Summer is Near...
and Disaster Fills the Air

One knows that summer is near when the big-budget, special effect-laden action movies begin popping up in theaters. Here it is, only the end of the first full week of May and summer's first entry in the box office showdown has debuted. In a way, Deep Impact is the perfect opening salvo. It has just enough effects to attract audiences and too little substance to make them think.

Deep Impact offers up an action/disaster movie that has intriguing possibilities, but never delivers. The story begins with a Spielberg-esque moment in which an amateur astronomer named Leo Biederman (Elijah Wood) discovers a new body in the heavens. After Marcus Wolf (a professional astronomer) verifies the findings, he is so frantic to get it to someone that he dies in a car accident.

One year later, the story shifts focus away from Leo, Wolf, and the astronomers to center on a budding news journalist (Téa Leoni) as she investigates a resigning senator. The whole movie stops short, and one can almost hear the audience shifting in their seats at the sudden change in directions. Having opened with such a promising and heart-pounding beginning, the dull story of Jenny Lerner and her journalistic life is difficult to watch until it becomes apparent that the two events are related.

Soon the President of the United States (Morgan Freeman) holds a press conference to explain to America that our government has known about the "Wolf-Biederman" comet for a year. In that time, America has worked with the Russians to develop a means of diverting it from its path. As a result, the focus of the movie shifts from Lerner and the President to the crew of the Messiah Mission, headed by veteran astronaut Spurgeon Tanner (Robert Duvall).

If you're concerned about the shifting focus of the movie, don't be. Director Mimi Leder does a good job of using the myriad of characters to tell an apocalyptic tale from several points of view. Unfortunately, none of the characters are interesting enough (except Freeman's President Beck) to justify making them the focus of the movie.

Don't get me wrong. There are some moving scenes, but all of them revolve around Freeman speaking to the American people or Duvall relating to his crew. When Freeman makes the announcement that the world is in peril, there is an undeniable presence in his voice that makes the audience shudder. For a moment it all seems too real. There are transitions, later in the film, where we see Freeman brooding in silence with the weight of America's future on his shoulders, like Lincoln during the Civil War. Obviously more could have been done with Freeman, although his time on screen is never wasted.

Likewise, Duvall plays a very sympathetic man, an aging astronaut who is no longer admired by a world that has forgotten its heroes of the space program. (A minor sermon could be inserted here, but I'll refrain.) When the situation demands a hero, it is Duvall who saves the lives of his fellow astronauts, earning their respect. And later, when Duvall takes time during their mission to comfort an injured comrade, the audience can relate to and care about his character. Unfortunately, such scenes are too rare.

Let us not kid ourselves. The true star of the movie (and most summer blockbusters) is the special effects. When the day of impact arrives, one can't help but watch in awe as a comet crashes into the Earth and sweeps away skyscrapers, forests, mountains, and homes in a cataclysmic tidal wave. The special effects are astounding, and for the most part realistic.

I think Deep Impact is entertaining, but won't hold up under close scrutiny. The story is scattered and the characters are weak, although the effects are stunning. I think this will serve to excite people about the coming summer movie season, but it is only a harbinger of better things to come.

MY RATING: 7 out of 10.

RATED: PG-13
RUN TIME: 120 min.