Deep Impact (1998)

Dir Mimi Leder

Written by Bruce Joel Ruben, Michael Tolkin

Robert Duval, Tea Leoni, Morgan Freeman, Elijah Wood, Alexander Baluev, Ron Eldard, Jon Favreau, Laura Innes, Mary McCormack, Vanessa Redgrave, Maximilian Schell, Richard Schiff, Leelee Sobieski, Blair Underwood, James Cromwell, Dougray Scott.

One of the two ‘asteroid’ movies of 1998, in which school senior Leo Beiderman (Wood) helps discover an asteroid on route to collide with Earth. An up and coming reporter (Leoni) is one of the civilians to first discover the secret from the President (Freeman). Duval plays the captain of the spaceship headed to intercept the asteroid to destroy it.

 Set over a two year period, the film takes a human approach to how we would expect this scenario to play out. The film is mostly ensemble, however Leoni is the ‘key’ character of Jenny, she has some strong emotional scenes throughout proceedings. It would have been nicer if she had been given more to do, considering her characters arc. The more senior cast members such as Duval and especially Freeman feel a bit underused.

The storyline is sound, there are obvious flaws in logic with some areas, but it is a Hollywood film. I enjoyed the human element, and there were some genuinely emotional scenes (Eldard speaking to his son about the rocket, and all the others conversations before that).

There was also a well done ratio of special effects scenes to not, which I found refreshing. The primary use of special effects doesn’t occur until the last 25 minutes or so, and while somewhat dated now, it still trumps some of the special effects being used in films today.

The score by the late James Horner complements the film nicely. There are some wonderful moments within it, but it is not his best work.

If I am to compare this to the other asteroid film of 1998, then this is my favourite of the two, only for the fact that it has stronger characters, and the emotional aspect of their arcs are more impactful.

3.5/5