The End Of The World - Part 3: Armageddon

If you're going to show an end-of-the-world senario on film, then there's only two people you need too call; Roland Emmerich or Michael Bay. Emmerich will get his cosmological disaster movie, 2012, off the ground later this year. But in 1998, the call went to Michael Bay.

Armageddon is Bay's best film, im my opinion. First off, it's got a really, really good script. It doesn'y muck around; it presents the global threat right before the main credits and applies the pressure from there on. It's got a fantastic group of characters that Bay was able to bring alive with a talented, ad-libbing cast from Bruce Willis, Ben Afleck, Will Patten, Steve Buscemi, Owen Wilson, Michael Duncan Claerke, William Fitchner and gold ol' Billy Bob.

Half the movie is set up, and despite the goofing around of the drilling team, Bay never lets us forget the threat of extinction or the price of faliure. The longer the set up, the more the stakes are increased once the mission proceeds.

The mission itself is a typically explosion, event filled explosion fest. The photography, set-design and visual effects are highly stylised making Armageddon a suprisingly unique visual feast. The script milks every drop of tension from the premise from malfuntioning equipment, differences of opinion, interfering Army Generals, unforseen technical complications and, of course, space dementia!

What makes this, rather than breaks it, is it's set in Bayworld where the characters can be both normal everymen, and yet mythic heroes....and where impossible imaginary landsapes and obstacles can be conjured, yet be overcome with cunning, perseverance and faith. It's impossibly dumb yet it never feels dumb at all. Take the shuttle launch; a slow motion montage of people around the globe reacting to the President's speach while the shuttle crews strut the right stuff. It should be cringe inducingly corny, incredibly over-sentimental, and obviously cliched. Yet, in Bay-world, it all seems profoundly and powerfully mythic, as the knights go off to slay the dragon. It's the gift of Bay...when Bay is working at his peak.