A comet is discovered to be on a collision course with Earth. As doomsday nears, the human race prepares for the worst.
Back in the ’90s, disaster films were all the rage. Big dumb movies with questionable theoretical science, like “Volcano,” “Twister,” and “Armageddon” dominated the box office and always inspired a copycat release. In 1998, “Deep Impact” hit theaters, and preteen me was uninterested and avoided it until Paramount released this 4K restoration. Well, preteen me was right; this movie is tedious. With a $75 million budget, “Deep Impact” made out well at the box office, but no one is rewatching or mentioning this film like, say, “Independence Day” or the aforementioned trio of iconic dumb disaster films.
It stars Elijah Wood, Leelee Sobieski, Tèa Leoni, James Cromwell, Robert Duvall, and many actors who went on to be typecast in similar bureaucratic roles. A significant casting issue is that at 67 years old, Duvall is way too old to be an active astronaut. He’s even too old to be Michael Corleone’s consigliere.
Cromwell stands out among the many underutilized actors—his performance in the previous year’s “L.A. Confidential” as Capt. Dudley Smith was one of the all-time cinematic villains. Standing nearly 6’7” tall, Cromwell’s performance as the double-dealing LAPD Captain should have skyrocketed him to more significant roles. While he’s still working (occasionally popping up past series like “Boardwalk Empire” and the current “Succession”), he never got many roles beyond being a supporting player.
Anyway, back to “Deep Impact,” the opening is promising enough. It begins with an understated and subtle tone. There is not a ton of exposition as the teenager Leo (Elijah Wood) and his love interest Sarah (Leelee Sobieski) discover the antagonistic meteor which is hurtling towards Earth. Leo’s amateur discovery is forwarded to an astronomer at a planetarium. The scientist is eating the saddest-looking piece of pizza, and he confirms Leo’s finding. However, the astronomer’s confirmation is unfortunately kept from the public due to his premature death. Apparently, this death mirrors an actual incident where an Australian astronomer was killed in a car crash after making a major discovery. The problem is that “Deep Impact” never goes beyond this subdued tone. The film’s pacing is excruciating and dull.
The story jumps ahead a year later, focusing on Jenny (Leoni), a young CNBC reporter who gets the scoop of a lifetime. One which lands her face-to-face with the President of the United States (played by a primarily disinterested Morgan Freeman). The incoming 500-billion-ton meteor will cause an extinction-level event or an E.L.E. From a distance, which is most of the grueling 2 Hours plus running time, the meteor itself is the opposite of frightening. It looks cartoonishly animated. Whereas, up close, the meteor is presented through a practical mixture of sets and miniatures and looks a bit better.
Using a nuclear warhead, these astronauts want to eradicate the meteor and prevent the possibility of an E.L.E. The team of astronauts conveniently does not mention Tanner’s (Robert Duvall) older age but is worried over his lack of recent training. As was common then and still seems familiar, the plan is to blow some shit up. The funniest (unintentionally humorous) moment was when a character in her 30s said she felt like an orphan after losing her parents. It was impossible not to think of Bob Funkhauser on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” similarly telling Larry David that he is an orphan for which L.D. hilariously (and justifiably) mocks him.
Director Mimi Leder served as executive producer and director on HBO’s “The Leftovers,” one of my past favorite shows. I will need to revisit and see if it holds up all these years later. But here, her direction is unremarkable. And the overindulgence in dated CGI looks remarkably bad in the updated 4K. It is, unfortunately, one of the downsides of high definition; any minor flaws are blown up and exaggerated.
Most of these disaster films reflected the time’s collective fears over existential dreads like Y2K. The Y2K bug failed to reset everything back to the stone age. As the past has shown, there can be factual information, but half the population will not come together or believe. But in “Deep Impact,” everyone believes, and most people follow the laws. This is why dystopian films and shows like “Black Mirror” have lost their previous massive draw due to humans realizing they are too living in a dystopian world. It is not sexy or romantic. If anything, it is a glaring reminder of these dark times, which seem inescapable.
Now available for the first time on 4K Ultra HD™
