fetishizing of technology, even though it's apparent he doesn't
understand it as anything more than flashing lights and shiny
gadgets. Smartly, the duo also tries to lure the art-house crowd,
raiding the local indie acting stable and populating the film with
guys like Steve Buscemi, Billy Bob Thornton, Owen Wilson, and Michael
Duncan, all adding needed touches of humor and charisma. When Bay
applies his sledgehammer aesthetics to the action portions of the
film, it's mindless fun; it's only when Armageddon tackles
humanity that it becomes truly offensive. Not since Mississippi
Burning have racial and cultural stereotypes been substituted
for characters so blatantly--African Americans, Japanese, Chinese,
Scottish, Samoans, Muslims, French ... if it's not white and American,
Bay simplifies it. Or, make that white male America; the film
features only three notable females--four if you count the meteor,
who's constantly referred to as a "bitch that needs drillin'," but
she's a hell of a lot more developed and unpredictable than the other
women characters combined. Sure, Bay's film creates some tension and
contains some visceral moments, but if he can't create any redeemable
characters outside of those in space, what's the point of saving the
planet? --Dave McCoy
Amazon.com video review:
The latest testosterone-saturated blow-'em-up from producer
Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay (The Rock, Bad Boys)
continues Hollywood's millennium-fueled fascination with the
destruction of our planet. There's no arguing that the successful duo
understands what mainstream American audiences want in their
blockbuster movies--loads of loud, eye-popping special effects, rapid-
fire pacing, and patriotic flag waving. Bay's protagonists--the eight
crude, lewd, oversexed (but lovable, of course) oil drillers summoned
to save the world from a Texas-sized meteor hurling toward the
earth--are not flawless heroes, but common men with whom all can
relate. In this huge Western-in-space soap opera, they're American
cowboys turned astronauts. Sci-fi buffs will appreciate Bay's
fetishizing of technology, even though it's apparent he doesn't
understand it as anything more than flashing lights and shiny
gadgets. Smartly, the duo also tries to lure the art-house crowd,
raiding the local indie acting stable and populating the film with
guys like Steve Buscemi, Billy Bob Thornton, Owen Wilson, and Michael
Duncan, all adding needed touches of humor and charisma. When Bay
applies his sledgehammer aesthetics to the action portions of the
film, it's mindless fun; it's only when Armageddon tackles
humanity that it becomes truly offensive. Not since Mississippi
Burning have racial and cultural stereotypes been substituted
for characters so blatantly--African Americans, Japanese, Chinese,
Scottish, Samoans, Muslims, French ... if it's not white and American,
Bay simplifies it. Or, make that white male America; the film
features only three notable females--four if you count the meteor,
who's constantly referred to as a "bitch that needs drillin'," but
she's a hell of a lot more developed and unpredictable than the other
women characters combined. Sure, Bay's film creates some tension and
contains some visceral moments, but if he can't create any redeemable
characters outside of those in space, what's the point of saving the
planet? --Dave McCoy
