Deeply disappointing (Deep Impact (DVD))

Member Name: GroundZero

Product:	Deep Impact (DVD)
Date:	24/03/01 (34 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Decent acting, good cast...

Disadvantages: ...who are under-used, not as memorable as Armageddon

Released in the summer of 1998, Deep Impact coincided with another film with a distinctly similar premise, Armageddon. Both films were about the doomsday scenario of a giant asteroid potentially wiping out all life on Earth.

Where Armageddon took the blockbuster approach with Bruce Willis saving mankind, Deep Impact approaches the story from a completely different angle. In contrast to the action oriented Armageddon, Deep Impact concentrates more on the emotional side of things. Without being too sexist, this may be due to having a female director (Mimi Leder) at the helm.

The film is mainly told from the viewpoint of news reporter Jenny Lerner (Tea Leoni, aka Mrs Duchovny), who learns that the US government has tried to cover up the news that an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth, with potentially devastating consequences. The first part of the movie, where Lerner discovers the truth is particularly well done.

Unfortunately the film then descends into an over-sentimental movie. Robert Duvall plays the ridiculously named Spurgeon Tanner (aka Fish), an astronaut and veteran of the moon landings, who is selected to lead a team to destroy the asteroid before it reaches Earth’s atmosphere. The large age difference between him and his colleagues is one of the recurring themes in the film. Without giving the plot away, as you would expect the veteran Tanner saves the world, although not quite with the same panache that Willis’ character does in Armageddon…

Much of the film concentrates on the relationship between Lerner and her father, played by Maximillian Schell. The cast list is rather impressive, with Morgan Freeman quietly exuding grace and authority as the United States’ first black president.

The scenes at the end when the asteroid enters the atmosphere, and the resultant damage it causes are quite impressive, but these come too late to save a film that never quite adds up. It is
impossible to review this movie without comparing it to Armageddon, but unfortunately this is a much less memorable movie. Armageddon may be much more shallow in its approach, but it is the more entertaining film. Watch Deep Impact if it’s on TV, but don’t bother buying it on DVD or video.

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