Review of Deep Impact (1998) by Filipeneto — 11 Jun 2018

This film tackles the end of the world in the traditional American perspective: a newly discovered comet threatens to destroy the planet and the US leads the crusade to eliminate the threat. Despite the obvious American imperialist propaganda implied here, the film is good, especially for those who enjoy catastrophe movies. His story bears a strong resemblance to "Armageddon" and some scenes remind us of "Independence Day", but there are big differences between these three films. One of the most notable is that this film gives more attention to the characters than to the tragic events. Unfortunately, this makes it a lot slower and monotonous than we might at first glance. There are people who see it as good, others want more action and they will get a little frustrated. I, in particular, have been able to appreciate this more leisurely way, although some scenes are perfectly expendable. The special effects have been quite well made and are grandiose, although they seem a little unbelievable.

The characters have been very well developed, much better than most of the films of this genre, which helps a lot to catch the attention of the public. Elijah Wood and Leelee Sobieski can be particularly touching and, despite their young ages, get a good chemistry together. Even so, there are times when they exaggerated in sentimentality. The rest of the cast (where we can see experienced actors like Robert Duvall, Vanessa Redgrave or Morgan Freeman) has a much more contained and uninteresting record, which is a little surprising. Still, Freeman and Duvall have always been a little better than the rest of their peers, though their characters are relatively minor in the story (we may even think that the talent of the actors has been misused). Tea Leoni was clearly a casting mistake, she never really got her character.