Movie producers consider their time to be vastly important. Because of this, filmmakers have learned to pitch their ideas in short, catchy paragraphs (often leading to films of little substance beyond their high-concept pitches). I would imagine the pitches for both Deep Impact and Armageddon were remarkably similar. It's interesting, then, how two very different films can come from essentially the same idea.

Both movies do share some elements: each deals with large objects that will smash into the Earth and destroy all life, both involve a heroic crew that journey to the Earth-killer to destroy it, both take plenty of creative liberties with science and both were released theatrically within months of each other.

Deep Impact, the more plausible (and vastly superior) of the two, open with a astronomy club gazing at the stars. One of the group, a teenager, spies an odd object and takes a picture of it to send to his professional astronomer astronomer pal. This astronomer instantly computes that the comet will strike Earth and in perhaps the most realistic scene in the movie, can't get an internet connection to send out warnings (at least my own connections seem to always crap out when I'm in the middle of important things).

Not wanting to waste any time in alerting the world, the astronomer packs up his findings, hops in his jeep and speeds off into the night, only to be run off the road and killed by a sleepy trucker. Apparently common sense wasn't his strong suit, as he could have saved a lot of trouble by simply picking up the phone and calling someone.

Eventually, of course, the comet becomes known and the United States and Russia join forces to build a spacecraft to send to it. The intent is to place explosives under the surface and "nudge" the comet out of Earth's path.

Just in case the spacecraft thing doesn't work, preparations are made on Earth to house a select few in deep underground bunkers. The idea is that a lottery will choose people at random to hide underground when the comet strikes. The rest will be left to die on the surface after all other life is obliterated. It occurred to me that the plan for choosing people at random flawed at best. Millions of people would be left on the surface and most of them won't be killed instantly. We're to believe they'd just accept their doom? Armed or not, those underground "survivors" wouldn't be able to fend off millions of panicked, starving people with access to explosives and contruction equipment.

Flaws aside, Deep Impact is mostly a satisfying movie. This is mostly due to the fact that the characters are engaging and fleshed out enough that we actually care what happens to them. Most of the dialog works well and the acting is more than acceptable all the way around. There isn't a lot of action, but what little is present is handled well and the "impact" scene is spectacular.