Movie: Waterworld

I used to be the biggest Kevin Costner fan this side of the Atlantic. I watched all his early movies, Robin Hood being a particular favourite. Somehow I never got around to seeing Waterworld… Tony’s prompting, and its presence in the bargain bin at Look and Listen, caused me to remedy this recently.

The premise is that the earth has been covered with water, and almost all memory of dry land has been lost. Not much is made of this, but it appears that some humans have started to evolve gills that enable them to breathe underwater. Costner’s character, a nameless mariner/drifter, is one such individual.

The film was made with an insanely large budget – a fact which becomes apparent early in the movie – and was panned by critics. Despite that, I enjoyed it immensely, and it wasn’t just Kevin Costner in his half ponytail and dangly earrings!

There are some spectacular action sequences, both in the floating cities that the inhabitants of Waterworld congregate in, and on the open sea. No marine life is featured except – I think – a basking shark, that is caught and eaten.

I was disappointed that there wasn’t more underwater footage. At one point the Mariner takes Jean Tripplehorn’s character down to see the sunken remains of a city, using an open-bottomed diving bell. Apart from that, and brief views of the Mariner swimming like a dolphin, the rest of the action is on the surface.

Tony was particularly taken with the gadgets and contraptions that the Mariner has rigged up on his ship. All of it is put together from found objects, looks very scrappy, but works like a charm. The Mariner’s vessel is a three-hulled craft that he pilots at great speed. I think this made Tony nostalgic for his sailing days!

We were amused to see that the ship the villain was using as his base was the Exxon Valdez, the remains of the enormous tanker that ran aground off Alaska in 1989 and caused one of the most environmentally devastating oil spills in history.

You can get the DVD here if you’re in South Africa, otherwise click here. It’s entertaining and action-packed, if that’s what you’re after!