The biggest budget entry in the "Underwater Alien Rip-Offs" trend (Along with DEEP STAR SIX and LORDS OF THE DEEP) that attempted to capatilize on the oncoming sucess of James Cameron's THE ABYSS - and like every deep sea horror entry at the time - it flopped miserably at the box office. So did THE ABYSS actually.
A crew of miners, on their last three days of a 90 shift, run upon a destroyed Russian vessel that has something infectious on board...something infectious...and deadly.
The best about LEVIATHAN is the set design (From the man behind BLADE RUNNER) - which creates the look of a worn down under water mining station perfectly. Everything else...Well.
The cast is bad. The role of the 'hero' is played Mr. Robot himself Peter Weller (As the wise cracking hero...What?) and the highly derivative plot that rips off everything from ALIEN to the THING with even a little JAWS at the end (Most out of place one liner award goes toooooo...) Director George Cosmatos (Of FIRST BLOOD PARRT 2 fame) tries to create suspense by letting the film have a slow build till everything goes to hell, but all he suceeds in doing is putting the audience to sleep.
Starting off as claustrophobic infection thriller until it morphs into a MONSTER ON THE LOOSE horror film in its last third - it would help if we cared about the people being chased, had some interesting suspense, or had an interesting monster to look at. The monster, supposedly created by Stan Winston, has its roots in tentacled Lovecraftian horror, but its a stiff unbelievable thing that looks...Okay...but doesn't get the heart pumping much. It's slick, and expensive looking, but everything around the settig falls flat.
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