Armageddon- Michael Bay Masterpiece

To date I haven't really enjoyed Michael Bay films ... Transformers was one of those films that for me didn't really hit the nail on the head for narrative but visually was mind blowing. 

Rewind to 1997 and to Armageddon, an end of the world epic that consists of a massive astriod and oil drillers going into space, now that is a film.

So when it popped on BBC 1 last night , I really wanted to watch it but it was bed time , fast forward to 20 minutes later, I opened Netflixs and decided I had to watch it! 

From the outset you cannot tell it is stylistically a Michael Bay Film! No way it'a more in the style of the disaster movie king Ronald Emerich which for years I was under the impression it was a Emerich film rather than Bay. 

Throw in lead characters being played by the hunky Ben Afleck (now an award winning director), The Veteran of action Bruce Willis and the daughter of a rock star Liv Tyler and you're onto a winner! 

What this film managed to do was add not only the edge of your seat thrill to a film but also a comedy element throughtout with main characters and also not so important characters throwing in comedy elements such as Space Dementia - in NASA speak when you go looney in space and a few comical happenings when the first astroid hits New York City with a pun directed at Godzilla  and Bruce Willis shooting Afleck in the leg for sleeping with his onscreen daughter Liv Tyler it's not just another Disaster Flick no no.

The narrative follows the simple plot line of a huge bad ass astriod is going to collide with Earth and when it hits it'll cause the damage it did when the Dinos were wiped out all those Billions of years ago. 

Cut to NASA and the whole of the American government freaking out and some of the greatest minds in the world stuck on ideas to actually get rid of the thing before it has chance to wipe out Earth and come up with the idea to blow it up with a nuclear weapon from the inside! sounds so simple. 

But you might have a problem ... an MIT degree is not going to help you when you don't know how to drill! 

Call in Bruce Willis... Our Hero of the piece, who from the outset thinks it's all some big joke... until he gets to Huston and realises that this is real and only he can save the earth! 

What follows is a rollocoaster of events that you need in your second act cos lets face it the film would be boring otherwise.... and so it begins... days of NASA training and development of a drill powerful enough to cut through the unknown rock and a team of well to put it politely crooks and idiots. 

Brilliant!! 

The real underlying story is the narrative of  love, which is more James Cameron esque but Bay did do it with Transformers.  It was heart breaking and emotional ... Liv Tyler knows how to turn on the water works and you're there with her ... crying floods of tears! 

Knowing that her father and fiancee are in space and that they may never come back ... is to some degree the worst. 

Overall this film is a great film for both men and women ... it appeals with it's sci-fi disaster action and fast paced narrative for the men, but for a woman this film has the all important love story and all the emotional themes that we (that is a royal 'we') need to actually  maybe enjoy a film like this rather than loads of action which in the end will bore you. 

I actually love this film and more importantly it's soundtrack performed by Liv Tyler's Daddy with the band Areosmith! If you weren't crying at the start of this you will by the end!