YES! It's death and destruction and mayhem and everything Deep Impact promised and weaseled out on. Armageddon delivers in the special effects one-two punch.

Sad, but any other summer this really wouldn't be the big hit. But Summer 1998 really has sucked. In this mediocre season, this is the movie that is standing out.

Forget science. Science is just a detail. Science is something producer Jerry Bruckheimer just doesn't want to care about. Relax, kid, it's just a movie.

What I did like was the defining of the main characters. True, they remain two-dimensional, but at least you can tell them apart. How many movies have you seen where everyone just kind of blends together?

Another pet peeve of mine is the movie's pacing. Armageddon is 2 hours and 40 minutes. This is very long, but editors Mark Goldblatt, Chris Lebenzon and Glen Scantlebury handle the pacing chores admirably. What doesn't work in the cinematic style? This constant shaking of the camera so you can't tell what's really happening really sucks.

But, as I said, it's a mediocre summer season. This one's above average.