Deep Impact (4 Stars)

I was feeling lazy this evening. I still am. I watched "Deep Impact" late in the evening, and since I'd written a good review when I watched it in 2016 I thought I wouldn't write anything tonight. I decided to generate a review with ChatGPT. The ChatGPT reviews are samey, as I realised when I generated a dozen reviews a few months ago, but if I only use it to create occasional reviews nobody will notice. So I made two attempts:

"Write a detailed review of Deep Impact".

"Write a detailed plot description of Deep Impact".

I was horrified. Both reviews, especially the second, contained factual errors. For instance, ChatGPT says that the reporter Jenny Lerner gave up her place in the underground shelter to remain with her lover. Bong! No, she doesn't have a lover in the film. It's also claimed that Jenny's parents had arranged for her place in the shelter. No, it was the other way round. Jenny was selected by the government, and she attempted to get a place for her parents as well.

So please, dear readers, don't expect artificial intelligence to take away your jobs. Based on the poor results I saw today, it'll be years until it gets that far. If you use artificial intelligence to assist you in your work, you need to check everything it's written.

So I'll have to write the review myself, but I'll keep it brief. As I said, I'm feeling lazy tonight.

A teenage astronomer called Leo Biederman, played by Elijah Wood, discovers a comet in the night sky. He passes on the information to Dr. Marcus Wolf, who realises that it's on a collision course with the Earth. It's about seven miles long, so the impact will be great enough to destroy all life on Earth. The scientists call it an Extinction Level Event (ELE).

Two steps are taken to prepare for the impact. First, a spaceship called the Messiah is sent to intercept the comet and use nuclear weapons to destroy it, Secondly, in case the Messiah fails, an underground shelter has been built in Missouri to hold one million people for at least two years.

The film doesn't properly start until after the first half hour. The film begins with little stories that are irrelevant to the story itself. Dr. Wolf dies in a car crash when he's on his way to report his findings. My condolences, but it's not relevant. After receiving faulty inside information, Jenny Lerner misunderstands ELE and thinks the president has a mistress called Ellie. Amusing, but also irrelevant. The first half hour could have been trimmed to five minutes.

"Deep Impact" and "Armageddon" were both released in 1998, only two months apart. They were both successful. Would they have earned more money if they hadn't been competing against one another? Or did the success of "Deep Impact" (May 1998) encourage more people to go to see "Armageddon" (July 1998)?

By the way... wouldn't you like to have Morgan Freeman as president?

Success Rate:  + 2.4

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