Occasionally Hollywood filmmakers exhibit some serious groupthink and produce a bunch of very similar movies in very short order. Usually one of these does well while the others tank. For example, in the late Eighties, Big struck it… uh… big, but the other “kid in an adult body” flicks from the era made little impact.

Periodically, none of the movies do well. Witness the onslaught of Mars flicks from the early 21st century.

Mission to Mars, Red Planet and Ghosts Of Mars all did quite poorly at the box office. This is a rare event, though.

Normally when Hollywood latches onto a concept, they find some success. It’s weird that all of the efforts in a particular genre would bomb.

Perhaps even more unusual was what happened in 1998. That year we got two big-budget “destructive object from the sky” pictures that hit screens in fairly rapid succession.

Deep Impact - which threatened Earth with a giant comet – came out first in May, while Armageddon - which sent a huge meteorite at us – appeared in early July.

Few thought both would do well, but they did. Deep Impact snagged a not-too-shabby-for-1998 $140 million in the US, which left it eighth among the year’s top moneymakers.

On the other hand, Armageddon earned a tidy $201 million US and ended up as the second biggest-grossing film of the year, not far behind the $216 million of Saving Private Ryan.

Ever since 1998, film fans have argued about the superiority of either flick. Granted, a lot of folks thought they both stunk, while a few thought both were good. However, most people picked sides and preferred one or the other.

This occurred because the two were really fairly different films, and Armageddon appealed more to the action crowd. Director Michael Bay went with a full-on war against the space rock, as deep-sea diggers and the military took on the threatening object.

It highlighted flashy thrills and did this well in my estimation. Armageddon wasn’t a brilliant flick, but it delivered what it promised.

Deep Impact, on the other hand, tried to be Titanic with a comet. The movie hit screens less than five months after James Cameron’s smash, and it seemed clear that the studio wanted to strike a same chord. The film’s posters accentuated the human relationships, and the picture itself more strongly followed those lines.

Because Impact featured less action, many try to depict it as more intelligent than Armageddon. Balderdash, say I.

Just because the movie lacks the same level of excitement doesn’t mean it’s deeper or more heartfelt. I just think it’s less interesting.

The characters and events in Impact feel just as superficial as those seen in Armageddon, but at least the latter brings enough thrills to make it interesting. While Impact has its moments, it generally seems fairly flat and bland.

At the start of Impact, TV reporter Jenny Lerner (Téa Leoni) lands a story about a scandal within the presidential administration. It turns out that prominent Cabinet member Alan Rittenhouse (James Cromwell) seems to be having an affair with someone named “Ellie”.

However, after a lot of confusion, the president (Morgan Freeman) fesses up that the problem comes from ELE: an “extinction level event”. That’s how they refer to the impending comet that will likely extinguish life.

As it happens, we’ve already seen the discovery of this comet. High school student Leo Beiderman (Elijah Wood) first saw it during an astronomy class. His teacher had a professional astronomer examine it, but that dude got into a fatal car wreck when he raced to report the findings, so it took a while for the material to emerge.

The governments of the world attempt to combat the menace via various means and also come up with backup plans to keep human civilization alive in some way if those fail. A series of perilous adventures follow.

Why exactly do I think Deep Impact fails to work as well as Armageddon? Because it doesn’t follow through with what it promises.

Armageddon tells us to expect lots of rock-‘em, sock-‘em action and it delivers, whereas Impact remains far too touchy-feely for my liking. At times it seems like an apocalyptic flick for the Lifetime Channel.

It also scatters its storylines too broadly. Armageddon focuses on the team who will try to stop the asteroid and that’s about it. While the characters remain thin and stereotypical, at least we see enough of them to develop genuine affection.

That doesn’t occur during Impact. The movie flits from Jenny to Leo to astronauts and doesn’t succeed with any of them.

Instead, they just seem like generic personalities to whom we feel little attachment. If we root for them, that occurs simply because we really don’t want to see the world come to an end.

Deep Impact sputters in other ways as well. It provides surprisingly cheesy special effects and shows an even weaker sense of logic and science and factual elements than does Armageddon - I never knew Richmond, Virginia was only six miles from the ocean! (Spoiler alert: it’s not.)

While Impact features a solid cast, none get much chance to excel. The usually excellent Freeman seems wasted in his bit part as the president, though I did like the fact the movie – created 10 years pre-Obama - never makes an issue of a black commander in chief.

Leoni actually manages to bring a little depth to Jenny, and Robert Duvall lends an air of down-home charm to lead astronaut Spurgeon Tanner, but overall, the cast can’t make the movie memorable.

Honestly, I can’t say that I truly dislike Deep Impact. It has some moments, and it offers a moderate level of excitement and drama.

However, I find it almost impossible to watch it and not compare it to Armageddon, and my preference for the latter taints the experience.

Deep Impact appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. While not a bad presentation, this one lost points due to a few issues.

Some digital processing occurred, and this both reduced grain and boosted sharpness in an artificial manner. This meant the movie could feel “hyper-crisp” at times and less than natural.

Otherwise, general delineation largely seemed fine. Despite more than a few overcranked moments, the film delivered fairly appealing definition.

No issues with shimmering or jaggies appeared, but light haloes crept in at times. Print flaws stayed fairly minor, as I saw occasional examples of modest grit and a few speckles, but nothing major appeared.

Colors looked bright and vivid, and they displayed no problems related to bleeding, noise or other issues. They could also feel a bit overdone but they usually worked pretty well.

Black levels seemed deep and rich, while shadow detail was appropriately opaque but not excessively thick. Much of the image satisfied, but the digital tampering damaged its overall impression.

As for the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack, it seemed pleasing, as the soundfield offered a nicely active and involving piece of work. Music showed good stereo presence, while effects provided a strong sense of environment.

Between the space scenes and those with the explosions, Impact came wth a lot of chances for a killer mix, though it lacked the extremely high level of potential found during Armageddon. Nonetheless, the track used all five channels well and created a fulfilling surround presence.

Audio quality seemed positive overall. Dialogue appeared intelligible and natural.

Music sounded vivid and bright and showed good depth, while effects worked very well. Of course, the louder segments packed the greatest punch, as they provided the appropriate depth and power.

Bass response seemed very positive, and the mix featured a lot of solid low-end response. Deep Impact worked well enough to merit an “A-“ for audio.

How did the Blu-ray compare to the 2004 SCE DVD? Audio was fairly similar, though I thought the lossless TrueHD mix was a bit more engulfing and dynamic.

As for the visuals, they showed the usual improvements found with Blu-ray. I would guess that the Blu-ray used the same transfer as the DVD, but the format allowed for it to provide greater definition and vivacity.

Actually, the Blu-ray may’ve revealed flaws not as obvious on the DVD. Even with its issues, though, the Blu-ray became the superior presentation.

Virtually all the extras from the 2004 SCE DVD reappear here, and we open with an audio commentary from director Mimi Leder and visual effects supervisor Scott Farrar. Both sit together for this running, screen-specific track.

The piece manifests sporadic examples of useful tidbits, but much of it seems dull. We learn about how both participants came to the project, sets and locations, working with the cast, deleted scenes and storytelling, and visual elements like faking weightlessness.

Leder dominates, even during the sequences with heavy effects footage. Farrar occasionally chimes in, but he doesn’t offer much in the way of technical insight.

As for Leder, she gives us more than a smattering of interesting material, but not a ton. The track tends to plod along without much energy, and we encounter occasional instances of dead air.

Things never become tedious enough to make this a bad commentary, but it fails to engage us well enough to turn into something terribly compelling.

Next we get four separate featurettes. Preparing for the End fills eight minutes, 56 seconds that features Leder, screenwriters Bruce Joel Rubin and Michael Tolkin, and we also get a few quick 1994 snippets from scientific authorities who discuss some realities behind the comet-related prospects.

We learn about the project’s origins, writing the screenplay and research, how Leder came onto the film and her preparation, developing the characters, and casting. Unlike many programs of this sort, not too many movie clips pop up, as the piece focuses on the issues. It presents the production topics concisely and turns into a nice little featurette.

The longest program on the disc, Making an Impact goes for 12 minutes, eight seconds. In it Tolkin, Leder, Farrar, and Rubin discuss shooting on location, handling large scenes, filming the comet sequences and visual effects, various sets and spaceship design, the scope of the destruction sequences and altered concepts.

As with the prior program, this one handles its subjects well. It’s a broader piece than “End” but it moves smoothly and covers a lot of territory efficiently.

For more information on the logistics of filming, we go to Creating the Perfect Traffic Jam. In this six-minute, 14-second featurette, we hear from Leder, Tolkin, Farrar, second assistant director Alison Rosa, additional casting Judith Bouley, and second unit production manager Cherylanne Martin.

The focus here is on the location shoot, as we mainly see what happened there. It’s another useful program, as we get a good look at the massive scope of this brief sequence and all the concerns involved.

The final featurette, Parting Thoughts goes for four minutes, 50 seconds. It includes notes from Leder, Tolkin and Rubin as they discuss test screenings and edits, the passing of cinematographer Dietrich Lohmann during production and its impact, and desired impressions to be left by the movie.

The last two bits are nice, but the discussion of the cut sequences is the most useful, especially since we actually see a little of the excised material.

In addition to both a teaser and theatrical trailers, we find a Photo Gallery. It includes 59 pictures that mix shots from the flick and candid images from the set. None of them seem very interesting.

One disappointment stems from the lack of deleted scenes. Leder discusses many of these and we see some fleeting images of a couple in “Parting Thoughts”, but that’s it. Since the director indicates she made massive cuts in the film, it’d be nice to see more of them.

At times, Deep Impact offers a reasonably involving and dramatic disaster movie, but it focuses too heavily on bland character drama. Since none of the roles receive enough attention for us to care, this means that the movie often falls flat. The Blu-ray provides inconsistent picture, excellent audio and a smattering of decent supplements. This isn’t a great movie and the Blu-ray becomes an erratic rendition of it.

To rate this film visit the original review of DEEP IMPACT