Deep Impact –
Collector’s Edition
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: C+ Film: C-
The last cycle of disaster films happened 1) before the
events of September 11th 2001 and 2) only happened because of
advancement in digital animation.
Whereas past cycles were sociological, the cycle that began with
cinematographer-turned-director Jan De Bont’s Twister (1994) built into
the shallowest cycle of these films yet, peaking with the obnoxious Michael Bay
film Armageddon. In the same
year of 1998, though a few months prior, Mimi Leder gave us Deep Impact. Many critics who were only mildly impressed
said it looked intellectual in comparison to Bay’s film, but a second look
reveals something more idiotic.
I was one of the defenders of Leder’s directing debut, The
Peacemaker the year before. It also
happened to be DreamWorks first-ever release.
However, this turned out to be a bigger hit, but an artistic misstep for
which Leder sadly did not recover from.
Especially after 9/11/01, the idea of the disaster and the ludicrous
sacrifices asked for in the film, paired with the insidious quasi-militant
formula adventure music out of the most tired 1980s films makes this feel
almost quasi-Fascist in its tone and even intent.
Unlike a more exciting, open-ended film like Independence
Day (1996, which exceeded the disaster trend for several reasons too long
to go into here), this film is straightjacketed in its ideology and
disturbingly so. Just when we get the
supposed Liberal triumph of an African American president (Morgan Freeman), he
announces when the big rock is going to hit earth and that a lottery will be
held (as if this would work) to see who will survive! This was offensive then, and is outrageous now, but shows just
how condescending the Bruce Joel Rubin/Michael Tolkin screenplay is. That an audience would agree to these
possibilities as they suspend their disbelief for such a film, give or take
just being there for the then-new digital visual effects, is disturbing. A more extreme possibility is having the
effects be an excuse to propagate the audience to accept second best in crisis
situations, but some would say that’s a stretch.
The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 x 1 image is a
disappointment and does not look like it came from the best transfer to begin
with. Video White is a bit off, while
detail is also often questionable. The
digital effects have dated like most and if they look this poor on DVD, how bad
would they look in 35mm? The Dolby
Digital 5.1 mix, English or French, is a surprising disappointment and not as
good as I remembered the sound originally.
Music by James Horner is one of his poorest-ever scores, as if he phoned
it in. The film was issued in DTS, but
there are no such tracks here (which could have helped save the presentation)
and its even poor for Dolby!
Extras include an audio commentary by Leder and visual
effects supervisor Scott Farrar that is better than the film itself, four
all-new featurettes that get boring quickly (Preparing For The End, Making
An Impact, Creating The Perfect Traffic Jam, Parting Thoughts), a photo
gallery and both the theatrical teaser and final trailers. That’s good, because the feature needs all
the help in can get. Paramount is
reissuing this because Fox’s hit The Day After Tomorrow is going to be
released on DVD at around the same time.
Otherwise, they would have had absolutely no reason to reissue this
tired title.
- Nicholas Sheffo
