re: Armageddon vs. Deep Impact
Personally, I think both. I remember when Carl Sagan did his original series on PBS. It made science understandable and fascinating to the average Joe and Jill. I wonder how many people went into science because of Dr. Sagan's way of explaining the seemingly (to most) non-understandable? He was a master teacher and a wonderful writer. Science has to be made approachable for the average person.
There are others, though, who will never find science interesting or want anything to do with it, the Mall Bunnies and Dummies, i.e. the ones that populate Jay Leno's JayWalking. They seem to have no curiosity about anything that doesn't directly affect their immediate well-being.