(May Contain Spoilers)
I had been recommended to watch this film a few times and have not got round to it, because it hasn’t been available to watch in most places, however it is NOW ON NETFLIX!!! It is basically like Mad Max (1979), but on water. Waterworld is set in a dystopian world where the polar ice caps have melted, which means that people have to adapt and live on water in boats or have build little floating islands. Mariner (Kevin Costner) who is at the heart of the story is a loner, drifter but is also a mutant who has got gills so has an advantage over the other humans. The main storyline is about Enola (Tina Majorino) who is a young girl with a tattoo on her back which is said to be a map to dry land.
Mariner is diving whilst tomatoes in stolen from his plant (he has a thing for plants, but they are rare because they live on water!), once Mariner comes up, he confronts the drifter, but he lies. In the horizon they see Smokers – smokers are like water bandits who attacks drifters and kill them, taking all their belongings for personal gain – Mariner manages to out sail the drifters and instead the guy who stole from him is attacked. Mariner makes his way to a trading floating island and he has a jar of dirt (real dirt) to trade. This is when we hear Deacon (Dennis Hopper) talking to Nord (Gerard Murphy) about Enola’s tattoo and if he can help them.
Mariner refuses the deal with the traders to sell his dirt so orders a drink at the bar where he meets Helen (Jeanne Marie Tripplehorn) and Nord. When Mariner tries to leave he is told he must take a pregnant girl with
him (which is so random) he tries to fight to escape and when they find out he is a mutant they lock him away, at this point he is also assumed to be a Smoker spy. Nord, however, was the smoker spy and comes back with a gang of Smokers who attack the floating island. During this shootout Helen grabs Enola and frees Mariner and they escape. Mariner at this point doesn’t know why Enola is so special but the Smokers are after them.
The rest of the movie is a cat-and-mouse chase where Mariner tells Helen he will take her to dry land, however, takes her diving to see the world underneath and says dry land is a myth. Deacon, who escaped in a hot air balloon during the attack (he was supposed to take Helen and Enola but accidently set off without them) comes to their rescue after Enola is kidnapped by the Smokers. Mariner rescues Enola from the Smokers and there is a big CGI explosion moment of the boat going up in flames, which Mariner escape holding a rope attacked to the hot air balloon – very dramatic -. Later the humans decode Enola tattooed map, which takes them to try land, but Mariner says that his world is on the sea and leaves Enola and Helen.
I thought this was a great family friendly adventure film, however I think that if I had watched it when I was a kid it might have been more of an wonderful throwback, but watching it for the first time now it was a little disappointing. The storyline wasn’t particularly inventive as this type of dystopian world has been done before, but there some good action moments in it and it’s was a light-hearted entertaining watch. Family friendly, adventurous, overdone.
Stream now on Netflix.
Comments