Subject: REVIEW: WATERWORLD

From: [email-masked] (Melissa Martin)
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 1995 15:37:08 GMT

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