Can't say I would have much faith in a bunch of scientists that come to survey the devastation reaped on the West Coast of Ireland but are so 'clever' that they fail to notice that the surveying instrument they are using does NOT have a battery. Admittedly I use this sort of gear all the time and do tend to notice minor details like whether or not I can actually turn it on or not but this crack team of experts seemed to miss that. Bet they felt silly when they got back to their base and found that all their work was lost cos they were too dumb to notice something as obvious. Not a bad film but some of the accents were a bit odd to say the least......and why is it that America always takes charge whenever Earth is threatened.....that would terrify me more than the bloody comet.:)
9 Reviews
Decent CGI but....
altea19 December 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Last night I saw this movie and was disappointed! It had some good CGI and the impact is OK but the story has a lot of plot holes or facets that are not seen or talked about. The list is to long to mention but some items not discussed are what is the position of the world leaders in face of this catastrophe, what is the position of the president of the US, what is the future of earth after the catastrophe...etc. Normally those plot holes do not deter from the complete story but in this case it does and you as a viewer get annoyed. Another strange story is the romance between Marcie and the scientist. Do they have a sexual relationship or are they just good friends. You never know. The complete story is a build up to the impact but not very realistically told. Pity!
Not bad but mainly for SF freaks
JRmf26 November 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Watched this in two halves. First half was quite good I thought, especially with respect to any science content (tho apparently the geography isn't so good) - no glaring physical impossibilities, plausible scenario. The inclusion of Ireland made the movie (refreshingly) not the usual completely US-centric fare. The movie's twist was that a comet strike/mass evacuation was the "best" option, not a nuclear strike - an interesting difference to Deep Impact / Armageddon.
It's in the 2nd half that things unraveled: 1. Even 4+ weeks before, it was _known_ that North America was the target( to give time for evacuation) - seems very unlikely given uncertainties in the comet's path and speed (I believe it's still relatively hard to predict where a decaying satellite orbit will impact) 2. The comet strike was powerful enough to decimate North Am but not cause a nuclear Winter by putting sufficient dust into the stratosphere - again improbable 3. Nukes could have been used to deflect the comet but would have required more than one attempt. Nukes can be as small as a kiloton (prob even less) so a small "calibration" standoff pre-strike could have been used to determine the likely effect of a bigger one, or cluster of smaller ones. Technically difficult but given the stakes..
The glare-prone/backlit look of the movie was also a turnoff.
But overall, certainly a lot better than most B-grade sci-fi.
6/10
It's in the 2nd half that things unraveled: 1. Even 4+ weeks before, it was _known_ that North America was the target( to give time for evacuation) - seems very unlikely given uncertainties in the comet's path and speed (I believe it's still relatively hard to predict where a decaying satellite orbit will impact) 2. The comet strike was powerful enough to decimate North Am but not cause a nuclear Winter by putting sufficient dust into the stratosphere - again improbable 3. Nukes could have been used to deflect the comet but would have required more than one attempt. Nukes can be as small as a kiloton (prob even less) so a small "calibration" standoff pre-strike could have been used to determine the likely effect of a bigger one, or cluster of smaller ones. Technically difficult but given the stakes..
The glare-prone/backlit look of the movie was also a turnoff.
But overall, certainly a lot better than most B-grade sci-fi.
6/10
Shannon???
Omniman4 January 2008
Folks I live 10 miles from Shannon airport and I can tell you this - it is not located in Galway Bay and does not have a seaside beach. This show puts it about 50 miles from where it actually is. A small bit of research, say looking at a map, would've cleared this up. Dublin is not in north county Louth by the way and Queens University is not in Dublin, it is in Belfast. The very notion of an Irish university named after a British royal is insulting. The building used in the closeup shot is Dublin Castle. I like the new spin on America saving the world by the way. America takes one for the team i.e the rest of the world. An awful pile of rubbish this was.
Stinkerooni
garbagearama12 December 2008
Warning: Spoilers
I watched this last night. Awful, but sometimes really bad is really good. Low points: - Bad North American accents by British actors. You might fool Britons, but not North Americans. The Chief of Defense staff sounded like he had a stroke, and I loved the guy with the overacted Southern drawl. - Unrealistic. A whole bunch of scientists detected the comet at a number of different places, but only our hero scientist can break the news to the world. I could go on. - The U.S. government is relying on the scientific advice of two scientists, even though the end of the world is about to happen. Maybe ask a few others for opinions, you know? - After six weeks of evacuations, there are still people waiting at the airport when the big day comes. - Bad science and bad script. Could've used a scientific adviser AND a script adviser. Too many science errors to count, poor character development with weird dialog. - Poor U.S., taking one for the team. The comet hit near Lake Ontario, which would have taken out about an area in Canada that supports about half the population (works out to about 16 million people). Remember Canada? It's the world's second-largest country by area, is about half of North America, and shares a queen with England. Darn Colonials.
When did they move Dublin??
fmulreany28 December 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I just watched Impact Earth and was really surprised to see that Dublin, the capital city of my fair country, has moved! Yes, you heard me Dublin has relocated to the North of Ireland and is now roughly where Belfast is. (Maybe Miss South Carolina was the geography consultant on this movie?) As if that isn't bad enough the Irish 'science' people in this movie are from Queens College Dublin. Note to the writer/director/producer - many Irish people are a bit tetchy about the subject of the British monarchy and would really not appreciate our main educational institution named after their queen. Folks maybe before your next movie you might check out the geographic and socio-political facts, eh?
It would be laughable if it wouldn't be so boring
the_wolf_imdb28 November 2011
Warning: Spoilers
This movie is "usually bad" when it comes to scientific merits. Comets are not NEO (Near Earth Objects) but this movie should probably act as an advertising for NEO funding so it is acceptable. The timescales of actions are incredible - there is no way to send a probe to incoming comet in the matter of months. The "comet seems round so it is fragile" - just ridiculous. And again there is old song if we should or should not use nuclear devices to blast the comet off its trajectory. The "super scientific mind" is even scared that the blast could actually deflect other incoming warheads back to the Earth atmosphere. Oh my. That's too much! I think that all these pathetic school dropouts travel to Hollywood to offer their skills to write "scientific" scripts as this one. There is no other explanation of never ending train of stupidity in such movies. The serious scientist should really protest because some poor viewers could actually admire "scientific value" in such crappy movies.
The movie is unfortunately not only bad, but it is also so stuffed with clichés that it is boring. The female flight attendant is not only attractive but also willing to move in to the "best scientific mind". The logistic overseer is able to move 100+ million people but somehow unable to arrange evacuation of scientists and himself. All the important guys do not want to leave their command post so they have to run as hell to catch the very last plane only when the remaining people here start to act as if it was the last plane from Stalingrad. And of course, the attractive female flight attendant is here on the plane... This is probably meant to show, you know, some action or urgency or something.
Yawn.
Seriously, fire all the script writers and buy some automated script writing software from Google. The result can not be possibly worse than this. It does not matter which horrible thing threatens the US or if the countermeasures fail or save the day - all these "catastrophic thrillers" are so soulless, so generic, so pointless and so bad. If you do like astronomy you should avoid such crap because it will misinform you and repulse you from the actual science that is way more interesting and thrilling that these bad sci-fi "thrillers".
The movie is unfortunately not only bad, but it is also so stuffed with clichés that it is boring. The female flight attendant is not only attractive but also willing to move in to the "best scientific mind". The logistic overseer is able to move 100+ million people but somehow unable to arrange evacuation of scientists and himself. All the important guys do not want to leave their command post so they have to run as hell to catch the very last plane only when the remaining people here start to act as if it was the last plane from Stalingrad. And of course, the attractive female flight attendant is here on the plane... This is probably meant to show, you know, some action or urgency or something.
Yawn.
Seriously, fire all the script writers and buy some automated script writing software from Google. The result can not be possibly worse than this. It does not matter which horrible thing threatens the US or if the countermeasures fail or save the day - all these "catastrophic thrillers" are so soulless, so generic, so pointless and so bad. If you do like astronomy you should avoid such crap because it will misinform you and repulse you from the actual science that is way more interesting and thrilling that these bad sci-fi "thrillers".
Why I liked this movie...
crachil14 March 2008
To date, 20% of people who voted on this movie gave it a 9 or a 10. I was one of them, and I would like to elaborate on the reasons why:
(1) The movie attempts to be realistic. The scenario it describes, broadly, is not impossible. Tomorrow might be the day we learn about "Ireland-type" impact as shown in the movie (I am not an expert on this, but my understanding is that it is true that sufficiently small objects can be detected only too late for any action to be taken). I like that there are no super heroes in this movie and no futuristic technology (although the timing might be off on some elements of the story). On other hand, as other comments mention, there appear to be many goofs, some of which are quite embarrassing; and the more technical one goes, probably, the more one finds. For myself, only a moderately critical viewer, however, this did not create mental blocks to enjoying the film.
(2) The movie underlines the importance of the development of technology and investment in outerspace / NEO exploration. In a scenario like this, no data is excessive and no technical capability of humanity is wasteful. From my very subjective perspective, space exploration is one direction of human effort that is bound to pay off in one way or another (and the movie highlights just one of the ways). My hope is that publicity to the topic and the field will create greater awareness of this in general public and will bring in more converts.
(3) The movie highlights the "higher self" of the United States, as a country, nation, and culture - the notion that a nation can sacrifice itself for the good of the humanity. From a sarcastic perspective, I guess, this can be the most unrealistic part about the movie, but I, personally, don't adhere to this. More than that, I think that most nations and people would do the same if given a chance. In a way, the movie highlights the "higher self" of humanity, which we tend to loose sight of in daily life. Personally, this was the inspiring part about the movie.
I bought this movie at an impulse and later, at home, was very disappointed to find out that it had under 5 average rating on IMDb. I almost did not watch the movie to not waste the time. I did eventually, on a mood upswing, and am very glad I did - it resonated with me. I hope some other people will enjoy it too!
(1) The movie attempts to be realistic. The scenario it describes, broadly, is not impossible. Tomorrow might be the day we learn about "Ireland-type" impact as shown in the movie (I am not an expert on this, but my understanding is that it is true that sufficiently small objects can be detected only too late for any action to be taken). I like that there are no super heroes in this movie and no futuristic technology (although the timing might be off on some elements of the story). On other hand, as other comments mention, there appear to be many goofs, some of which are quite embarrassing; and the more technical one goes, probably, the more one finds. For myself, only a moderately critical viewer, however, this did not create mental blocks to enjoying the film.
(2) The movie underlines the importance of the development of technology and investment in outerspace / NEO exploration. In a scenario like this, no data is excessive and no technical capability of humanity is wasteful. From my very subjective perspective, space exploration is one direction of human effort that is bound to pay off in one way or another (and the movie highlights just one of the ways). My hope is that publicity to the topic and the field will create greater awareness of this in general public and will bring in more converts.
(3) The movie highlights the "higher self" of the United States, as a country, nation, and culture - the notion that a nation can sacrifice itself for the good of the humanity. From a sarcastic perspective, I guess, this can be the most unrealistic part about the movie, but I, personally, don't adhere to this. More than that, I think that most nations and people would do the same if given a chance. In a way, the movie highlights the "higher self" of humanity, which we tend to loose sight of in daily life. Personally, this was the inspiring part about the movie.
I bought this movie at an impulse and later, at home, was very disappointed to find out that it had under 5 average rating on IMDb. I almost did not watch the movie to not waste the time. I did eventually, on a mood upswing, and am very glad I did - it resonated with me. I hope some other people will enjoy it too!
Entertaining Educational Production
Bev-71 July 2008
Geographic goofs aside, this film is fairly good. It is essentially an educational piece platformed on a drama with multi-dimensional characters moving the action along as they provide enlightening information about such a likelihood. It addresses some of the public notions of what would happen and why and makes the distinction between what we've seen in Hollywood portrayals and what scientists know to be likely, especially with regard to prediction and intervention. The science is pretty accurate and the mood is one of the inevitable. It's not a matter of IF but WHEN a NEO strikes Earth.
The production is British but they put the object strike at Pittsburgh, my hometown. I was a bit amused. Why Pittsburgh?
The production is British but they put the object strike at Pittsburgh, my hometown. I was a bit amused. Why Pittsburgh?
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