dir. Kevin Reynolds
In the future, the polar ice caps have melted, covering nearly all dry land. Humans struggle living on boats and atolls, struggling with scant resources and longing to reach the fabled Dryland. This could be a really compelling premise, were it not butchered so savagely by Waterworld‘s poor worldbuilding, inconsistent storytelling, and uninspiring characters. Kevin Costner plays the Mariner, who crosses nautical paths with a woman protecting a little girl with a tattoo in her back, said to be a map to Dryland. A herd of savage Smokers, led by the Deacon (Dennis Hopper), is hunting down the girl. No one acts in a way you’d expect in a post-apocalyptic, desperate future. Why does the loner Mariner help the woman and girl? No reason. Why, after kidnapping the girl, do the smokers not simply copy the tattoo or even peel it off her, as they have no reason to keep her alive? No reason. Why does the woman – after being pushed and shoved and bullied by the Mariner – fall in love with him? No reason. There is decent action movie pacing and some investment in the overall goal of reaching Dryland, but Waterworld is mostly a meandering mess of people doing things for no reason. And this is all before mentioning that the Mariner is a kind of mutant human who’s evolved to have gills and webbed feet, a fact which contributes basically nothing to the story and so just adds another question to the “Why?” list. Again, no reason. It was the most expensive film made at the time, but there are plenty of very obvious reasons Waterworld bombed.
BMDb 