See This Movie.(1)

Author: JZeth (jzeth7@gmail.com) from United States
2 June 2005

Deep Impact is a well-done and thoughtful film that powerfully delivers the human touch in its pondering of the age-old question: What if extinction was just around the corner?

Deep Impact is most often compared to its death-comet partner from the summer of '98, Armageddon. Deep Impact is a drama; Armageddon is an action film, and delivers just what we would expect from an action film, namely, over-the-top characters, a simplistic storyline, and an abundance of special effects. Deep Impact presents just the opposite: Characters that are notably human, several dovetailed story lines, and it saves the special effects (which are very good) for the movie's climax.

Armageddon did better at the box office primarily because it was much more hyped, and because it featured an A-list star (Bruce Willis) while Deep Impact did not. Its enjoyability, though, is very limited: If you are not a fan of the action genre, you will not like Armageddon. Deep Impact is the substantially better film and reaches out to the viewer to a far deeper degree.As you certainly know, the plot revolves around the fact that a seven-mile-wide comet is on a collision course with earth, and if it makes impact it will represent an Extinction Level Event (i.e., the death of all life on the planet).

Having about a year and a half's notice of this, the U.S. and Russian governments send a spacecraft, the Messiah, to destroy the comet by drilling nuclear warheads into its core and then detonating. The movie focuses on three primary story lines: 1. The young reporter Jenny Lerner (Tea Leoni) and her struggles with her career and her parents; 2. The high-school couple of Leo Biederman (who discovered the comet; Elijah Wood) and Sarah (Leelee Sobieski); 3. The crew of the Messiah.

See This Movie.(fin)

Author: JZeth (jzeth7@gmail.com) from United States
2 June 2005

All three story lines are done in such a way that the viewer easily sympathizes with the very believable characters. The best done of the three is the spaceship's crew, although the most time is spent with Jenny. They all suffer from the film's only notable problem: The story lines seem somewhat rushed. Considering its broad scope, Deep Impact clearly would benefit from an extra 30 minutes to develop, especially with the underdone angle with Leo and Sarah, but the directors evidently decided two hours was all they could use.

Deep Impact, as I mentioned, lacks an A-list star, but it does feature superb performances from two of the best supporting actors of our generation: Robert Duvall (Spurgeon Tanner, captain of the spaceship) and Morgan Freeman (Tom Beck, the U.S. President). Duvall is definitely the standout of the film with an A+ performance as Tanner.As for the other actors/actresses: Tea Leoni (playing Jenny Lerner) gets the most face time in the film and delivers a believably good performance. Maximillian Schell as Jenny's father is the one notable casting mistake; I'm not sure what they were going for with him, but they could have done better. Venessa Redgrave does well as Jenny's divorcée mother.

Elijah Wood (now a star but at the time just an up-and-comer) works very well as the teenage Leo Biederman, and Leelee Sobieski as his girlfriend Sarah gives us as good a performance as we can expect, considering how woefully underdeveloped her character is.The film arguably devotes a bit too much time to Jenny and her father and not enough to Leo and Sarah.If you haven't seen this movie yet, it should be at the top of your must-see list. The film moves at a good pace (if a bit fast), grabs your attention at the beginning and holds it throughout, and it features a truly exceptional final 20-25 minutes.

What stands out most about this movie is its human touch and sensitivity. It manages to probe an impressive array of human emotions in two hours' time, and it will leave you with plenty to think about -- although it probably will not leave you with dry eyes. There are precisely three movies I have seen that caused the room to get dusty around me (if you get my drift), and this is one of them.In conclusion: See this movie.

Very moving.

Author: Brian Wolters from Cabot, Arkansas
12 July 1999

I found Deep Impact to be a very good "study" on how we has humans, may react to an E.L.E. (see this movie for details on that.) The special effects were good, but the best thing about this movie was the focus on the characters. This wasn't loud and stupid as "that other asteroid movie." This film will entertain you and mostly, touch your heart. You actually feel the doom that is about to reach these people, and to me, that is good film making.About the only thing I could pick on would be the performance of Téa Leoni. To me, she was never convincing. She seemed down and depressed all of the time, even when she was doing the news. Very odd performance.I give this film a B+
 

One of my favorite Sci-Fi films of all time!

Author: LebowskiT1000 from Escondido, California, USA
11 October 2002

It truly saddens me to see that this film has such a low rating on IMDB! I've seen this film several times and EVERY TIME it gets me a little misty-eyed at certain points in the film.

Since the release of this film and Armageddon, I've been unsure which of the two I liked better. I have always been leaning towards Deep Impact, so today I watched the film again to be sure. I definitely believe that Deep Impact is a better film. Although, Armageddon is a fantastic movie in it's own right.I like Deep Impact better because I feel the story is much more realistic and slightly more interesting. Also, the acting in this film is just fantastic (but again, Armageddon was well-acted as well). After viewing the film again today, I thought "ya know, there is virtually nothing in the film that I really disliked", whereas there are a number of things in Armageddon that I really disliked!

The cast in this film is absolutely superb! You've got Robert Duvall, Tea Leoni, Elijah Wood, Vanessa Redgrave, Morgan Freeman, Maximilian Schell, James Cromwell, Ron Eldard, Jon Faverau, Laura Innes, Mary McCormack, Richard Schiff, Leelee Sobieski, Blair Underwood, Dougray Scott and Kurtwood Smith. They all did a superb job in this film and I think they all deserve a great deal of credit. I really liked that all the characters in the film were likeable. There wasn't a single one that "rubbed me the wrong way", they were all very well done characters.

I have to mention the special effects as well. They are just mind-blowing! All of the scenes with the astronauts on the comet are just superb! ...And the ship that they fly looks so cool! Also, the scene where the smaller comet hits the earth is just great! The level of detail is unbelievable in some of the scenes. You should see this film for the special effects alone.If you like science fiction films with a great story that is quite touching at times, then by all means go see it. This film is honestly one of the better movies I've seen in quite some time. I truly hope that you enjoy the film. Thanks for reading.-Chris

better of the two

Author: Jacob (jacob2@rocketmail.com) from Dallas, Texas, USA
11 August 1998

"Deep Impact" certainly ranks as the better of the two comet/asteroid disaster movies this summer. Unlike in "Armageddon," here you actually care about the characters, and I didn't find myself looking at my watch to see when the movie would be over. If there was one way to improve this movie, it would have been to show more scenes of Morgan Freeman (the best movie president in a while) and focus less on the plotline of the reporter and her father. Overall, though, a very entertaining film, which cannot be said for "Armageddon."