Week 5: Final Film Critique

ENG 225: Introduction to Film
Instructor Stephanie Miclot
03 Mar 2014

I have chosen the film Armageddon as the final film critique in this course. Armageddon was released to the America in 1998. The film was directed by Michael Bay, and written by J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Hensleigh. While there were a number of high-profile actors in this film, the undoubtedly biggest stars in this film were Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thorton, Ben Affleck, and Liv Tyler. (Imdb, 2008). Armageddon was a movie with a lot of potential, that was poorly written from the start and dismally executed on screen. While I am a fan of quite a few cast members, I was disappointed with this film as a whole. Albeit the storyline certainly lineal, the entire movie was fragmented with action sequences that left the audience wondering just exactly what was going on. “Take almost any 30 seconds at random, and you’d have a TV ad.” (Ebert, 2008, para.1). Armageddon seems to have been tossed together in haphazardly fashion by it’s writers, replacing real scientific facts with your typical inaccurate, and dramatized hollywood one-liners fired off by the actors in this film at every turn. An example of the diluted science in this film is in the plot of the story itself. An asteroid the size of the state of Texas is cutting through space on course for a head on collision with Earth, at which point, is certain to destroy our planet, and end life on the earth as we know it. NASA’s seemingly only, and best plan is to send a group of oil drillers to the asteroid while still in space and blow it in half in a fashion so that the remaining debris will separate, and pass around Earth all together. In order to execute this feat, the team of drillers must first land on the asteroid, then drill an 800-foot hole into the center of the asteroid, place a high explosive device into the hole, and detonate it. “To put this in perspective, consider the following analogy. An 800-foot hole in a 300-mile-sized asteroid is like a pin-sized hole no deeper than a scratch in a ten-foot rock. Scaling things down to life size, the explosion of a hydrogen bomb would roughly be like lighting a match. Can the ignition of such a match split a ten-foot rock?” (Jupiter Scientific, 2008, para.10). It appears that logic and simple mathematics were overlooked by the writers, while writing this film. One may believe the alternate themes may be that teams need to work together and communicate with all means possible. Some could say that they should have trust as well as belief in all members. NASA must learn to take criticism while giving control over to men they would not normally have anything to do with. Once NASA picked the team they have to learn how to train them without overwhelming them. They have to arrive on the asteroid in order to dig an 800 foot hole to drop the bomb into. One may say that the movie tells of the love between Harry and Grace and, of course, the love AJ and Grace have for each other. Harry just is not ready to give up his little girl and fights their relationship. A few members were willing to sacrifice themselves for the world.

One of the few things that seemed to save the audience from completely giving up, and detaching, was the superb acting. When the camera was not all over the place in a desperate attempt to create a sci-fi thriller, and remained focused on the characters themselves, the cast did an amazing job playing their character’s roles. For instance, the night before the crew embarked on their mission to save the world, and was launched into space, they used their final night to enjoy themselves. At this point, the audience is finally afforded a glimpse at the characters, and start to connect to the personalities of Earth’s future heroes. Each character came from distinctly different walks of life . Some criminals, others fathers, and average men. All of the character’s roles were portrayed brilliantly by their respective actor/actress. The main characters all had a personality that changed completely by the end of the movie. The characters are dynamic because they use their intelligence, begin to focus on the mission, they use the sadness to make them stronger, and they lose their cockiness in order to stay alive and work as a team. Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) has been drilling for over 20 years, he owns his own drilling company. At the beginning Harry was immature everything seems to be a game to him always willing to gamble to prove a point. Harry accepted the job because he knew he was the best man for it. He always tries to prove to Grace that he is a mature adult. Harry dies when he stays behind to save the world and ensure his daughter’s happiness with AJ. AJ (Ben Affleck) has been working with Harry drilling, for five years. He own’s his own company. AJ was cocky, conceited, and handsome person. When he was picked by Harry to lead the other team, he knew he had to focus and put all games aside because his team is depending on him. He is the love interest of Grace. Grace Stamper (Liv Tyler) is the daughter of Harry and she in love with AJ. Grace has a great deal of knowledge when it comes to oil rigs, where she spent most of her childhood. Grace is her father’s assistant. Dan Truman (Billy Bob Thornton) is NASA’s executive director. He foresees the mission from top to bottom and request for help from Harry and his crew. Dan plays a strong character who explains to the President of the United States, the world has 18 days until impact of the asteroid. Dan has made it clear they must do something about the asteroid before time runs out. Dan stands up for what he believes in, to include protesting against the President and supporting Harry and his team. Dan remained strong without wavering even to the end.

Typically, when producing a film, the cinematographer attempts to display dramatic shots that grab the audience emotionally, further involving them in the film. In the case of Armageddon, this simply was not achieved. Granted each scene has a created atmosphere, the main scene setting in this movie is the oil rig, where they begin the movie. Then they go to NASA where the team begins their training. They also show the space station as an exciting and memorable time for some. The NASA command center is a focal point for drama, since they would lose reception when speaking with the crew. The asteroid was presented as drama, and a stressful place that one could be stuck working. One may question, how did Harry speak with Grace for final goodbye? He was in space and getting ready for detonation of bomb than he was in front of monitor without headgear and then suddenly Harry is back in full gear. The lighting was acceptable, but nothing to gawk over.

That none of the roughnecks or astronauts made any mistakes while in space. Here are some scenarios that went wrong while trying to complete the mission. The fuel gauge went passed 250 degrees and, gas leaking everywhere causing explosion. There was too much debris that caused the Independence to go down. The radio signal was lost during Freedom communication with NASA. Dan overriding the signal that would set the bomb off, and when astronaut attempts to disconnect the bomb in three seconds. The drill is drilled too low and it breaks off. The film was manipulated when Harry met with Grace to say goodbye, and when Grace and AJ said goodbye. When Harry had to give his final goodbye statement to Grace while in space was an emotional scene. There were comical scenes such as: Max in the tattoo shop, and Rockhound going crazy with the gun in space. One may get focused and something happens to give the ultimate surprise.

The editing of the colors in the movie was satisfactory. In the scene where Harry and Grace met Truman for the first time, Harry’s face was much darker than Grace’s. Another scene, Grace’s face was shown very bright suggesting her being innocent, and pure. When they showed Harry sitting down there was stronger light on Harry. Harry’s face seemed to stand out more throughout the entire movie. When a person is surrounded with dark color and shine light on his or her face it makes the character stand out more, sort of like a spotlight. It seemed as if all the shots were shot to depict that they were in space, were shot with a great many of blues and dark colors. There were more calm colors used in the making of this movie, there were not very many bright colors. There were some visible and invisible sounds during the making of this movie. When the asteroids were hitting the earth they were using visual sounds. When the drill was hitting the iron and when the helicopter was in the air it was considered invisible. We know the helicopter was there even though it was not always shown.

The one area in Armageddon that does truly stand out was its use of special effects. Michael Bay was at his best from this perspective. Being a director who is known for utilizing a wide array of slow motion, and special effects. His visualization of the story is quite impressive. One scene in the film that seems to stand out, is the very emotional take-off of the shuttles “Freedom” and “Independence”. The initial shot of the take-off is filmed at a distance, at which point we see the two shuttles side-by-side launching off towards space, leaving behind their clouded paths in the sky. The special effects used in Armageddon, especially for the time period in which it was released, are excellent. They easily surpass other films in its era that used space as their backdrop. Another scene, that boasts Bey’s special effects fingerprint in the film is when a meteor slams directly into Paris. This adds shock factor for the audience , as they view the utter destruction of one of the most famous cities in the world from the top of Notre Dame cathedral. It is a true disappointment that the overall editing of the film contributed to its lackluster rating. Many films have the ability to make a profound impact on the audiences that view them. Armageddon, however... had no such profound impact. At best, this film did promote people to think about a very real possibility of a large asteroid possibly crashing into earth one day. In theory, it is a real possibility, however, Per NASA: “Statistically, the greatest danger is from an near earth object with about 1 million megatons energy (roughly 2 km in diameter). On average, one of these collides with the Earth once or twice per million years, producing a global catastrophe that would kill a substantial (but unknown) fraction of the Earth’s human population.” (NASA, 2013, para.6) According to many people who believe in the doomsday theories, this, aside from nuclear war, stands the greatest chance of wiping out all life on Earth as we know it. Armageddon falls easily into the science fiction genre, as it certainly bends and twists scientific facts.

The most memorable times that one may remember was when the President gave speech of the situation and the actions they were taking to prevent the end of times. Some may enjoy when the round up of the Roughneck’s or when they completed the physicals. Some may prefer the team having to come together to draw straws to see who would stay behind to detonate the bomb. When they lost Max from gas pressure while drilling and AJ comes to their rescue. The team seemed to have issues getting into the shuttle prior to take off before bomb could be detonated. Some may remember when Harry had to say goodbye to Grace for the last time, knowing he would never return to his little girl and giving her a chance to live her life with AJ. Harry had only moments to detonate the bomb before the shuttle took off from the asteroid and headed back to earth. When the astronauts and crew landed and began walking towards all the spectators and family members with confidence, and smiles on their faces. "Armageddon" reportedly used the services of nine writers. Why did it need any? The dialogue is either shouted one-liners or romantic drivel. "It's gonna blow!" is used so many times, I wonder if every single writer used it once, and then sat back from his word processor with a contented smile on his face, another day's work done.(Ebert) While the storyline of Armageddon seems good on paper, it fails to deliver when it comes to the big screen. The actors portrayals of their respective characters was outstanding, and the special effects falls right in line with Michael Bay’s signature style. It is unfortunate that those two aspects could not preserve, a what could have been, decent movie experience. The lack of any scientific accuracy, coupled with poor editing, left me wondering what did I just watch.

References:

Ebert, R. (July 1, 2008). Armageddon. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19980701/REVIEWS/ 807010301

Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120591/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm#cast Jupiter Scientific. (1998). Movie Review of Armageddon (and Deep Impact) from a Scientific Viewpoint. http://www.jupiterscientific.org/sciinfo/armageddon.html

NASA. (March 4, 2013). FAQs About NEO Impacts.
http://impact.arc.nasa.gov/intro_faq.cfm