Aerosmith: I Don't Want to Miss a Thing

The intro to this video has the feel of a sci-fi feature film - definitely something that took more work at the time than it would today. The video consists of a combination of the band playing in what seems to be a NASA hangar, interspersed with clips of Liv Tyler (singer Steven Tyler's daughter, then about twenty-two years old) in her role as Grace in Armageddon (1998), & assorted clips from the U. S. space program. It all adds strong emphasis to what is already a powerful, emotionally-stirring song.

I would give this video a 10/10, but for two deductions: the clip assortment lacks clear direction & appears random; & again, the band associating itself with space exploration & NASA seems just a little vain. But perhaps at this juncture, having engrained themselves into Americana, director Francis Lawrence felt that Aerosmith had earned it.

From the series of good soundtrack clips, comes Aerosmith's theme from "Armageddon", "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" (written by the great Diane Warren) holds a significant motion picture track that knocks down many romantic ballads out there, with power, energy and rock n'roll. And the video adds a little something special to the already sound. It consists of Aerosmith performing the song on a sound stage resembling NASA operation (to fit with the movie's theme, duh) intercut with clips from the movie, mostly scenes involving the couple played by Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler (daughter of Aerosmith's front man Steven Tyler).

I'm not sure how current generations actually view clips and specially soundtrack videos. But back in between 1980's and early 2000's having a video plus song from a certain film was a real event, at least to me they worked as a brilliant and better developed trailer, ten times better than the film trailers we're seeing these days. Now, this one is just a commercial platform to showcase Michael Bay's blockbuster and nothing more. But it works. There's the spectacle of scenes, edited with great tempo, teasing the viewer into getting to know more about the movie (a little suspect to talk about it cause I'm a big fan of it, watching ever since childhood) and enjoying the song while you're at it. Sure, there's some magnificent and curious shots involving the band performing the Oscar nominated song in the middle of some special effects while they're in the pod launch, good stuff but I've seen a lot better (and without spending all that much cash) clips.

With smiles and tears, good memories of a not so distant era, this clip is a must-see, even if you can't stand the song (I love it but somehow I always think that a power ballad band could make it more interesting than what Aerosmith did, but since the band and Warren were on a winning partnership in that decade the result was fine anyway). 9/10