Although I love most of the cast and crew, this movie just never worked for me at all. Weak characters, weak plot, not enough atmosphere, nonsensical creature and no “awe” effect. Even the title was misleading. You expect to see a giant crap-your-pants monster (like that terrifying behemoth creature from Deep Rising or the incredibly ginormous Kraken from the original Clash of the Titans) and instead you get this ridiculous fish version of the Thing that looks like a Ninja Turtles villain. I’d never call Winston’s monster effects subpar, except in this case. Maybe Stan had a great design for it in mind, but notoriously pigheaded Cosmatos insisted on his version, and that’s why this creature can’t even remotely compare to any of the other Stan’s nightmarish work. In fact, Deep Rising (with all its glaring faults) is pretty much a better version of this film – it has stock-ish but fun characters, simple but enjoyable plot, enough tense-ish atmosphere, extremely threatening creature and a true “awe” moment when in the final scene we finally realize how horrifyingly huge that freaking monster actually is. Still, I agree that Stan’s “underwater” effects are excellent.
I’ve seen most of the 80s underwater movies you mentioned that this movie was competing against, but I distinctly remember that only after watching this film did I think “how was this not way better with such a bad ass crew on board”.
Your review/coverage was cool and in-depth as usual. 🙂 I always blamed Cosmatos (and the script) for the flaws in this film and your review kind of supports that.
The movie was compared to Outland (aka High Noon in Space) and Run Silent, Run Deep? What!? It has literally nothing to do with those two movies!? I guess one could argue that both Outland and this movie feature some type of miners, but by that ludicrous logic, this movie is then also copying Connery’s The Molly Maguires (1970).
I guess you can still do a scene like that punch scene in today’s Hollywood, but if the girl is the one who does it.
You haven’t mentioned The Sphere. Any thoughts on that movie? When it comes to underrated underwater movies, The Sphere is my pick.
By the way,
isn’t undercranking fastmotion? They sped up the footage to make them look like they’re moving slowly? I didn’t understand that part of the review completely.
follow:
Although I love most of the cast and crew, this movie just never worked for me at all. Weak characters, weak plot, not enough atmosphere, nonsensical creature and no “awe” effect. Even the title was misleading. You expect to see a giant crap-your-pants monster (like that terrifying behemoth creature from Deep Rising or the incredibly ginormous Kraken from the original Clash of the Titans) and instead you get this ridiculous fish version of the Thing that looks like a Ninja Turtles villain. I’d never call Winston’s monster effects subpar, except in this case. Maybe Stan had a great design for it in mind, but notoriously pigheaded Cosmatos insisted on his version, and that’s why this creature can’t even remotely compare to any of the other Stan’s nightmarish work. In fact, Deep Rising (with all its glaring faults) is pretty much a better version of this film – it has stock-ish but fun characters, simple but enjoyable plot, enough tense-ish atmosphere, extremely threatening creature and a true “awe” moment when in the final scene we finally realize how horrifyingly huge that freaking monster actually is. Still, I agree that Stan’s “underwater” effects are excellent.
I’ve seen most of the 80s underwater movies you mentioned that this movie was competing against, but I distinctly remember that only after watching this film did I think “how was this not way better with such a bad ass crew on board”.
Your review/coverage was cool and in-depth as usual. 🙂 I always blamed Cosmatos (and the script) for the flaws in this film and your review kind of supports that.
The movie was compared to Outland (aka High Noon in Space) and Run Silent, Run Deep? What!? It has literally nothing to do with those two movies!? I guess one could argue that both Outland and this movie feature some type of miners, but by that ludicrous logic, this movie is then also copying Connery’s The Molly Maguires (1970).
I guess you can still do a scene like that punch scene in today’s Hollywood, but if the girl is the one who does it.
You haven’t mentioned The Sphere. Any thoughts on that movie? When it comes to underrated underwater movies, The Sphere is my pick.
By the way,
isn’t undercranking fastmotion? They sped up the footage to make them look like they’re moving slowly? I didn’t understand that part of the review completely.
I’m guessing Run Silent Run Deep for the claustrophobic elements.
I saw Sphere in theaters and hated it at the time. I am willing to revisit.
I messed up on the cranking, it was overcranking that was slow motion. Had a brain melt.
I forget, wasn’t Leviathan written by Peter Benchley?
Not that I see