Bruce Willis is the leader of the drillers. His understudy is Ben Affleck, sufficiently handsome to merit engagement to Bruce's hottie daughter Liv Tyler. Naturally, there's friction between Willis and Affleck, since he either wants a better life for her (the cover story), or he unconsciously covets the centerfold model for himself (perhaps the real reason).
The rest of the drill team is stocked with comic characters and stereotypes: a casino gambler, a lecher (Steve Buscemi), fat and jolly Max (Ken Campbell), a black Hercules (Michael Clarke Duncan), and space cowboy Owen Wilson, the only twenty-something offshore oil rig laborer who owns a horse ranch.
How others will see it. This is Hollywood's concept of a guy movie blockbuster. Things blow up. There's moments of male bonding. And testosterone-charged confrontations. The fate of the universe is at stake. Ordinary guys come to the rescue. A hot babe gets plenty of closeups. More things blow up. Don't forget the comic relief, often at the sophomore level.
What about women? They have Ben Affleck, and may enjoy the special effects. But this movie isn't made for them. Otherwise, the hottie woman would have more to do than just demonstrate over and over again how much she loves the two leading men in her life.
How I felt about it. It must really be a slow-moving asteroid if it hangs around close to the moon long enough for space shuttles to land there and spend all day drilling it. And yet have time for its blown fragments to miss Earth.
We are told that the asteroid must be blown up beyond a certain distance in order to save Earth. At which point, we can guess that that's exactly where it will get nuked. Certainly not with time to spare, but time is spent anyway with Willis and his weepy goodbye to Tyler. Whom we know is actually someone else's daughter, as we are reminded by the heavy rotation of Aerosmith songs.
Like all Hollywood nuclear bombs, this one has a large display that tells how many minutes and seconds until it detonates. We are not surprised when only a few seconds are left before it is defused. After all, we've seen Goldfinger. We're not surprised when both shuttles pass successful through an asteroid belt so thick an egg timer wouldn't make it intact. We are also not surprised that Willis fails to be charged with attempted murder for repeatedly firing a gun at Affleck. It's all in the name of comedy.
We're told that the Russian space station is ten years old, and therefore completely decrepid. That the cosmonaut, alone a year in space, could be eccentric. Predictably right on both counts. In fact, the story is led along by its nose throughout. All the way toward its redemptive ending.