Impact DVD with David James Elliott, Natasha Henstridge, Benjamin Sadler (Unrated) +Movie Reviews

Better Than Average Disaster Movie

CFH | Blue Ridge Summit, PA USA | 10/21/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Impact" was originally a made for TV mini-series so it is lacking the big Hollywood studio "feel". This is actually a good thing if you want the drama and character development that is possible in a movie that is 3 hours and 10 minutes long.

No plot spoilers from me; the movie centers on the events that occur immediately after what is believed to be an asteroid hits the moon (which happens very shortly after the movie starts), the effects it has on the earth, and the efforts of the governments and scientists of the world to set things right... before the world is destroyed.

I am a Sci-Fi and disaster movie junkie, so I likely rated this higher than many movie purists would since there are a lot of scientific faults, implausible events, and has almost every cliché from just about every other disaster movie. The special effects ranged from laughable to outstanding, but the cinematography was actually very good. The acting was right on par for a TV movie and the characters well played and given time to develop.

While all movies of this type require some suspension of disbelief, there were several things that bothered me more than the obvious technical and scientific flaws, and the biggest was the portrayal of the government and military leaders as obstructionist and paranoid to the point where they would risk the lives of every person on the planet. That is a cliché that needs to be let go of.

Overall, this was a watchable and even enjoyable movie if you are a disaster movie fan.

"

Very interesting, plausable, good effects so far

Boston Legal addict | Redlands, California USA | 06/23/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm writing this after watching the first half of this miniseries. I find the writing to be intelligently written, the acting the same....My feeling is that they're not going for sensationalism but more realism. I don't know about "brown" asteroids (heavy asteroids) but it seems plausable (SPOILER ALERT) that one could hit the moon and cause it to be heavier, hitting with such force that it could change the moon's orbit. The special effects are awesome, esp. for a made-for-tv movie. As I say, I'm not an astronomer/scientist but it all seems logical. I'm looking forward to the conclusion next week and signed up to be notified when the DVD comes out."

Enjoyable

Nancy Eddy | E. Texas USA | 07/03/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I really liked this movie. As someone else said: if you're looking for 'plausible' then don't watch Sci Fi movies, since by their nature they're not always plausible.

I can't wait for it to come out on DVD in the US - ABC cut a lot out of the movie from when it was shown in Europe."

Mein Gott! Das Ist Badd!!

Born2Late65 | New York, USA | 11/07/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Acht Du Leber! What a ripoff... The studios behind Armageddon & The Day After Tomorrow must've given the OK for this. It's a cheesy, made-for-TV-movie_ish ripoff of them both. H*ll, they even had a Dennis Quade lookalike. I paid $1.99 for a weekend rental special. I think that was a bit high for this. This is one of the few times I'm glad I don't have a dog. The poor thing would be howling for an hour over this."

Another clever plot idea with a very clumsy development, and

Emc2 | Tropical Utopia | 01/01/2010

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This miniseries is one more case of a clever sci-fi plot idea wasted by a bad development, with a dull and melodramatic script, and a mediocre acting (particularly the performance of the two main characters is lousy). Furthermore, science fiction is supposed to be based on scientific rigor with a license for logical and credible extrapolation. The scientific adviser for the miniseries must have been sleeping during the whole shooting because the list of violations of scientific laws and basic knowledge is endless.

The following is a short list of the worst inaccuracies or impossibilities: (i) a full moon that is seen simultaneously in Earth's day side (U.S.) and in the night side (Europe); (ii) the moon looks bigger from Earth's surface than from space; (iii) electro-magnetism lifting non-metallic objects; (iv) assuming an anti-gravity effect was possible, cars and people floated but small objects did not; and (v) the lousy handling of the brown dwarf physical properties, which do not follow Newton's nor Keppler's laws.

A small brown dwarf has a mass similar to Jupiter (Jupiter mass is around 320 times that of Earth) and a big one could be 80 times that, so in good faith let's assume that it was just an splinter that hit the Moon. So if this "dwarf" splinter has a mass two times that of Earth (consequently its mass will be 12 times that of the Moon) then: (i) any decent observatory would have detect it approaching because the gravity of such big mass would have affected the orbits of all planets in the Solar System; (ii) the Moon would have been completely smashed on impact and not just cracked; (iii) the Moon's orbit would have completely altered after impact, following more or less the brown dwarf original trajectory and no longer locked to the Earth; and (iv) the Earth's orbit would have been altered too, now becoming a satellite to the Moon + Brown Dwarf system.

As for the special effects their quality is poor even by a TV series standard. SFXs look like late 70s technology: some of the astronaut scenes look like the TV episodes of the original Start Trek series and the low resolution the lunar surface is a shame, I wonder if was actually a painting.

Definitively not recommended. And for the sci-fi fans I do recommend instead the novel, Moonfall, which has a similar Moon impact plot but more plausible (real hard science fiction).

"

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