Pretty disappointing movie just cries out for a rewrite, for an extensive rethink of what would have been worth concentrating on in a scenario such as this. The "big picture" aspects of the scenario are mainly confined to Freeman's exposition-oriented dialogue, yet his scenes provide only the merest hint of the political and personal anguish that drives his decisions. Otherwise the movie's focused on a few inexplicably bland personal stories - it's impossible to know why Leoni and her estranged parents were considered to be worthy of such attention. Despite the gravity of the situation, the movie maintains a pretty evenly bland tone, with an extreme failure to register tension - the ultimate saving of the world is almost anticlimatic. By far the best moments are the special effects-generated impact of the first comet - which are awesome in fact - but even these are undercut by cutting away to Wood's mediocre personal drama, not to mention simply by being too short. And of course, there's little sense of the huge loss that's been incurred by mankind nor of events in the world beyond. Independence Day was not only far zippier but actually managed in its bubble-gum way to convey a better sense of a comprehensive portrait of the event.
Review of Deep Impact
