1998’s thrilling science-fiction disaster film Armageddon was a commercial success despite receiving mixed reviews from critics. The film was mainly criticized for its over-the-top action sequences, melodramatic moments, and scientific inaccuracies, which was even pointed out by its star, actor Ben Affleck.
The director of the film Michael Bay once apologized for the movie, but he believes that if he had more time, the film would’ve performed better. Despite its flaws, it’s one of those films that will stay close to Bay’s heart as he is quite proud of it. The film was certainly a lesson for Bay as it helped him deliver better films later in his career.
Michael Bay apologized for Armageddon (1998)
In a past interview, director Michael Bay spoke about his iconic 1998 movie Armageddon and seemed to be apologizing for the movie,
“I will apologize for Armageddon because we had to do the whole movie in 16 weeks. It was a massive undertaking. That was not fair to the movie. I would redo the entire third act if I could. But the studio literally took the movie away from us. It was terrible. My visual effects supervisor had a nervous breakdown, so I had to be in charge of that. I called James Cameron and asked ‘What do you do when you’re doing all the effects yourself?’ But the movie did fine.”
There are several ways to look at this statement, one that makes the most sense is that Bay is apologizing to the movie as he stated “it was not fair to the movie.” As per his statement, he believes if he had more time to work on the film, it would’ve turned out better.
Also read: Why Michael Bay’s Armageddon Is A Much Better Movie Than You Remember
The director is proud of the movie
Despite the harsh words from the fans, Michael Bay is still very proud of the work he delivered. The director continued,
“Still today Armageddon is still one of the most shown movies on cable TV. And yes, I’m proud of the movie. Enough said.”
From a financial aspect, the film was a success, grossing over $553 million worldwide against a production budget of approximately $140 million. It clearly indicates that the audience was attracted to the film despite the negative reviews.
Why was Armageddon a disaster?
There were many issues with 1998’s Armageddon. First of all, the movie’s plot required a lot of research but that was not done, which resulted in scientific inaccuracies. In a past interview, actor Ben Affleck, who played A.J. Frost in the movie, subtly made fun of the movie,
“Wouldn’t it be easier for NASA to train astronauts how to drill rather than training drillers to be astronauts?”
Despite criticism, the film massively contributed to popularising disaster and action-oriented films in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Its impact can be seen in the subsequent release of movies with similar themes over the years.
Source: LegendsRevealed
