So let’s get one thing out of the way: Michael Bay is very good at what he does. I don’t always like or appreciate what he does, but what he does, he is definitely good at. I think, though, that the pinnacle of his intensely limited abilities were shown in the first Transformers picture, I think the Michael Bay who made Transformers 2 could learn quite a bit from the Michael Bay that made Armageddon. Where Transformers 2 was an incomprehensible mess, Armageddon was suprisingly cohesive, simple, and concise. But, ultimately, it’s still just a movie with big explosions and more cheese than the state of Wisconsin.
I like cheese, though, when it’s firm and sharp, like Armageddon, instead of the curdled, foot-smelling, molded cheese of Transformers 2. In Transformers 2, lots of things were supposedly at stake, including the end of the world, just like in Armageddon, but it all fell flat. And though Armageddon is not even close to one of my favorite movies (or even one I like very much), it offered stakes that seemed real, had a realistic emotional core, and when sacrifices were made (by the star no less!) they were constructed in a way that had an emotional impact on even the most jaded audience member…like me.
Watching Armageddon again made me wish that Michael Bay from 1998 would have come to the Michael Bay of a decade later and slapped some storytelling sensibility into himself. It also reminded me how long the film was, but the thing I was most struck by was how astonishing it was to watch the special effects of the late 90’s on Blu-ray. For the first time in a recent movie, I felt that you could identify the era by the special effects the same way you could look at Star Wars in the 70s, Labyrinth in the 80s or whatever…. It had a distinct period feel that I was a little surprised to notice. And maybe it took a decade for me to realize it. But watch it and it’s there. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just incredibly interesting.
Having said that, Armageddon holds up exactly as well as it did when it came out. It’s not great filmmaking, it’s not high art, but it’s a pretty fun popcorn movie with lots of explosions and an emotional core we haven’t seen in a Michael Bay film in a long, long time.
The Blu-ray is nice to look at, though short on special features. It’s worth a night of your time. Pizza, beer, friends, and a desire to laugh a lot. That’s what would make a great night with this picture.