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Started interesting as some sort of The Abyss accident survivors tale. Turned into an underwater ALIEN-like monster movie even mimicking the trailer of that film.
I called it, it was pretty bad. Typical good concept bad execution film as it starts out with immediate destruction of the underwater facility. The visuals and CGI were good and you had some pretty good acting with decent actors like Stewert, Vincent Cassel and TJ Miller thrown in for comic relief. Unfortunately that comic relief is the reason the dialogue was so bad. I mean did we really need every line of dialogue from this guy to be some kind of witty crack or joke? Plus he’s talking constantly throughout the film. You’re getting way more wise cracks than you are getting real dialogue about the issue at hand. All that said I think this was better than DeepStar 6 and Leviathan although in Leviathan’s case it’s not saying much because that was one of the worst films ever. Hollywood Racist Moment: The black guy wasn’t the first person to die but he was the first person among the final group of survivors heading out on the treck to die. 5/10
Leviathan was okay, had a bigger production and a decent cast leaded by Peter Weller and Richard Crenna plus Amanda Pays was nice eye candy. The monster looked dumb, sure, but it wasn't shown until the last scene. I liked the movie poster tag line, "How long can you hold your breath?" I enjoyed it at the time (1989). 6/10
Keep in mind that both Deep Star Six & Leviathan were quickly made trying to capitalize on the upcoming James Cameron bigger budget 'The Abyss' that same year. While 'Leviathan' had a decent budget (for 1989) of $20 million, it was rushed to distribution when the low budget 'Deep Star Six' ($8 million) was completed in a blink and was going to beat it on release date. The poor quality of the final scenes of 'Leviathan' showed the consequences of being rushed to the screens. It only made $15.7 million. 'Deep star Six' didn't fared any better as it made exactly $8 million. So both productions lost money. Finally after a long, turbulent production 'The Abyss' was released...and it lost money too. And that was the end of the Hollywood scifi underwater 'epics' until 2020 when 'Underwater' was released...and it lost money too...big time.
I’d rank them like this: The Abyss - best of the bunch and it’s not even close. Deep Star - I think it’s number two. It was bad enough that I never watched the whole thing again but it had some memorable scenes and from what I recall a coherent story that flowed well. Underwater - I wouldn’t watch it again and the story was lame and got a bit off course at times and didn’t always feel like it knew where it was going. Also no real memorable scenes. At least none that I remember. See? Leviathan - An absolutely atrocious film. Also a one watch only that didn’t flow well and seriously lost its direction. You had a ridiculous scene at the end where the dragon monster is holding a guy by the neck and choking him instead of biting his head off.
my take: 1.The Abyss: had a superior budget, a superior director, groundbreaking special effects and much of nothing else. Not among James Cameron's best films. 2. Leviathan: I enjoyed the ride until they showed the rubbersuit monster. Had the best cast of all the other genre films. 3. The Neptune Factor: it was okay for 1973, but its low budget prevented it from being memorable. Decent actors in this film. Had a very misleading poster. 4. Deep Star Six: watched it once and it felt like doing homework. Awful film. 5. Underwater: Saw the trailer and looked like shit. Reviews said it was shit. No need to watch it. For those unfamiliar with The Neptune Factor here is the trailer:
The Abyss had nothing else? How about a straight forward story that flowed perfectly well and made sense? How about character development, entertaining dialogue not to mention a coherent story that made sense? Easily one of Cameron’s type 5 movies.
I know that film was a critically acclaimed box office hit, but since I watched it years after the tv series aired, I didn't like it at all, found it boring. I will need to rewatch it again as probably my bias got in the way of my appreciation of this film as I resented that it was a different cast than the tv show and there weren't 'monsters' or wasn't campy enough.
