Deep Impact appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. Though not flawless, the Dolby Vision image usually worked pretty well.
In general, delineation worked fine. The occasional wide shot felt a bit soft – sometimes exacerbated by late 1990s effects – but the film usually brought appealing accuracy.
No issues with moiré effects or jagged edges popped up, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain felt reasonably natural, and I saw no print flaws.
Colors looked bright and vivid, and they displayed no problems related to bleeding, noise or other issues. HDR added range and impact to the hues.
Black levels seemed deep and rich, while shadow detail was appropriately opaque but not excessively thick. HDR gave whites and contrast extra punch. This turned into a quality presentation.
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 with 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 4K UHD compare to 2009 Blu-ray? Both delivered identical audio.
As for the 4K’s Dolby Vision image, it seemed better defined, cleaner and more vivid than the Blu-ray. The 4K became a clear upgrade.
No extras appear on the 4K disc, but we find materials on the included Blu-ray copy, where 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 4K UHD provides positive picture, excellent audio and a smattering of decent supplements. This isn’t a great movie but the 4K becomes its best rendition to date.
To rate this film visit the original review of DEEP IMPACT
