Review of Leviathan

Steven (Peter Weller) is one of the employees of an underwater mining firm. Their headquarters is down deep in the ocean and the bosses are pretty interested in profits alone. One fateful day, as they say, the scuba diving crew stumbles across a sunken Soviet ship. During the investigation of the vessel, one of the divers almost dies when his equipment malfunctions. Our hero Steven saves him. But, soon after the workers leave the USSR boat, some begin to have strange symptoms. A lady is so overcome with pain and itching that she commits suicide. Another has a fever and so on. The firm's on-site physician, Doc (Richard Crenna) detects that the DNA of one of afflicted patients is "changing". Sure enough, soon an Alien-type monster takes over his body and the whole company is fighting for their lives, as more folks experience the same "thing", haha. Can Steven figure out how to rescue the remaining employees and, hopefully, kill the lethal Leviathan? As happens so often, Hollywood scores a hit, like Alien or The Abyss, and gets the idea that more of the same is what viewers want. Unfortunately, this film presents nothing new or exciting to the original works. It is basically ultra-lite James Cameron and, therefore, is very disappointing. Even the last line is a direct rip-off of the final exclamation from The Terminator flick! Its only redeeming quality is the fine cast. Weller is one handsome lad and makes a great hero. Crenna, Amanda Pays, Ernie Hudson, and all of the others do their best and deserve so much better. All right, the underwater shots are fairly nice, too. If you love cinematic science fiction, in a "let's make fun of it" way, a la Mystery Science Theater, you might look for this one at the usual outlets. Otherwise, any view will make you feel as bad as one of the monster's victims.