It’s been 25 years since Deep Impact came out during the summer of 1998, a blockbuster season which also saw Michael Bay’s Armageddon release two months later. Both films focused on the world potentially ending due to a comet (or an asteroid in Armageddon’s case) being on a collision course with the planet. While they certainly sound similar the two movies are vastly different, with Armageddon being a much more explosive, action-packed popcorn flick and Deep Impact focusing more on various people on Earth and their reaction to this impending doom.
It’s been at least 15 years since I’ve watched Deep Impact, and it may even be closer to twenty, so while I remembered a few key scenes, I wasn’t 100% sure with how they got to them. The disaster genre is one of my favourites, and I do remember enjoying the film quite a bit back when it was released and liking that it focused more on heart and humanity over constant action sequences. With all that said I was eager to watch it again in glorious Dolby Vision and see how it held up, and this is where it will all come down to personal taste.
First and foremost, the film looks fantastic and the best it ever has for home viewing, with a much improved 2160p/Dolby Vision transfer that leaves the previous Blu-ray release in the dust. The colours are rich, the graining is natural and not distracting in the least, with the picture looking nice, clean and easy to watch. The special effects look spectacular, not suffering from that frustrating separation that sometimes happens when visuals are upgraded, leaving sometimes dated effects to fend for themselves. There’s none of that here, so if it’s your first time watching none of that will take you out of the moment.
What is fun with revisiting these films from the ‘90s is the technology, as I remember seeing these theatrically when the computers they’re using were all cutting edge, but now watching the astronomer at the start of the film stress over trying to connect to a server to warn the powers that be of the incoming danger, all while copying the information to a hard disc so that he can mail it to those who need to see it is just funny.
I don’t hold this against the film at all, as all movies suffer from this over time and there’s nothing that can be done about it. It’s part of what gives a movie its charm, but that doesn’t change how crazy it is at how much has changed in 25 years. Here the U.S. government is somehow able to keep a blazing comet that’s visible in the sky with a telescope under wraps for a year, and only reveal the truth because reporter Jenny Lerner (Téa Leoni) thought she had a scoop about a political affair and the script had her say things in a way that had it sound like she knew about this upcoming disaster. Even back in 1998 it’s hard to believe that nobody else would’ve noticed this comet and sounded the alarms, but today it’d be all over social media and the news within minutes of the initial sighting.
This is also where Deep Impact and Armageddon differ, as Armageddon sees the world only having 18 days to react to an asteroid that’s heading towards Earth, whereas Deep Impact takes place over the course of two years. After the initial discovery we jump forward a year, and this is when the President (played by Morgan Freeman) announces that they’ve known about the comet for a year and have put together a team of astronauts to go and blow it up. He also says that if the mission fails that this will be an extinction level event so they’ve also dug out caves and will randomly select 800,000 citizens to join 200,000 doctors and scientists to take shelter for two-years in an attempt to preserve the human race.
Oddly enough, he also says exactly where the caves were dug so thousands of people head there in a last ditch effort to be saved, and this is just one of the issues with the movie after revisiting it. It’s silly to think that you’d keep everything under wraps for that long and then just announce to the country that 99% of you will die, but here is where you’ll find the 1% that were chosen to survive over you. There’s also a lack of character depth for a movie that relies so heavily on the emotional side of things over all-out-action. Will the movie leave you teary-eyed? Sure, it hits all those notes in both natural and manipulative ways, but if you don’t allow yourself to put yourself into their shoes during impending doom situations then there isn’t much connecting you to anyone.
While they do mention looting and fires being left to burn, the amount of people who were still working at the news station, or White House – hell, even at NASA – was crazy. When there’s less than a day left on the planet, you’re really going to spend it at work leaning on a desk watching a computer? And the mission to destroy the comet, when it fails the astronauts vote to head back home, even though they still have four nukes left on board the shuttle. Firstly, why do they still have nukes with them? Would you not have used everything you brought during the initial attempt? And if they were for backup, why vote to go back home at all? Why not go right into plan B? I say that knowing that they didn’t have a plan B initially, but it’s just odd that you’d head back to earth, knowing that it’s doomed, even though you still have at least a fraction of a chance to stop it – which is why you went up there in the first place.
Listen, if you loved Deep Impact back when it was released, own the Blu-ray and still love it, then you’re going to truly love the 4K update that looks and sounds beautiful. If you haven’t seen Deep Impact before then I do say it’s worth a watch, as its an interesting addition to the disaster genre with the route it chose to go with the focus of the story. Still, because of that I’m a little less forgiving of some of its shortcomings. If your focus is on character over action then the characters you choose to focus on better be fleshed out and interesting, and that’s just not the case here. Instead of being people we’re overly invested in they’re instead more or less there to simply hit their emotional note when it arises in two-dimensional fashion. In the end it’s a fine, average disaster flick, but it’s not one that will be leaving a deep impact in the long run.
4K Blu-ray Video and Audio Review:
As mentioned earlier, the 2160p/Dolby Vision transfer is wonderfully done. While it’s not a film that will knock you out of your seat with its restored enhancements, it’s one that looks better than ever because of them. The grain that remains from the original print doesn’t hinder the 4K version at all and is complimentary to the times and feel the filmmaker was going for. As a whole, fans of the film should be thrilled with what they’ll get to add to their collections, and those who are interested in checking it out for the first time will get to do so in the best format possible.
On the audio side of thing we’ve got a great 5.1 Dolby TrueHD lossless track that’s carried over from the Blu-ray release. While it’s brought over from 2009 the track still holds strong, with solid surround sound during moments when it hits hardest, and the film’s score powering through for the moments that aren’t sound effect heavy. As a whole it’s an excellent pairing with the fresh 4K visuals and both boost the film to the top of the pile out of any of its releases.
Special Features:
There are no new special features on this release, as the reason to pick this up is the 4K remastering alone. The special features are found on the Blu-ray disc in this bundle, as they’re also carried over from the 2009 release. They are as follows:
Audio Commentary – This track sees Director Mimi Leder and Visual Effects Supervisor Scott Farrar and sees them talking about the making of the film, the concept, the actors, as well as its comparison to Armageddon.
Preparing for the End – This is a 9-minute featurette that talks about the making of the film, the science behind it, and so forth.
Making an Impact – This is a 12-minute feature about the special effects in the film.
Creating the Perfect Traffic Jam – This is a six-minute featurette about creating the giant traffic jam near the climax of the film.
Parting Thoughts – This featurette is just under 5-minutes in length and sees the director talk about screenings of the film, as well as the death of the film’s cinematographer Dietrich Lohmann, who died before the film’s release.
Photo Gallery
Teaser Trailer
Theatrical Trailer
Paramount Pictures Presents Deep Impact. Directed by: Mimi Leder. Written by: Bruce Joel Rubin, Michael Tolkin. Starring: Téa Leoni, Robert Duvall, Elijah Wood, Morgan Freeman, Vanessa Redgrave, Ron Eldard, James Cromwell, Jon Favreau, Laura Innes, Leelee Sobieski, Blair Underwood. Running time: 121 Minutes. Rating: PG. Released on 4K Blu-ray: May 2, 2023.
