6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.1 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.8 |
After discovering that an asteroid the size of Texas is going to impact Earth in less than a month, N.A.S.A. recruits a misfit team of deep core drillers to save the planet.
Starring: Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Will PattonAction | 100% |
Adventure | 53% |
Thriller | 42% |
Sci-Fi | 31% |
Romance | 6% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
D-Box
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Close your eyes. Take a deep, soothing breath and let your shoulders relax. Now drift back with me twelve years, all the way back to the hot, sticky summer of 1998. Feel the rough texture of the theater seat beneath your legs and the icy breeze of a rickety air conditioner. Smell the sweet stench of butter-soaked popcorn and the stale air wafting in from the lobby. Hear the anxious chatter of the crowd and the clatter of the projector as it comes alive. Above all else, remember your introduction to director Michael Bay's Armageddon... before you declared yourself an authority on all things cinema, before you scoffed at films like Transformers 2 and Ninja Assassin, before you had a mortgage, two and a half kids, and more important things to do with your hard-earned cash. Remember how much fun you had? The laughs, the excitement, the awe? The sniffles you tried to hide at the end of the film? Don't get me wrong, Armageddon is as bloated, ungainly, and flawed in 2010 as it was twelve years ago, but we filmfans are notorious revisionists. Once upon a time, many of us loved Bay's end-of-the-world actioner. And while it may not be an enduring classic -- or, according to prevailing consensus, a particularly good film -- nostalgia often moves in mysterious ways.
Must... resist... 'Right Stuff' joke...
Rest easy, Armageddoneers. Disney's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is strong enough to satisfy anyone hoping to scour Bruce Willis' closeups for every last pore. In true Michael Bay style, vibrant splashes of color, striking primaries, and inky blacks transform every scene into a living, breathing videogame. Fiery oranges and icy blues illuminate Earth's darkest hour, and bold flashes of light and dazzling explosions light up the screen. Moreover, overall detail is quite impressive, sharp textures reveal more pocks and wrinkles than Affleck and his cohorts might appreciate, a faint veneer of grain permeates the proceedings, and object definition is crisp and clean. Several shots are surprisingly soft -- primarily during key special effects sequences -- but I suspect any such shortcomings trace back to the film's source rather than some mysterious technical oversight. As it stands, I didn't encounter any significant artifacting, aliasing, smearing, or ringing, and source noise, though apparent in a few fleeting shots, never became a distraction. If anything, the image is a bit flat on occasion. For the most part, depth and dimensionality are more than commendable, but each one falters at one point or another. While it certainly isn't a debilitating issue (and while I'm sure the film's age plays a part), it's worth noting nonetheless. Regardless, Armageddon looks great for a twelve-year old catalog title and should turn its share of heads.
Disney has armed Armageddon with a consistent, able-bodied DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track that, quite frankly, obliterates its lossy DVD counterparts. While it didn't leave a crater in the middle of my home theater, it still managed to make a respectable impression. Dialogue remains clear, intelligible, and nicely prioritized throughout, even when Trevor Rabin's score dominates the action and madness erupts around our wily deep-core drillers. Likewise, LFE output is sturdy and stable, infusing streaking meteorites, scattering debris, toppling skyscrapers, and Earth-shaking explosions with decent power and presence. Rear speaker activity, despite being rather reserved at times, effectively drops the listener in the middle of countless panicking crowds and a room full of murmuring NASA engineers. But even though Bay's sound design occasionally favors the front channels -- especially during the boys' training and testing sessions -- there are still plenty of moments when the sound design commandeers the entire soundfield, relishing in every morsel of destruction the director tosses his insatiable audience. Did I forget to mention that pans are swift and smooth, separation is notable, and dynamics are primed to please? All in all, Armageddon's lossless mix complements its video transfer and helps rejuvenate Bay's asteroid-actioner.
Unfortunately, the Blu-ray edition of Armageddon only includes a music video for Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" (SD, 5 minutes) and a pair of theatrical trailers (SD, 6 minutes). The cast and crew commentary, deleted scenes, featurettes, and interviews that first appeared on Criterion's remarkable 2-disc DVD release are nowhere to be found, and the disc suffers as a result. (For those who've never had the pleasure, the Criterion edition is well worth renting, if for no other reason than to listen to Ben Affleck crack endless jokes at Michael Bay's expense.) Still, it's not as if Disney could have easily obtained the Criterion-exclusive content, so its absence is hardly a surprise.
Overcrowded, overwrought, and overblown, Armageddon is nevertheless a popcorn-munching guilty pleasure. Chalk it up to Michael Bay's knack for assembling a great ensemble cast or his ability to chain together a memorable string of explosions, but his apocalyptic action dramedy is as fun as it is flawed. Luckily, no apologies or excuses are necessary when praising the Blu-ray edition's AV presentation. Loaded with an excellent video transfer and a capable DTS-HD Master Audio track, Disney's latest is only hindered by a truly pitiful supplemental package. Still, late '90s action junkies and members of Bay's devoted fold shouldn't have any serious hangups when considering this solid catalog release.
20th Anniversary
2003
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1996
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1997
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2009
2008
20th Anniversary Edition
1997