Search - Super Comet on DVD

Too much cheese, not enough bread...

Laura Knight-Jadczyk | France | 02/03/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Super Comet - After the Impact is a Discovery Channel special that basically takes the comet that wiped out the dinosaurs and puts into modern times. They used the same type of cometary body assumed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, the same size, same impact location, and utilized all the computer modeling they have done on this past event to try to show what might happen (and to show what they think happened then). Not terribly creative and suggests that they really don't know all the effects of such an impact and are just putting things together from what little they have been able to figure out about that one impact, some (or much) of which may be just speculation, though I'm sure that there is some good science going on there.

The cheesiest part of this "docu-drama" was, of course, the depicted foibles of the humans experiencing the event. The show included some cheesy drama, following the struggles of several individuals or groups, before, during, and after the impact, to show how people would react to such a global cataclysm. Even though cheesy, maybe those depictions were useful. The one guy who simply couldn't grasp the nature of the event, kept traveling "home" (which happened to be the site of the impact) even when it was clear that there was no home left. His emotions and his ignorance basically drove him to his own death.

Other people continued to act as if the world was still the same place and suffered thereby, though they learned to cope. There's the typical dumb teenager whose inability to grasp the nature of what is happening (not to mention that her parents weren't very forthcoming with information), who goes running off after a dog. Her parents go after her, eventually find a car, and then the father and teen run off and leave the mother sitting in a running car like it was double parked at the bank! Like desperate people weren't going to steal it immediately with the sleeping mother inside?! Sheesh. Mainly, the characters all acted like they fell out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down! What was clearly evident was that it was lack of knowledge about such events that was the chief problem for all of them.

There were a number of experts trotted out for the "docu" part of the docu-drama. I think I would rather have seen a show that was just about the science with the experts and special effects than the silly way this thing was put together.

One interesting item: at one point, one of the experts made the remark "WHEN it happens," as though he - and the rest of them - knew for a fact that this was on the agenda for our near future. The very fact that so many scientists are working on these problems, including a large number of them studying the possible human reactions and behaviors and how to deal with masses of people, should warn us that there IS something they aren't telling the masses in the headlines of our daily newspapers, though certainly they are "testing" public reactions with shows such as Super Comet - After the Impact.

If you want to know what is really in the future, read Victor Clube's The Cosmic Winter and Comet/Asteroid Impacts and Human Society: An Interdisciplinary Approach.

I had to make myself continue watching this one since I wanted to get up and leave several times. I kept thinking "I could be reading a good book..." But I stuck with it just to see if they had anything new to say. They didn't. It was weak and unsatisfying... cheese with no bread."

Super Comet:After the Impact

Dakota Greene | Colorado Springs, CO | 11/24/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I saw this movie on TV a few months ago. I was glued to the TV as I believe this to be the best Comet movie I have ever seen. Let's not forget Armageddon with Bruce Willis. I was looking for the DVD but they didn't have it until now. This movie has an interesting format. You are introduced to a table of scientists who are there to education you as to what will happen when the super comet hits.

For some reason our learned scientist are not in harms way. They continue to sit at their table as all of this destruction is going on. Each of these individuals take turns offering their expertise. This goes back and forth throughout the whole film. Scientists-Drama, Scientists-Drama. As the comet is on its way to earth and after it hits, the scientists educate us as to what will happen to the environment and the few humans that survive this event.

At the same time there is a drama going on with people who have survived the desolation. You will see the horrifying destruction that the comet has caused on the earth with some great special effects. This is really quite a story!

The electromagnet waves will take out anything with a computer chip in it. So, bye-bye iPods', automobiles, TV's, computers, you name it. Dakota"

Letterboxed

Dan Thompson | USA | 05/11/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is a non-anamorphic format that presents the 1.78:1 aspect ratio in a letterbox, which means it will not display across the entire screen on some systems set up for pure digital video (i.e. using a HDMI cable)."

A lot of thought provoking...not much science.

Oldtechnohobbiest | Tennessee | 04/29/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First of all, I'm just an old techno--not a scientiest. Nonetheless, there is no doubt this movie was slapped together with the idea of ratings generating and money making--there is very little 'real' science done here (at least, as far as I know--but I could be wrong...I just don't think so.)

I've seen this movie twice in the last two months, both times I saw error after error. Here are some examples (excuse my spelling). I want you to remember--I'm using National Geographic's facts here, not some Professor's who is a real expert on this subject.

1. Watching this movie would give you the impression that anybody who took cover during that first twenty four hours might survive the heat. They call it the 800 degree day. Old techno says POO POO! You think that if the comet hits today (it's 85 degrees outside) and the world wide temperature goes up to 800 degrees--that in twenty four hours the temperature is suddenly gonna drop back down to 85 degrees? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! No, twenty four hours later the temperature has probably dropped back to 790 or 780 degrees. It will take about three weeks for the temperature to go down to 150 degrees.

You will have to survive the 300/800 degree MONTH. That family who took a boat into that old roman sewer system--they all died. They either broiled or fried to death......no kidding. Everybody they met in that city died. Their dog died...the mice died...even the cockroaches died in that heat. The earthworms three feet underground fried.

2. In the movie, they show some poor man struggling to get home to his wife and family (she was at ground zero). Oldtechno says POO POO!!!

ALL OF THE OXYGEN in the atmosphere for a thousand miles in all directions from the impact crater is either burned up or contaminated with volcanic gases (volcanic gases are extremly toxic and UNBREATHABLE--it kills in a matter of minutes) That poor man never made his epic journey. He died.

3. In the movie it shows him dragging that sled over those (I guess I spelled this wrong) geodynes. Oldtechno says POO POO!! Geodynes are comet and crater ejecti. It's the material thrown back into the air from the impact. These geodynes are flying through the air from 5000 miles per hour to over 20.000 miles perhour. Some are thrown into space and never come back. All that is left go through the atmosphere like micro meteorites and hit the ground between 5000 and 20000 mph.

...and all of them are red burning hot. The entire earth's surface would burn up from these impacts. You can take a common rain drop, accelerate it up to 20000 miles per hour and it will blow a hole right through the armor plating on the side of a battleship.

So here's oldtechno's bottom line about these micro meteors and how to survive them.

One, if you are on the surface...you are dead.
Two, all those steel rod and concret structures...they all either burned up or were 'hulled' (blown holes in) EVERY ONE OF THEM FALLS TO THE GROUND.

To survive it, you have to be on Mars or underground in a deep cave that has its own oxygen supply.

4. Remember the family?...the daddy tries to fix an old radio (it's the right idea--but impossible) Oldtechno says POO POO!!!

There are no electronics on this planet that can withstand 800 degrees for twenty four hours and still work (that any of us could find outside a laboratory) All the electronic components (transistors, resistors, capacitor, diodes...etc...would fry, crack, explode--or something like that.....heck, even the solder would evaporate from the solder joints at that temperature.

Bottom line; there will be no electronics.

5. One of the things people do, is after the impact, they are still able to eat....something....six months later. Oldtechno says POO POO!!!

You take a can of food and heat it up to just 300 degrees for a few hours and it will 'pop' open. Heat another can up to 800 degrees for a few hours and it will explode like a quarter stick of dynamite--no kidding. THERE WILL BE NO FOOD LEFT! on the surface of this world. Futher...they said something about living on mold, mildew, and mushrooms. Well, oldtechno will just have to say..."800 degrees should have killed all of those off including their spore, for several feet underground."

5. Another point I'd like to make is that one moment where the two astronomers are drinking the water. The female mentions the water is still safe to drink but is becoming more and more acid (I think she mentioned something like vinegar). Well........oldtechno was just wondering--what does that acid rain do to any surviving spores and seeds?

Futher, go into a burned out building sometime and look around. Find a piece of metal--see all those pit holes in the metal? When you mix smoke from a fire, with water from a fire truck, you get that kind of acid water, but stronger. So why is oldtechno saying this? Well, I think the makers of the movie didn't take into account the thick oily smoke from the worldwide fire mixed with natural rain water.

Six. Finally, I would just like to say, I'm glad they came out with this movie--the more, the better. But I feel they should go back and remake it accurately this time.........More Science, less spectacular special effects.

bye."