Review of Deep Impact

Introduction

Deep Impact came out three years ago, and is a disaster movie which sees planet Earth threatened by a huge meteor. The story begins with a rookie reporter (Leoni) uncovering what appears to be a cover up by government when a senior official resigns, apparently over a woman, but the real story is that an "extinction level event" is a year away. As attempts to stop the meteor fail, the government takes the steps necessary to preserve the human race and martial law is imposed as the impact nears.

Video

The video is presented in non-anamorphic widescreen and despite the relative lack of resolution as a result of the transfer, is reasonably sharp and detailed. The picture is colourful and doesn`t suffer from any compression problems, dirt or film grain.

The film was hailed as having ground-breaking special effects when it was released three years ago, but the goalposts are moving so quickly that many of them (particularly scenes on the asteroid) don`t look so impressive now. Other scenes look very good - for example when the meteor enters the earth`s atmosphere the long tracking shot as it travels down the valley is an impressive scene. Similarly, the tidal wave scenes are quite good in places - the formation of the first wave is not bad, and the demise of New York as a huge wave strikes is quite impressive, although the prominence of the World Trade Centre may not be to everyone`s taste as the wave engulfs the city, demolishing buildings.

Audio

The soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is of a quite high standard, and whilst the sound primarily emanates from the front three speakers, the rears are put to good use in the action scenes.

There are plenty of sound effects during the action scenes, and a considerable amount of bass, which will give your subwoofer a good workout and make your room vibrate at the key moments.

Throughout this, the dialogue remains clear and understandable.

Features

The only extras are the teaser and theatrical trailers - not very exciting.

The disc is packaged in a black Amaray case, which contains a single page insert detailing the chapter breaks. This is conveniently worded to give away the plot...

Conclusion

Overall, despite having a story with potential, a good cast and a big special effects budget, Deep Impact fails to deliver any entertainment apart from the moment that the meteor finally strikes.

Disaster movies always have some human-interest story during the build up to the inevitable (and what the audience has come to see) and in this case, the script and supporting characters are weak, and the resulting wait for the action to start is tedious to say the least. The premise that a rookie reporter would have direct access to the President after (not) unearthing the real story is ludicrous and this "as-if" problem continues throughout the film.

With a non-anamorphic widescreen picture, no extras and a tedious movie, this is one to avoid.