I was prepared to hate "Deep Impact." I read several early negative reviews, and I was (and still am) looking much more forward to "Armageddon," the other "comet hits Earth movie." As it turned out, I ended up enjoying "Deep Impact" much more than I thought I would.
There's a whole lotta well-respected actors and actresses in this movie. Ya got Morgan Freeman (as the President of the United States), Robert Duvall (one of the astronauts), James Cromwell (he's only in one scene, though), Vanessa Redgrave (the mother of Téa Leoni's character), and Maximilian Schell (as the father of Téa Leoni's character). There's also the minor celebrities like Elijah Wood, Denise Crosby, Blair Underwood, Ron Eldard, Mary McCormack, Jon Favreau, Laura Innes, and the one I mentioned earlier, Téa Leoni. They all do fine. No one stands out as doing bad (although I'm not sure if the central character shoulda been given to Téa Leoni), but Duvall and Freeman DO stand out for being the tremendous talents that they are. Those guys never cease to amaze me.
It was directed by Mimi Leder whose only other feature film was "The Peacemaker," which I never saw. Other than that, she's directed a lotta TV movies and episodes of "E.R." I was really impressed with her work as a director here. It was written by Michael Tolkin (writer of the book and screenplay, "The Player") and Bruce Joel Rubin (writer of "Jacob's Ladder," "Ghost," and "My Life," which he also directed). It was a good screenplay, and I was sucked into the film.
The only thing about "Deep Impact" that I didn't like was the fact that they spent too much time on the astronaut crew trying to stop the comet. If you saw the movie trailer or the commercial on TV, you know that the comet DOES hit Earth... with a vengeance. It worked much better as a human drama with huge, destructive special effects in the third act. Sorta like "Titanic."
And yes, the special effects are phenomenal. There's some unbelievable footage as the tidal wave destroys the east coast. And it's not just a couple of quick shots, either. It's good stuff.
There will
be lotsa people who don't like this movie. I mean, most thought that "Volcano"
was pretty bad, but that was another one that I ended up loving. All I have
is my opinion, and I really enjoyed this movie. Give it a chance and I think
that you might like it, too.