Leviathan (1989)

What starts as an entertainingly inept mashup of "Alien", "The Abyss", "The Fly", "The Thing" and even "Jaws" slowly unravels into a cynical, tasteless, remorseless, uninspired and depressing piece of public trash. There is no sense in any of it. T he worst part is seeing so many classic B-actors of the era slumming and being wasted. But the performances of Ernie Hudson, Meg Foster, Richard Crenna and so many others lifts the awfully directed, awfully written, awfully edited footage afloat.It had to have been made by a fly-by-night Z-grade indie production more accustomed to cheap porn or Straight-to-VHS store idiocy. At least, thats the vibe it gives. But I'm sure there are some tasteless, racist, infantile and very deprived people who would find this decent. I did when I was 8 years old, but now its just an embarrassing experience.This is a testament to all of the worst qualities of film in the late 80s into the early 90s, the negative result of the commercialism, post-modernism and political incorrectness of some major filmmakers of the 70s and 80s. This tripe has flowed ever since.Leviathan is like a prototype for popular hollow spoofs like "Pacific Rim" and America's "Godzilla" movies. Its trying to be something and failing but you accept the failure because of the stars and familiar special effects. Avoid this movie unless you want to learn what NOT to do as a filmmaker and what an audience-hating film feels like.

So its a movie about an unwanted visitor into an enclosed and isolated ship (sound familiar?). Very predictable, characters are all stereotyped and done with a story line straight from the best SF movie ever made - "Alien". I gave it a 5 strictly because it held my interest, but at the end I wanted to say to myself, "Really? That's it?". Glad I didn't pay to see in theater.

Leviathan (1989)** 1/2 (out of 4) An underwater mining group led by Steven Beck (Peter Weller) are enjoying their last couple days on the job when a couple of their crew members stumble across a sunken Russian ship. They take a safe from the ship and soon realize something went terribly wrong but no one knows exactly what. They soon find out when one of the members pretty much begins to melt and soon a new creature is born.LEVIATHAN is often called an ALIEN rip-off but I guess if you want to be fair you should call it a rip of ALIENS since it had just recently been in theaters and made a small fortune. This film here obviously doesn't have the same budget but for the most part I thought it was a fairly entertaining mix of sci-fi and horror. It's certainly not a classic by any stretch of the imagination but there are enough good moments to make it worth sitting through.One of the funniest things watching the movie today is seeing all the familiar faces. Everyone will remember Weller from ROBOCOP but we've got a strong supporting group of character actors including Richard Crenna, Daniel Stern, Amanada Pays, Ernie Hudson, Lisa Eilbacher, Meg Foster and Hector Elizondo. While the screenplay certainly doesn't have much character development you can still like and enjoy them because you're so familiar with the actors. There's no doubt that liking the actors help keep you more interested in everything that is going on.On a technical level the film is quite impressive. We're given some brilliant cinematography and there's also an effective score and some very good editing. At just 98-minutes the film begins to lose some steam in the second half but the biggest problem is the actual monster. For the majority of the screen time the monster is just a slug like creature, which eventually turns into a monster but it comes way too late in the game. I really think the film would have been much better had it been given a more interesting monster.With that said, LEVIATHAN is a mildly entertaining film that has enough going for it to make it worth sitting through.

Plot: Underwater deep-sea miners encounter a Soviet wreck and bring back a dangerous cargo to their base on the ocean floor with horrifying results. The crew of the mining base must fight to survive against a genetic mutation that hunts them down one by one.This is one creature film that has been largely forgotten by people and that's sad in my opinion. This film knew what it was from the beginning and that's what these films should be unlike Sharknado which makes these films look like one big joke. Everybody in the cast does a great job especially Peter Weller, Ernie Hudson, and Amanda Pays. Each character is likable and you really feel that these are real people. I personally feel the creature effects are very good even if it is somewhat like the thing they at least try to be something different. I don't get why the effects guys trash them, I just don't get it, but that's their opinion so I can't change that.This film is one of the better creature films from the 80s that deserves to at least have some respect from certain film fans. It has a great cast, good creature effects, a solid script, and very good direction by George P. Cosmatos. When you get the chance to watch this film, watch it you won't regret it.