Image courtesy of IMDb
Hello, everyone. Having gone in-depth on a cinematic abomination last time, it’s back to the usual format on this one… for now.
This time, we go from one disaster to another, except one is a disaster, while the other features one. This one came during a time where studios would release two competing movies (which does still happen now, but not as often), sometimes in the same year.
This one also came at a time where for two years in a row, competing studios released their own movie about the same disaster.
In 1997, it was Volcano and Dante’s Peak. Then in 1998, it happened again, with Armageddon and the subject of this review. Although these two have a slight difference (one being about asteroids, the other being about a comet), they’re still more or less the same plot.
Ladies and gentlemen, brace for impact… or rather, Deep Impact.
On the night of May 8th, 1998 (which, ironically, is the very same day the movie came out), teenager Leo Biederman is with the school astronomy club when he spots something that is unlike anything known to be in the solar system. The group sends a photo to their adviser, who immediately knows what the object is, but is unable to warn them.
The following year, a news team over at MSNBC is investigating what at first seems to be completely unrelated news: The sudden resignation of Alan Rittenhouse, the Secretary of the Treasury. However, while chasing this story, reporter Jenny Lerner is given information about a woman named “Ellie,” which could merely be the name of a mistress. Even more suspicious is the fact that the name was also brought to the President’s attention, but upon meeting with the President himself, it’s revealed that the name is an acronym: “E.L.E.” (Extinction Level Event).
As it turns out, Leo had discovered such an event that night. A comet is hurtling towards Earth, which the President declares could hit within a year. Despite this, the President has assembled a team of astronauts that will take the shuttle Messiah to the comet in the hopes of destroying it.
What Worked: Aside from the plot similarities, one big thing this has in common with Armageddon is the ensemble cast.
With Armageddon, you had names like Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler*, Will Patton, Steve Buscemi, William Fichtner, Owen Wilson, Michael Clarke Duncan, Peter Stormare, and Keith David.**
You have a fair amount of well known actors here, too, and also some where you might not know their name, but you know you’ve seen them before.
I’ll start with the one who is hands down the best actor in the movie… Morgan Freeman as the President. All I’ll say is this: When you have someone like him as the President, what more could you possibly want? It may also have proven to be ironic with the subtle Biblical references here, considering he did play God five years later in Bruce Almighty, and then again in Evan Almighty.
There are a few other screen legends here in addition to him, the main one being Robert Duvall. He plays Captain Spurgeon “Fish” Tanner, the veteran astronaut who leads the team. He has a scene with Ron Eldard’s character after something happens to him, where they have a conversation about how he got his nickname. In addition to having a bit of humor to it, it’s also one of a few touching scenes here, and he is fantastic in this scene alone.
The other notable ones I will get to in a moment, as their characters have more minor roles in the story. For now, let’s go over some of the main cast, starting with the main character.
Leo is played by Elijah Wood, and this is one of two movies he was in that year, the other being the underrated sci-fi teen horror film The Faculty, which also had an ensemble cast.
I felt he really started to establish himself around this time, because you do see hints of the personality he brought to Frodo here, particularly in his determination to protect his loved ones. This brings about some genuine chemistry with Leelee Sobieski, who plays his girlfriend Sarah Hotchner. For an actress who sadly didn’t get to have much of a career, she’s quite good here.
The same can be said for Téa Leoni as Jenny. She gives a good performance, and has some of the personality and determination, similar to Elijah Wood’s performance as Leo. With her, though, it’s more of those aspects that you’ve seen in other portrayals of reporters chasing a story, which isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it actually helps develop her character’s arc in a way.
This is evident in her scenes with James Cromwell and Vanessa Redgrave (who plays her mother). They’re really good for the time they’re in it, despite having only around a couple minutes of screen time each.
The thing that really makes her character arc stand out is that we get to see how learning about the event impacts her professionally and personally at the same time. In the case of the latter, she already has enough personal problems, and then this event comes along to make things worse. She doesn’t have the best relationship with her mother, and especially her father (played by character actor Maximilian Schell, who is also really good in this movie).
The most touching scenes involve her and her father, especially towards the end of the movie.
The personal relationships in this movie feel genuine as a result, and so does the relationship between Captain Tanner and his crew, among whom are Blair Underwood and Jon Favreau. They’re developed more naturally here than in Armageddon, but that leads to a problem I have with this movie, which I will get to later.
You even get Kurtwood Smith of That 70’s Show and RoboCop fame in this, and not only that, the biggest surprise for me among the cast was that Dougray Scott (everyone’s favorite Mission: Impossible villain) is in this, and despite his minor role, I actually liked him***. He plays Jenny’s cameraman, and you’ll easily spot him in a couple scenes.
It’s also a surprise that so many of these aspects work so well for a disaster movie, considering the script is from two writers who had done vastly different movies, one having written Ghost and Jacob’s Ladder.
The direction from Mimi Leder, who prior to this was perhaps best known for her work on ER (of which a couple cast members also show up in this movie), is equally solid. It says something when a director who hasn’t done nearly as many action movies or effects-heavy movies as Michael Bay does it better than Michael Bay.
There are four things I can say are evenly matched between this and Armageddon: The effects, the cinematography, the score, and the pacing. The effects in this, by 1998 standards, actually look really good. It does better wave effects than the last movie I reviewed, I’ll put it that way. Between this and Armageddon, they both hold up in this regard.
They’re both shot really well, and their respective scores are very good (this one being by James Horner, that one by Trevor Rabin, who scored Deep Blue Sea the following year).
In terms of pacing, they both go by pretty quickly, despite the half-hour runtime difference. They’re also both really intense.
What Didn’t Work: There are really only two big issues that I have here.
The first is that this does use disaster movie tropes. Examples include: world landmarks getting destroyed, New York City being destroyed (both of which kind of go hand-in-hand here), and of course the President giving a speech. There’s also foreshadowing in one scene here, but it can be easy to miss. The last one I can really mention without going into spoilers is a scientist being a hero, which you do sort of get here with Leo discovering the comet at the beginning of the movie. It also leads to the funniest line in the movie, to which the reactions are just as hilarious. The fact that they’re genuine reactions makes them even funnier in that scene.
Basically, it uses some of them, but not really all of them.
The biggest issue, though, goes back to a point I made a moment ago: The character development. Armageddon gets a slight edge on this as a result.
Here’s why: I did say the characters were developed more naturally here, but you don’t really get time to get to know a fair amount of them. In Armageddon, however, you did. Sure, they were ultimately just put in suits and shot up into space, thus not allowing for much in the way of developing them, but there was enough time for you to get to know them.
That’s really it in terms of issues, though.
Overall: Deep Impact is a very entertaining disaster movie. Even though this and Armageddon have similarities to each other, I’d actually say they serve as good companion pieces to each other, and I can even see this being a solid double feature for whenever you have a Movie Night. You have a more scientifically accurate movie with this, and a pure popcorn flick with Armageddon.
On its own, however, Deep Impact is still so much fun. You have great performances, solid direction and writing, and a consistent pace accompanied by some very intense scenes and effects that hold up really well.
While you may not get to know a fair amount of the characters, you still care about them because they are developed well enough for that.
It may have some disaster movie tropes in it, but the way they’re incorporated does benefit the story here. Plus, they also add to the entertainment of watching them, and even now, they can still do that as long as everything around the clichés works, and Deep Impact succeeds at that.
If you can at least make the movie itself fun to watch, people will eat it up.
If it’s a disaster movie, a sci-fi movie, or even a flat-out action movie, if you also get one of the best movie Presidents ever, that’s a bonus.
*In saying that, there’s another thing they both have in common right there: They each have a cast member from The Lord of the Rings in them. There are numerous other movie connections between these two movies alone, but it’ll take forever to go through all of them.
**There were a few others worth noting, but I decided it’s best to save those for when I eventually review it.
***Then again, I didn’t mind Mission: Impossible 2, either, so there’s that. I’m saying that, and even I think he’s the weakest villain in the series.