Armageddon-Director's Cut: Collector's Edition (1998) |
BUY IT |
General | Extras | ||
Category | Action |
Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-M Bay (Dir),J Bruckheimer (Prod),B Willis & B Affleck (Acts) Audio Commentary-J Schwartzman (DoP), Dr. J Allen & I Beckey (Consultants) Deleted Scenes Featurette-Special Effects Featurette-Production Design Gallery-6 Storyboards-2 Music Video Theatrical Trailer |
|
Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 1998 | ||
Running Time | 147:09 | ||
RSDL / Flipper |
RSDL (79:35) Dual Disc Set |
Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Michael Bay |
Studio
Distributor |
Walt Disney Studios Home Ent. |
Starring |
Bruce Willis Billy Bob Thornton Liv Tyler Will Patton Steve Buscemi Ben Affleck William Fichtner Owen Wilson Michael Clarke Duncan Peter Stormare Ken Campbell Jessica Steen Keith David |
Case | Soft Brackley-Transp-Dual | ||
RPI | $34.95 | Music | Trevor Rabin |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
|
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
|
||
Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles |
English English for the Hearing Impaired |
Smoking | No |
Annoying Product Placement | Yes, BMW | ||
Action In or After Credits | Yes, "The Wedding" |
Armageddon is a film most people would have seen by now... but for those that haven't, if the mere mention of the names Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer bring a chill to your spine, I would suggest that this movie is not for you.
For the readers still with me that haven't seen the film, Armageddon is basically an action-filled romp to save the world by blowing up a "global killer" asteroid that is on a collision course with the Earth. It is blessed with a great ensemble cast for an action film, with the core of the film focusing on Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) who is the "world's best deep-core driller" and his right-hand man A.J. Frost (Ben Affleck), who are entrusted to save the world by Dan Truman (Billy Bob Thornton) of NASA. It seems NASA and the U.S. Air Force have been secretly developing a new super-Shuttle that will enable Harry's team to travel to the asteroid, drill, and then drop a nuclear bomb down the hole. The movie then continues with explosions, crashes, flying, landing, more explosions, drilling, even more explosions and so on (you get my drift).
Oh, I almost forgot to mention... after the success of Titanic at the box office, the popularity of a love story was made clear, and we are given a glimpse of something that resembles one through the relationship between A.J. and Harry's daughter Grace (Liv Tyler). However, don't expect much in this regard... this is an action-filled romp, remember!
Question: How do you train, in 12 days, a group of roughneck oil drillers to work in space? If you're seriously looking for an answer here, you're watching the wrong movie.
Let me say this up front. The video quality of this DVD is not as good as the previous Region 4 DVD release, although it comes close. (It trounces on the Region 1 Criterion Edition though!).
It is presented in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and it is 16x9 enhanced.
The transfer is clear and sharp, with good black levels and good clarity and detail in the shadows and darker scenes. There is no low level noise. There is no excessive film grain, giving a film-like smoothness to the image.
Colour detail is excellent, with beautiful colour ranges presented perfectly throughout the film.
There were no MPEG artefacts that I could see, although film-to-video artefacts consisted of quite noticeable amounts of aliasing (22:16) and edge enhancement (11:37) throughout.
This disc supports English subtitles for the Hearing Impaired and they are about the most faithful to the actual on-screen dialogue as I have ever seen.
The disc is RSDL formatted, with the layer change occurring just after the escape from the Russian Space Station at 79:35. It is well placed and minimally intrusive.
Sharpness | |
Shadow Detail | |
Colour | |
Grain/Pixelization | |
Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
Film Artefacts | |
Overall |
Armageddon has an excellent soundtrack, although only supplied in English Dolby Digital 5.1 on this disc.
The dialogue clarity overall was excellent, although it became a little difficult to understand during the larger action sequences. Ben Affleck mentions the difficulty of dialogue recording during his commentary track, noting specifically moments during the oil rig scenes. Audio sync was not an issue at all.
The music in the film matches the on-screen performances well, getting the adrenaline pumping or helping to slow things down when needed.
Being the big blockbuster action film it is, the surround channels were used to the extreme, with great channel separation and overall soundfield usage. Not the most outstanding soundtrack ever, but very dynamic nonetheless.
The subwoofer was working overtime in this film, going out of its way to support the on-screen action whilst not dominating the soundfield.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
Disc 1
Disc 2
On the second disc, we are presented with a feast of extras. When first inserting the disc you will be presented with a language choice menu which controls the interface and subtitles. The languages supported are English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Dutch. Almost everything with dialogue has subtitles available (the music video has them too, although the actual song part only has English subtitles).
You can either select "Play" to watch from beginning to end, or you can select the segment you want to watch from the menu. The segments are:
You can either select "Play" to watch from beginning to end, or you can select the segment you want to watch from the menu. The segments are:
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 4 Director's Cut misses out on:
The Region 1 Criterion edition misses out on:
Out of all of the features missing on our release, the only one that is worth anything is the Gag Reel. Whilst it is a shame to not have this, the increase in picture quality of the Region 4 Director's Cut over the Region 1 Criterion Collection edition as a result of the 16x9 enhanced transfer makes up for it considerably. In this case, I have to award the Region 4 Director's Cut the victory.
Armageddon is a film that doesn't challenge you cerebrally, but that was never the intention. It is a popcorn movie... so leave your brain switched off and you may find yourself enjoying it.
The transfer is of high quality, although it is let down by edge enhancement and aliasing.
The soundtrack is excellent, whilst seeming to have the same minor issues with hard-to-hear dialogue in some scenes as other DVD releases of the film.
The extras supplied are excellent. Our friends in the USA have been blessed for too long with the Criterion Collection edition's multitude of extras, whilst we have been left with nothing. I don't know how Buena Vista did it, but thanks to them for helping to even the playing field.
One last thing. For those that already own the previous Region 4 release of Armageddon, you may wonder whether I recommend you go out and buy this disc. Well the answer is: maybe. If you simply can't live without the extra 3 mins 49 seconds of footage or extra features that this version offers, then yes. If not, rent it first and then make up your own mind. In the end, the choice is yours (and so is the money!).
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Pioneer DV-535, using S-Video output |
Display | Loewe Xelos 5381ZW. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Sony STR-DB1070. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. |
Amplification | Elektra Theatre 150 Watts x 6 channel Power Amplifier |
Speakers | Energy eXL-16 left/right front speakers; Energy eXL-C centre speaker; Energy eXL-R left/right rear speakers; Wharfedale SW-12 Subwoofer |