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Armageddon DVD Review by Yanman |
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" No, Nukes - No, Nukes - No, Nukes " This marks the second time in the past month that I find myself reviewing a DVD about rocks falling from the sky. Deep Impact was first out at the box-office as well as on DVD. Only a few months later in theaters (and even closer on DVD) Armageddon came out. Like many movies of this type we start out blissfully unaware of the earth’s pending disaster. Our first indication of a problem manifests itself as a meteor shower destroying the space shuttle as it attempts to repair a satellite in space. Before NASA has time to investigate the shuttle’s destruction, a second round of meteors destroys downtown New York. Armageddon if nothing else wins our award for fastest New York destruction in a summer movie. The answer to the question of what is causing the meteor showers is found not by NASA’s finest, but by a little old man in the desert. That has an interesting reason to name this rock after his "lovely" wife. Switching gears now we find ourselves in the middle of the ocean on an offshore drilling platform. Where Harry Stampor (Bruce Willis) sets out to teach his young apprentice AJ (Ben Affleck) a lesson, because he continued drilling against Harry’s orders. Finding out that AJ is sleeping with his daughter Grace (Liv Tyler) however, turns the lesson into a shooting match. So how do these polar opposite worlds fit together? NASA’s top scientists have determined that in only 18 days a meteor "the size of Texas" will collide with the Earth destroying all life on the planet. The only way to avoid this pending disaster is to send a drilling team to the asteroid, drill to a depth of 800 feet, set a nuke, fly away, and then remote detonate the bomb. As hard as it sounds? Harder! So when Harry is brought in as the "best drilling man on the planet," to help the government come up with a plan. He quickly figures out that only he and his men can handle the job. "Talk about the wrong stuff." The video here is nothing short of reference quality. The darkness of space clearly contrasted by colorful explosions and breathtaking views of the earth. There are no transfer flaws or Digital artifacts here. There are a few irritations though, the layer switch at 71:11 for one, was not only noticeable, but was long enough to cause our normally error free THX receiver to drop out of then back into Dolby Digital mode. This also caused a noticeable pop. And the lack of anamorphic enhancement is also a minus. This one is still a winner visually in spite of those problems. The audio is incredible throughout this DVD. From the opening scene to the music during the credits, the Dolby Digital 5.1 Soundtrack never stops impressing. While Daylight still has the single best scene sound wise of any DVD, we have heard. Armageddon blows it away for stunning end to end encompassing sound. To name just a few of the incredible scenes, the opening shuttle disaster, the destruction of New York, the space station explosion, landing on the asteroid, the destruction of Paris, and the end sequence are all worthy of a second viewing. If this is not a movie, you use to show off Dolby Digital then I don't know what is. The extra on this disc, that's right singular, is the Arrowsmith video of the title song. Considering it is only offered in Pro-Logic it's not much of an extra at that. But if you want extras check out The Criterion Collection version of this one. If you enjoy edge of you seat action; great audio, incredible video, but you are not looking for over the top acting. Then strap yourself to a rocket Road-Runner style and prepare for Armageddon.
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Armageddon If this is not a movie, you use to show off Dolby Digital then I don't know what is.
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