Deep Impact Review
by Chad Polenz (ChadPolenz AT aol DOT com)May 26th, 1998
Deep Impact
Chad'z rating: ** (out of 4 = fair/below average)
1998, PG-13, 120 minutes [2 hours]
[thriller]
Starring: Téa Leoni (Jenny Lerner), Morgan Freeman (President Beck), Robert Duvall (Spurgeon Turner), Elijah Wood (Leo Biederman); written by Bruce Joel Rubin, Michael Tolkin; produced by David Brown, Richard D. Zanuck; directed by Mimi Leder.
Seen May 17, 1998 at 11:45 a.m. at Rotterdam Square Mall Cinemas, theater #6, with my brother John, for free using my Sony/Lowes critic's pass. [Theater rating: ***: good picture and sound, average seats]
Critics have been quick to judge the current trend of films about grand-scale disaster as pure eye candy, and for the most part they're right. However, "disaster" is somewhat of a misnomer as the type of films aren't so much about the cataclysmic events themselves as they are about people banding together because of a threat. This is a concept that could, in theory, combine action and drama perfectly, and "Deep Impact" is the latest mega-budget event movie of the sort which tries its hardest to be completely plausible, but in turn detracts from the fantasy of it all.
There's no denying we want to be excited and intrigued by movies right from the get-go, and this film realizes that notion and exploits it through one of the most pathetic excuses for tension ever produced. We start off with a high school astronomy club in Arizona where a boy named Leo Biederman (Wood) has unknowingly discovered a comet. When his pictures are sent to a professional observatory, the scientist there realizes the comet is on a collision course with Earth. Of course it takes a lot of high-tech computers to calculate this within seconds, but somehow the same computers can't log on to the Internet so the scientist can warn the world. If that had not already been a sign of the sheer cheesiness to the film, the script uses bottom-of-the-barrel cliches to "remove" the scientist and make for a sense of danger about as frightening as film is plausible.
Incorporating the modern, massive news media is becoming an ever-increasing Hollywood trend and when used properly it can provide for a sense of reality. The film goes about establishing reality by using a popular broadcast journalist, Jenny Lerner (Leoni), as one of its main characters. Lerner is a typical character who plays an important role when she uncovers a news story involving the resignation of a Cabinet member which is secretly related to the government's discovery of the comet. Lerner seems to be the only reporter for MSNBC (which the film would have us believe is the only broadcast media), and is told she's stumbled onto something big. Meanwhile, she's having a personal crisis as her old divorced mother is depressed at her father's marriage to a much younger woman. All of this is generic to the extreme, especially as executed through Leoni's bland performance and scene after scene of pointless confrontations which would be right at home on "Melrose Place."
Had the film begun at the second act it would not have been hindered at all. It takes at least 45 minutes for the aspect of the comet collision to come into play and thus create for some semblance of plot and conflict. The mid- section of the film suddenly becomes a series of interactions between supporting characters with an effort at tension thrown into the mix. Morgan Freeman co-stars as President Beck, who informs the world, and thus us the viewers, what the situation is and how it will be resolved. Freeman is great actor, but even he cannot create for the kind of suspense the film intends to build through philosophical lines and speeches and overly dramatic shots. Another great actor, Robert Duvall, co-stars as Spurgeon "Fish" Turner, the eldest member of a space crew sent to knock the comet off course, and yet he too seems silly trying to recite campy dialogue.
Soon the focus shifts from any kind of a general plot to individual conflicts between the characters and the mission to save the world. Through both of these aspects it becomes more and more clear the attempts at intelligent storytelling have been exhausted. Needless to say, Turner's crew doesn't succeed on its mission (or else the film would have ended after an hour), and proceeds to make things worse. It's all downhill from there with as the characters are put through the meat grinder in an attempt to create for suspense which only comes across as melodrama (and poorly-written melodrama at that). It's difficult to feel sorry for them since they're so generic, not to mention how sloppy the script is in its attempt to balance the story.
The last act clinches this idea as it seems like the world really will come to an end and yet none of the characters seem worried about it. The attitude is so apathetic that it asks us to sympathize with the characters who see confronting the impending apocalypse head-on as an honorable notion. The script conviently provides for the massive special effects disaster imagery it promises and a climatic resolution, but still fails to work even as eye candy as it's very unconvincing and ends much too quickly.
Perhaps "Deep Impact" would have worked as a television mini-series as it tries to squeeze so much into such little time and space. It's no wonder story and character flaws and massive continuity errors take the place of drama and suspense.
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(C) 1998 Chad Polenz
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