Ben Affleck, Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler
First off, I would just love To thank Sobey's Square Empire Theatres for not making something stupid happen the second time around. Sorry this review wasn't up earlier, people, but an oh-so coincidental blackout foiled my first attempt to see the movie on opening night (Wednesday in Canada). You got a complaint? I'll give you the Mall's number.
Well well well...here's an original thought. A bigass rock hurtling towards earth. What'll we do? We'll send original astronauts up to land on the original rock to drill an original hole and dump in an original nuke to blow the rock to original smitherines. Am I saying original so much it makes you want to find out who I am and hit me? Well, na na na boo boo.
But seriously, you're not going to get through a review without comparing this rock to the other deep one. It's inevitable. And I'm a big sucker for inevitable.
ACTING: Armageddon Wins hands down. Bruce Willis was at his best in this film, showing that he can actually do a scene without something blowing up in it, and do it well. Ben Affleck, well done. Liv Tyler didn't have much to say, but her acting was wildly better than Tea Leoni's. As for supporting actors, I liked them a little more than in Deep Impact, or maybe it was just how the script was handled.
SCRIPT: You can't really compare these. Armageddon was wildly patriotic to Americans, with more refrences to God and Country than I could count. Deep Impact had an American feel as well, probably because they concentrated on that country the most. Armageddon was a little funnier with a few more laughs, and Deep Impact was..well...deep. It depends on which you like more.
SPECIAL EFFECTS: For here I have to go with Armageddon. Deep Impact was a little fake sometimes, especially in the tidal wave scene and the aftermath scene. Armageddon had wicked opening titles, and hey! If it makes you a little dizzy, it's good.
ASTEROIDS: Definately Armageddon. This rock had spunk. No way was it going to let a few piddly humans survive, it was going to wipe out the entire planet and it was going to finish the job, goshdarnit. This one also hurtled at a faster rate. I like a rock with goals. And personally, I like the idea of everyone being wiped out rather than have a few rich, ugly suckers getting to squirm out of inevitable death. Bastards.
DEEP MOMENTS: Armageddon had a few, but Deep Impact had the many. Like the title says, the impact isn't only on life, but on the denizens of earth as well. Although I must say that both movies had tear-value (probably because Paris bites it in Armageddon). But Deep Impact wins this category.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, Deep impact wins this category eight times around the block. I would so much rather have Morgan Freeman for a president than a pasty-faced white dude (sound familliar?) who spends the entire movie on the plane. Never mind that I'm Canadian. Freeman also had more to do in Impact. The Pasty-dent was pretty much a big loser in Armageddon save for one speech, written by a speech-writer who got a C- in English. Go Figure.
THE ENDING: Both movies had their fair share of tense moments, tear-jerking losses and brave, commando-like sacrifices. But (SPOLIER HERE) in neither movie does the whole Earth get destroyed. Oh well. Armageddon had a little more happiness because the spacenauts came home (most of 'em anyway), where as in Deep Impact, the whole crew went belly up. I can't decide which I enjoyed more: Seeing all of Washington get swamped or revelling in the face that Robert Duvall bit the big one. Never mind. I marginally like Armageddon better.
THE SUPPORTING CAST: Armageddon! I liked these guys so much more! I enjoyed them so much more, especially Lev the Cosmonaut and Steve Buscemi, whose reason for wanting the mission to fail is that he owes $100,000 to a loan shark and he has a dentist appointment on Monday.
THE SOUNDTRACK: If I here any more Aerosmith I'm going to cry. Other than that, I can't remember Deep Impact, so Armageddon wins.
But back to Armageddon: Two things: I love it that every action flick this summer is finding a reason to completely destroy New York, and two, Billy Bob said that if the rock went public, there would be looting, mass destruction, religion insanity. Why then are there just whole masses of people praying and crying and looking at the sky in slow motion? Stop taking film from Yellow Pages commercials, dammit!
Next thought: I don't think Ben and Liv had a lot of chemistry. Affleck himself said they were close friends, and that's a little how it came off in the movie. But I didn't mind so much because you only have to see them together for a little while, and if you don't watch the credits, that time is cut down by half.
So, all in all, I think i enjoyed Armageddon a little better. However, both films are quite different. Armageddon is a little more action, Impact is a little more soul.
My Advice: see both, but see Armageddon first.
TRIVIA: Lev the Cosmonaut (Peter Stormare) was in Mercury Rising with Bruce Willis, and in Fargo with Steve Buscemi. Other than that, William Fitchner, the patriotic to his job Colonel, played Brett Butler's sexy Chemist in Grace Under Fire.