Armageddon – Blu-ray Review

The Film:

I want you all to brace yourselves for something you would have never expected to see in a Michael Bay film review: in a weird correlation to Michael Bay’s 1998 mega blockbuster, President Obama has revealed plans to land men on a moving asteroid to learn how to stop the increasing risk of their potential collision with Earth, something that could end life. For a man who would direct a film that was bogus in its telling of an important historical tragedy (Pearl Harbor), we now look to him as a source of future NASA missions? Ah, how life imitates art. I think I just made some of you cringe.

Michael Bay seems to be permanently at the center of what’s wrong with Hollywood today-and even I have been on this argument too (here)-but the fact remains that he creates big, loud, event action films like no one else in Hollywood, and he has the most important fact supporting his case with box office clout.

Michael Bay, and I will always say this, one of the greatest second unit director around. His action is top-notch. He knows how to entertain the masses on a hot, summer day, and each and every time, his films bank (well, okay, maybe not The Island). 1998 was a different beast when it came to summer event pictures, but it still remains, that Armageddon is a flawed, bloated, but hugely entertaining film. Apollo 13 it isn’t, but so? Grab the popcorn, because as cheap as this sounds, Michael Bay pretty much delivers the destruction goods like nobody else. That’s the reason why Armageddon banked in the summer of ’98 with $200 million plus, and another like-minded film, Deep Impact, a serious look at the same story, failed. Armageddon feels like a long lost 1950′s sci-fi story, jazzed up with all of those Michael Bay tendencies we all love and hate.

Moan and groan about all of this, I have. It is a Bay film, so we’re smacked with silly character moments, loopy logic, and a bloated running time, and as bad (or campy) as some scenes are, one thing I’ll admit, Armageddon is Bay at his most fun. Let’s not forget about where this film would have been without Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” running on constant rotation that summer. For some, Armageddon represents the ‘awesome’ that Bay promises, and would continue to deliver in the summer, for others it gave us a reason to bash Bay. At least the explosions are cool.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: Disney/Buena Vista offers up a stellar looking HD release. Colors pop and black are ink-level. Outside a few soft spots, mostly in the large FX scenes, we’re treated to a near-great video presentation. Like one would assume, the DTS track destroys all. Bass levels should rattle most walls and the rear activity engulf you into the film. Maybe not perfect, but this HD release is quite impressive.

The only extras we get are some standard definition Trailers and the Aerosmith music video for “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”.

Conclusion: Big, loud, and dumb, but at least Armageddon is fun and looks/sounds great on Blu.

The Film: Rating:

The Blu-ray: Rating: