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Source:
rec.art.movies.reviews newsgroup
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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.
By : Melissa Martin
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Source:
rec.art.movies.reviews newsgroup
Rating:
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"Setback."
- Dennis Hopper
DIE HARD, BRAVEHEART, Batman, Spaceman. Welcome to the Summer of Acceptance, where even the *best* of the big-gun blockbusters must be accepted on their own, flawed, faulted terms. Overlong, overdone, or overhyped, the ticket sales are the testimony to one simple fact: we're *willing* to accept the flawed (but still spectacular) visions of filmmakers like John McTiernan, Joel Schumacher, and, now, Kevin Reynolds. (Of course, we also embraced CONGO. Go figure.)
WATERWORLD floats, though not very high above the surface. The joys of the Most Expensive Movie Ever Made ($175M) include a breezy tone, good humor, and *dynamite* action. Director Kevin Reynolds (ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES) has clearly beaten his playmates at the punch bowl. Sure, it's THE ROAD WARRIOR on water, but the stunt-heavy set-pieces are more open and relaxed than anything we've seen in DIE HARD or BATMAN.
The first hour is the best, successfully suspending our disbelief that a world covered with water would still support human life. (And, for that matter, would still support so many late-20th century relics!) Into that picture drifts the Mariner (Kevin Costner), a wandering mutant with slimy webbed-feet and gills that look like little vaginas. He's at odds with everyone, including the Atollers (who live in harmony on a man-made atoll) and the Smokers (who like to smoke and kill and not necessarily in that order). The Mariner just wants to be left alone with his ecology lesson, but that proves difficult after he befriends a little girl (Tina Majorino) with a strange tattoo.
WATERWORLD starts to sink in the second hour, as the film begins to feel less and less "finished." The logic problems are the worse, ranging from a casual deep-sea dive that offers no mention of decompression--much less the dangers of tangled support cables!--to the return of a patchwork airship that looks better suited to GILLIGAN'S ISLAND than THE ROWED WARRIOR. Skipper!! The second hour also marks the deterioration of the FX, particularly in the matte department.
Another albatross is the story, which is thin even by summer-movie standards. The plot is essentially an extended chase sequence with a dash of characterization for Costner. Numerous dead-end references don't help, either, and suggest a number of cut scenes. Hopper calls for "the trackers," but we're only shown some shark fins in passing. Tripplehorn talks about a "music box" as something "nobody else has seen," but when did *she* see it? And the list goes on.
(The sexism doesn't make much sense, either. Why not paint the future as a place where the sexes are equal, and where the Mariner not only thinks about selling his woman, but also himself??)
Despite a production history more difficult than a James Cameron shoot, the acting in WATERWORLD in surprisingly strong. Costner is amazing as the brutish, brooding hero who is more prone to throwing little girls overboard than to waxing wisecracks while killing. For someone who has never been licensed as an action figure, he's also *very* nimble on his feet.
The villain, the Deacon, the bald-headed leader of the Smokers, is played with customary gusto by Dennis Hopper. (He's here because of a new industry rule that requires the actor to play the villain in at least *one* summer blockbuster a year. His characterization for *this* role: Southern accent.) He gets upstaged, though, by young star Tina Majorino (WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN). She's plays the little girl with the map on her back, and she's a scene-stealer.
(Only Jeanne Tripplehorn--as the love interest--doesn't fit. With her shaved armpits and shiny hair, she's too clean-looking. The actress has spunk, sure, but she acts like she walked (trippled?) in from another movie, entirely. She's awful.)
The other technical credits are a mixed catch. The production design is a winner, with the Mariner's trimaran as the coolest contraption next to the Batmobile. The lighting is inconsistent, imagine that!, but the photography makes great use of the water, water that's everywhere. There's also the slight problem of overscoring--this is not a story that needs swelling strings.
BOTTOM LINE: Though one can easily imagine a longer and more robust cut
surfacing sometime in the future, the current version of
WATERWORLD is great eye-candy with just a little bit of
depth below the waves.
By : Michael J. Legeros
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