At the time this was the most expensive film ever made and it was critically panned. It also appears very derivative, sort of like Mad Max set at sea. Kevin Costner is a 'wooden' actor, but luckily here he doesn't need to say very much so comes across well as the Mariner – and his boat is amazing! The baddie (Deacon, played by Dennis Hopper) is suitably over-the-top, but the woman (Helen, played by Jeanne Tripplehorn) is very wishy washy. For what it's worth, I like 'Waterworld' and find it enjoyable – and I believe the film also made a significant profit in the end, so it can't be all bad. I'll give it 3/5 stars.
Over the years this big budget post apocalyptic film has gained a reputation of being a bad film. It's true it failed to find an audience on initial release and stories of arguments between star Kevin Costner, then at the height of his fame, and director Kevin Reynolds didn't help. Costner had invested heavily and cut the film substantially to try and recuperate potential losses against Reynolds wishes. All that aside this is actually not a bad film by any stretch and in it's restored longer cut - known as the Ulysses version - it is a very entertaining adventure film, best described as a sort of Mad Max at sea. It certainly has some impressive set piece action sequences and the story is quite clever and interesting even though you can dig holes in it easily. Set hundreds of years in the future after the polar ice caps have melted and the Earth is totally covered in water. Humanity has survived albeit just a few isolated floating bases and loners who roam the seas in various ramshackle craft. One of these is a man (Costner) who by circumstance finds he has to look after a woman, Helen (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and a young girl, Enola (Tina Majorino) who draws pictures of strange, long extinct animals. The 'pirates' of the seas are the Smokers led by psychopath Deacon (Dennis Hopper - always good as a zany baddie) who is hunting the girl as it's believed she has a map that reveals the last location of dry land, something the man believes doesn't exist. The film ripples along at a great pace, there's loads of gritty chases, fights and even some sea creatures to contend with. Some of the images of this desolate world and glimpses of the old one are impressive and if you like a good solid action adventure story then this does the trick. I strongly recommend the extended cut especially if you've only previously seen the somewhat limited theatrical version.
These days it's hard to imagine *any* of this not being made on a green screen or in a studio. There's very little obvious CGI apart from the glimpse of the big sea beastie for example. There's probably more than I saw in reality but the feeling I got from watching the blu ray was that this was real which makes the film very immersive. Some of the shots and scale are very impressive. It's also a pretty good yarn. The action is continuous and gripping. Some of the plot and dialogue is a bit a saggy but not too bad for a hollywood blockbuster. I think it also handles the tricky setting of a family movie about a post-apocalyptic world pretty well. It doesn't shy away completely from the unpleasant things that would happen in this world but Mr Costner always did the right thing before I needed to reach for the dvd remote. And it doesn't have what you would call a happy ending. The family you think is forging during the film doesn't go on to live happily ever after. The more I think about it the better I think this film is, at least until someone reminds me of something comparable that's better. Finally it gets 5 stars by passing the final test of being requested for a re-watch by the kids.