The film begins with a narration of how 65 million years ago an asteroid hit Earth, thus wiping out the entire dinosaur population. An asteroid is set to hit Earth again—but no one knowns exactly when.

In the present day (as of 1998), a meteor shower has just destroyed a spaceship. And another one is going to hit Earth at some point.

But NASA has a plan—that is to drill a hole into the asteroid and implant a nuclear bomb into it. They hope that this will prevent it from destroying life on Earth.

However, they need to recruit different people. One of them is a guy named Harry Stamper, who actually works as an oil driller.

Harry notices that his young adult daughter, Grace, is in love with a man around her age, A.J. But he won’t approve of their relationship, despite how they’re grown-ups now.

Regardless of that, though, Harry asks A.J. to join him and some other guys on this NASA mission. They go through lots of training together before it’s time for their task.

The men board a space craft called Independence, which will take them to the asteroid. Unfortunately, it crashes, and a high percentage of the people on board die.

The survivors try to drill a hole deep enough. But they can’t get that far. This prompts the president of the United States to warn everyone to prepare for the worst.

Harry also argues with this guy, Sharp, over defusing the bomb. Even though they reciprocate and make up for lost drilling time, stakes are about to rise.

A meteor even hits Paris. This is the warning for everyone that the world may end soon.

But can the volunteers work together and save the planet?

Despite being around two and a half hours long, much of this film kept my attention. It also had some funny moments that made me laugh.

For example, when A.J. is expressing his love for Grace as he’s about to leave for outer space, he sings “Leaving on a Jet Plane” by John Denver. Some other men join him in the song.

A.J. and Grace had a sweet relationship. But Grace’s relationship with her father, Harry, was also nice. The point is that even when you’re an adult, your parents will still love you and care about you as much as they did when you were a child.

The pacing was quick for a good percentage of this movie. The training of the recruiters was also fun to watch.

Sadly, though, this film did have some flaws. Parts of it were confusing due to the constant POV-switching happening so fast and unpredictably.

Another was how certain moments became boring, even during high stakes. And some scenes and elements were unsatisfactory, including the twists and turns.

The last several minutes also lagged. I’m not going to spoil the ending. But I do wish parts of it were edited to keep the viewer engaged.

Overall, I thought Armageddon was decent. I would have considered it a good watch had the drawbacks been barely to non-existent.

I give this movie 3.5 out of 5 stars.