Armageddon (1998)
★★★ — Armageddon (1998)
Armageddon arrived in the summer of 1998 as the bigger, louder answer to Touchstone and producer Jerry Bruckheimer's own The Rock (1996), with Michael Bay returning to direct and a budget of $140 million making it one of the most expensive films ever produced at that point. Bay had made his name on music videos and advertisements before Bad Boys (1995) and The Rock established him as Hollywood's go-to director for high-octane spectacle, and Armageddon only accelerated that reputation. The film opened in direct competition with DreamWorks' Deep Impact (released just two months earlier), a rare case of two major studios releasing near-identical disaster premises in the same season. It grossed over $550 million worldwide, cementing the Bruckheimer-Bay partnership as one of the most commercially reliable in 1990s blockbuster cinema, and serving as an early star-making moment for Ben Affleck in the post-Good Will Hunting glow.
Armageddon (1998) is peak Michael Bay excess. Loud, flashy, emotionally over-the-top, and packed with enough explosions to level a planet. Bruce Willis leads a team of roughneck oil drillers turned astronauts on a mission to save Earth from a Texas-sized asteroid, which sounds ridiculous on paper but somehow works because the film commits fully. It’s not subtle, not smart, and definitely not realistic, but as a two-and-a-half-hour adrenaline rush with emotional melodrama cranked to eleven it kinda delivers. It’s predictable from minute one (training montages, last-minute heroics, tearful goodbyes, and a ticking clock that somehow still leaves time for a wedding in space) but you don’t watch Armageddon for surprises. You watch it for the spectacle, the heart, and the sheer audacity of its cheese. And yeah, it’s very cheesy. Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler’s love story feels straight out of a soap opera. But then there’s the soundtrack, especially Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.” That song is the soul of the movie. Haunting, dramatic, perfectly timed. It turns what should be schlock into something oddly touching. It’s weird how big rock bands don’t make those iconic, era-defining movie songs anymore. Now we get forgettable pop remixes or bland orchestral cues. We lost something when the era of the power-ballad soundtrack died. Flawed, silly, but undeniably entertaining. A guilty pleasure with real heart under all the noise. Not great cinema, but a cultural moment. For better or worse, we’ll never miss a thing about it.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 1998 | Watched: 2025-11-03
Where to watch (UK)
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Rakuten TV
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Physical: Amazon UK
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