The editing was done pretty well here, but I think more severe cuts and maybe some additions are needed, because overall, the movies just too flawed to give a really good movie here in this edit.
There is still much more to be taken out of the jocular, silly “Armageddon”, and even in the more serious “Deep Impact”. One thing that shouldn’t have been taken out is Tea Leoni’s promised first question at the White House press conference; that was noticeable and weird that the President totally reneged on his promise to her.
What should have been cut is the ridiculous ‘humor’ in Armageddon scenes, its lovey-dovey subplot (which was lessened), its god-awful Aerosmith theme song (which was thankfully played only for the length of a chorus), the over-dramatic slow-motion ‘The Right Stuff’ oil-drillers’ walk to the spaceship, the blatant foreshadowing by NASA Director Billy Bob Thornton (he’s a NASA mind?, that’s believeable) about the docking with the Russian space station, and the Slim Pickens (“Dr. Strangelove”) bit; and from Deep Impact: the neighbors’ gathering at the kid astronomer’s (Elijah Wood) house, that’s just unbelievebale Americana.
Anyway, this was better than watching either film on their own, and it was good editing; the synching of Deep Impact’s 48-hour hold on the ELE story and the NASA training and launch was done well, and I’m sure it required some plotting to execute successfully. But the edits just weren’t drastic enough for me to really recommend this – unless I was aware that some poor sucker was going to watch either of these films, then I would say “WOAH, woah woah woah. Woah! Here, check out this edit instead.”
