“Leviathan” has received a lot of criticism for being too similar to both “The Abyss” and “Alien” but guess what? I thoroughly enjoyed those films and that’s why I enjoyed “Leviathan”. It takes the deep-sea setting of “The Abyss” but contains it with the more simplistic formula of “Alien” as characters are picked off by a strange creature.

The discovery of a sunken Soviet vessel leads to a group of underwater miners becoming exposed to a horrifying genetic experiment gone out of control. As some of the miners are infected, they begin to mutate into a terrifying monster and the other crew members must fight them off and try to be rescued. The film is very much done in the style of “Alien” and 1982’s “The Thing”.

Peter Weller (“RoboCop”, “Naked Lunch”) stars as a geologist named Steven Beck, who has the unfortunate responsibility of being in charge. He gives a really good performance and you have to love his goofy one-liner near the end. Richard Crenner (“First Blood”), Amanda Pays and Ernie Hudson (“Ghostbusters”) all do a good job. I didn’t particularly enjoy the performance from Daniel Stern (“Home Alone”). The creature may look a lot less impressive than the ones in “Alien” and “The Abyss” but I think it works well enough.

I loved the sets, I loved the performance from Weller and I loved the thrills this movie delivered. It may start and a little bit slow but once it gets going, this is very competent sci-fi/horror. It’s a very underrated picture much like the criminally overlooked “Event Horizon”, which was also accused of borrowing too much from films including “Alien”. If you want an interesting and exciting sci-fi flick then you should definitely watch “Leviathan” but if you’re going to complain because it’s similar to “Alien” and “The Abyss” then I suggest looking elsewhere.