Armageddon

I just came back from a rollercaster ride and wow... nice movie! I guess I don't have to mention the story of this summer's action hit as it is a typical american action movie. But a good one indeed. Bruce Willis shows again that he was born to be an action star. And then there is Liv Tyler...

It's been some time since I have seen Deep Impact but I remember it as a nice movie with some lengths. There are both killer asteroid movies (NASA will get more money now, I'm sure.) but this is where the similarity ends. Deep Impact focused more on the emotions of the people involved while Armageddon cares less about emotions but explosions.

I don't want to say that Deep Impact is bad but it for sure has less to no impact at all compared with its competitor. What disturbed me all the time during Deep Impact was the ever present MSNBC. (I hate MS ;-) And it has too little depth. (Ok, Armageddon doesn't know about depth either but it doesn't claim it does.) I was never really immersed into the story. The movie just went on and I kept watching in the hope that there would be aa unexpected twist in the course of the action but nothing happened.

As with Armageddon you will always get something. First there are some neat action scenes where New York gets a little smashed and then there is humor. The whole theater burst out into laughter when the Russian Lev showed how the Russians fixed their space station. ("American parts! Russian parts! They all made in Taiwan!")

Both movies launch huge special effects fireworks and I have to admit that the effects look somewhat better and more realistic in Deep Impact. (Just look at the impact at the beginning of Armageddon and compare it to the impact of the asteroid in Deep Impact.) Throughout the whole movie the animations in Armageddon are no match for the ones shown in Deep Impact.

But Armageddon has one more ace up in its sleeve: Liv Tyler. Sure Deep Impact stars Tia Leoni but she ain't no match for Liv. (Liv reminds me of someone..., the resemblance is just... wow. Sorry guys, no pics ;-) And best of all, she survives! Mimi Leder doesn't seem to like beautiful women as she kills them all. (Remember that young female astronaut? Too bad.)

Another point is the soundtrack. While James Horner's soundtrack of Titanic shows a theme that reappears again and again throughout the whole CD his work on Deep Impact lacks this completely. He don't even get the emotions shown on screen, or at least only seldom. Armageddon on the other hand features top stars like Aerosmith (All-time favorite of mine.) and sounds good even without the picture. If you wanna buy one of them I really can recommend the Armageddon soundtrack.

If you're looking for some easy entertainment then I can only recommend Armageddon.