WATERWORLD
A film review by Melissa Martin
Copyright 1995 Melissa Martin
There has been so much bad press surrounding WATERWORLD, that it seems to be one big scandal after another. But if you let this deter you from seeing the film, feel ashamed--you're missing one hell of a show.
There have been tons of action flicks this year: DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE, BATMAN FOREVER. But WATERWORLD outshines them all. This is a blow-away, edge-of-your-seat action adventure with enough secondary stuff to please the palate: adventure, post-apocalyptic eerieness, love, a great script, a cool story, sex, a cute child, and a bad guy to root for. This has been said before, and will be said again, but it's true when they say that every dollar has gone onto the screen. Every shot is absolutely mind-boggling in its scale.
Kevin Costner stars as the sullen, loner Mariner, a man who was born with functional gills and webbed feet. I was pleasantly surprised when I enjoyed his performance; my personal views about him (having nothing to do with the post-WATERWORLD Costner scandals) as well as my reservations about his acting talent had me preparing to shrug off his performance on-screen. But he comes across marvelously, with the perfect bitter facade as merits an outcast. Emotions shine through wonderfully, and you can actually see the relationship developing between the Mariner and Helen, played by Jeanne Tripplehorn, through Costner's eyes.
As for Tripplehorn, I was awaiting her performance with some degree of gleeful anticipation, and I was not to be disappointed. She somehow manages to be a stunner even with grimy, tangled hair, cracked lips, weather-beaten skin and clothes compiled of what appear to be mesh and fabric scraps. She is delightfully strong of will, a true heroine in an industry dotted with obnoxiously volatile feminist heroines. It is pleasant to see a drop-dead gorgeous actress with some large degree of talent, which is sadly missing in most films today (no, I'm not naming any names).
Tina Majorino comes across as the cutest thing the human race has to offer in her role as the enigmatic Enola, who draws pictures of horses and trees and has a map-like tattoo on her back. Her stubborn, hands-on-hips pouts are absolutely adorable. Not only does she flash the right smile and bounce around in an amazingly endearing way, she also shows that she's one of the few talented child actors out there.
Dennis Hopper, however, was the actor I was looking forward to the most. The guy is so damn good at playing these deliciously evil villains, that one would almost expect him to walk into the recording studio of a Disney animated feature. Only Disneys animated villains have had the kind of charismatic, 100% pure evil personalities that make you want to root for the villain, and Hopper becomes something akin to THE LION KING's Uncle Scar. He's so delightful that it's a shame he didn't have more screen time. The character he played was that of the almost Koreshian Deacon, who was intent on leading the villainous, wild-guy Smokers (thusly named for their habit of smoking cigarettes nearly constantly) to Dry Land ... using, of course, the map on Enola's back.
The story is great fun, and has tons of elements. The movie is fast-paced, giving you a few minutes of human-appeal in which to breathe, before diving headlong into another mind-blowing, nonstop battle scene, which is on the grandest scale ever seen. The most impressive sequence is split between the two main battles. The first occurs when the Smokers attack the giant, floating atoll--what is the Waterworld equivalent of a village--in an amazingly long but never dull explosion-filled battle. The atoll is a complete set, and built to patched-up perfection. There are thousands of wonderfully cast extras who populate the atoll, and all of whom are very convincing in their ragtaggedness.
The second, climatic battle sequence occurs on the Exxon Valdez ... which survived the coming of the Waterworld to become the Smokers' refuge. What is impressive about this is when the Mariner drops a lighted flare down into the oil-filled belly of the ship ... causing the obvious results, a massive explosion that guts the entire ungainly thing.
There is plenty of human appeal in the form of the Mariner's heartwarmingly cold bond formed with Enola, who refuses to hate him (no matter how mean he is to her). And then, of course, theres the Mariners oddly realistic desperation-born romance with the tough-as-nails Helen.
The special effects--actually, just the whole thing--looks so incredible that it completely transports you into the place called Waterworld. Everything is absolutely amazing. It would be quite complex to go into it all here, so Ill suffice to say that the visual effects look like a million ... well, one hundred and seventy-two million bucks.
*Bottom Line*: Go see this film. It's a completely blow-you-away action delicacy, and certainly one of the better films out there. The trick to enjoying this film is to totally let yourself go, which is pretty easy considering all the work that's gone into it. The acting is superb, the story is wonderful, and the visuals are gloriously stunning.
Rating: I'd easily give this an "A", but not an "A+" for the simple reason that it didn't elate me the way that the "A+" APOLLO 13 did. It's a haunting film, but not a feel-good one. **** 1/2 stars.
Melissa Martin
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