Holds up very well technically, but the story could be better

So I rewatched The Abyss tonight for the first time since I was a kid, which was right around the time it was released on VHS.

Technically, it holds up extremely well. 80% of the effects still look very good even today. The other 20% show their age a bit, including some stop-motion work that makes sure the viewer remembers what era this film is from. The mix of practicals, traditional animation, and CGI works very well. It's actually crazy to think that this movie came out in 1989, two years before T2 and four years before Jurassic Park. 

On a narrative level, however, I would say the film is only pretty good. There's nothing super-special about the story, and I'd say the film--which is fairly long at over 2 hrs 20 mins--drags at times. 

The cast is pretty damn good though, and everyone brings their A-game. It's hard to go wrong with Michael Biehn acting crazy as fuck, though there is the feeling that he's always right on the edge of overdoing it. 

Overall I'd say it's a good, solid movie, but not a great movie. It's no T2 or Aliens, or even Titanic for that matter, but I'm happy to put it ahead of Avatar.