Deep Impact (1998)

Please... One "Armageddon" in 1998 was quite enough, and bad enough. Now two? "Deep Impact" is a more complete movie than "Armageddon", but it has more holes than a freakin' Swiss cheese. It started well enough, became bad, and just finished in downright idiocy. Female director Mimi Leder was no stranger to action movies, having directed the equally average "The Peacemaker" in 1997 with Clooney and Kidman. Here she tries to tackle the subject of an asteroid hitting the earth through human drama (using an all star cast), but fails completely, because one cannot help laughing at the inconsistencies of the plot and the forced emotional situations. Furthermore, this movie follows a well known fact, that is that every asteroid, alien, plague, etc, etc, only hit the United States of America, which only adds to the stupidity of it all, as I will show. As I said, the movie doesn't start as bad as that, and I was enjoying. Elijah Wood and Leelee Sobieski, astronomy students, find a new star, and send it to the Observatory not thinking of it anymore (there is a stupid accident with one astronomer, what the hell, nobody cares). One year passes and journalist Tea Leoni is investigating some sex scandal and stumbles on the asteroid-is-hitting-the-earth-news (so forced...), which leads to president Morgan Freeman doing a speech to the nation, which causes an expected panic. This first part has the best scenes, as the few characters we follow are shown their human side when faced with an approaching death. Maximilian Schell and Vanessa Redgrave shine with a poor screenplay. A la "Armageddon" a team (lead by an older Robert Duvall - another stupid excuse to put him there... as if there weren't any newer astronauts as qualified) is sent to blast the asteroid. Another half an hour of movie and they fail, just breaking the thing in 2, both pieces still headed for earth. Another speech by Freeman and there is a nation wide lottery to decide who is going to go to the underground Noah's Ark, which the US had been constructing in secret. More panic, huge traffic jams, choices being made, people left behind, high drama, I love you, I stay, I go, etc, etc. This leads to more stupid scenes, as for example Elijah Wood going all the way on the selected bus to the shelter (2 days or more), to get there, get out of the bus, and say to his parent "I have to go back for Leelee Sobieski", and alone he goes, getting to his town in less than a day (!?), to find her in a huge traffic jam.. (very believable...). Now I will start spoiling the picture, so if you are still interested, read no further. The inconsistencies begin. Ok, there are 2 asteroids, one small who will hit the Atlantic Ocean and will "just" cause a tsunami that will destroy the cost-line cities, and another, big one, which will create a cloud of dust that will block the sun and cover the earth for 2 years, as is faithfully reported by Tea Leoni, the newsgirl. So, when the astronautsa commit suicide at the last moment and throw their ship against the big one destroying it, humankind is safe. But the film doesn't show that. It shows the little one hitting and the tsunami destroying New York, Washington, etc, etc. In the end, Freeman refers in one sentence that "Europe and Africa have also been hit", and goes on, in a half destroyed White House, that mankind is ready to start again, etc, etc... WTF! WAIT A BLOODY MINUTE. It was a tsunami in the Atlantic... Ok, the East coast of the States was hit, we see it in the movie. So was probably Brazil, and Portugal, and the Uk, and France, all under water now. But California is ok. And Asia. And Australia... So why this crap about the new rebirth of mankind??? More stupid things. The tsunami is big enough to destroy the Twin Towers, but Elijah Wood and Sobieski climb (on foot) a freakin' hill, and the water doesn't reach them!!! Wait, there is more. Tea Leoni heroically gives her spot on the shelter to a co-worker, and off goes by car to meet her father Maximilian Schell, to reconcile before the end. They meet the huge wave on the beech head on, and die together. Wait... I didn't know that Washington DC was on the Atlantic shore?! And if they weren't in Washington, how did she get there by car.. because, as is shown often, there are epic traffic jams all over... the list goes on and on... So, this movie has some degree of emotional drama well developed (for example the suicide scene of Vanessa Redgrave is beautiful), but then just shows fake heroism for the cameras, shocking destruction scenes without reason, and we-will-survive-speeches that make no sense, on face of what has happened. This was a movie that tried to reflect on the conflicting emotions of facing death, but failed because of the attempt to add blockbuster cheap dramatics, that went completely wrong. A failure to say the least.