Nice effects though.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Take the claustrophobic atmosphere of Alien, the shape-shifting menace of The Thing, and combine it with the tension of underwater adventure The Abyss, and what do you get? The answer: something a whole lot better than Leviathan, which disappoints despite some incredible credentials. The excellent cast includes Peter Weller (RoboCop), Richard Crenna (Rambo), Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters), Meg Foster (They Live) and Daniel Stern (C.H.U.D.). The script is by David Webb Peoples (Blade Runner). The production design is by Ron Cobb (concept designer on Alien, Aliens and The Abyss). The monster effects are by the Stan Winston Studio (Predator). And the score is by Jerry Goldsmith (The Omen).Sadly, the director was George P. Cosmatos, who, despite being on a roll with Rambo: First Blood Part II and Cobra, was never on a par with Scott, Carpenter or Cameron, and proves unable to inject much life into proceedings. He takes an awfully long time to get to the monster, the first half of the film focusing on the mundane daily activities of his mining crew (a trick that Ridley Scott pulled off far better with Alien), but when he finally gets to the fun, the wait simply isn't worth it: the action lacks urgency and the creature proves extremely lacklustre, the final incarnation wisely kept to brief glimpses, mostly in the shadows. After lots of running through corridors with flamethrowers, the surviving few narrowly escape before the mining colony implodes, and are picked up on the surface by a passing Coastguard helicopter, but not before the film manages to rip-off Jaws for one more encounter with the monster.4.5 out of 10, rounded down to 4 for the shameless scares involving a face-hugger style crustacean, and for the untrustworthy character who is a blatant rip-off of Ash from Alien.

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.

Having read the title, just take a moment to imagine what kind of film this would entail. I'm sure you can do that easily enough if you're a fan of such films. Now set this film in some underwater labs.Basically: a team of scientists/drillers (like the crew from Alien and the scientists from The Thing) are in some underwater labs (a setting like in The Abyss or The Sphere) and then they discover a sunken Soviet ship (like the Norwegian base in The Thing) with a secret which thrusts them into danger (again like in The Thing).Now you may think that because I'm making these comparisons that I think this film is a terrible rip-off of all these films. Maybe. After all The Thing and Alien came out well before this film. BUT! I'm not complaining.Leviathan has a strong cast of characters, brilliant effect on par with The Thing (thanks to Stan Winston again) and an engaging story line.It has some flaws (I cannot say what due to spoilers) which are irritating enough that you will be sure to rank this film below Alien, The Abyss, The Thing. But if you enjoyed those films you will find some enjoyment in this film, I promise!

A very great movie. I think that if have never Watch Leviathan, you have miss a movie that is a date in the Cinema history. All is good in this movie, all the actors are excellents but there is one who is simply a genius : Peter Weller. Peter Weller is The actor and he found in this wonderful movie his best role (with his absolute interpretation of Robocop). He can be humoristic, frightened, courageous.......) He can play all and in Leviathan Peter Weller give a lesson to all beginning actor. The FX are very good for the date of this movie. Leviathan is the ultimate movie of submarine monster. Watch Leviathan and you will become a better guy.