Waterworld is easily the most eagerly anticipated movie of the year. The hype both on and off the sets has lead to unprecedented levels of speculation on every aspect of the production.

Just how much did Universal plunk down to finish the film? It's estimated nearly $200 million. The studio had already spent $20 million before the cameras began rolling.

What exactly was the reason director Kevin Reynolds left the film in the middle of post-production? He supposedly was refused final cut by Universal execs, and Costner pressured him into leaving by editing the film himself. The two argued constantly on-set about Costner's character and the focus of the film.

What about all those on-set rumors about mayhem and endless shooting dilemas? The atoll sank. No on-set bathrooms. A hurricane hits while filming. Going hours without a single shot. On-set script re-writes.

With all these problems it is amazing the film was finished. And while resulted is not fanatastic, it is not the Fishtar or Kevin's Gate that was predicted. In all respects, Waterworld is your average action film. The only difference is that it has an over-abundance of art direction, and is set entirely on water.

Kevin Costner stars as the Mariner, a mutated human who has gills and webbed feet. He's a loner and when he visits the atoll, a floating scrap-heap with a few hundred rag-tag survivors, he is caged for being a freak. However, when the Smokers, (a group of gas-guzzling jet ski pirates), attack he escapes with help from Helen (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and Enola (Tina Majorino).

Only afterward does he realise what they were after. Enola has a map tattooed on her back that supposedly leads to dry land. From here on out, our hero deals with repeated attacks by the Smokers as well as the tempting thought of dumping his two passengers overboard. After all, he doesn't need them, they need him.

Dennis Hopper plays Deacon, the leader of the Smokers, in a cartoon-like role. He bellows orders, ranting and raving when things goes wrong, while being a sadistic menace to the Mariner, Helen and Enola.

It's obvious that Waterworld didn't have a clear direction from the outset. Costner and Hopper play their characters as almost complete opposites. As for the action, a few of the sequences are stunning, but most are merely adequate. The underwater shots of a city's watery grave are haunting, making you hope the polar ice-caps never melt the way they do in this film.

Yet, Waterworld is never more than the sum of its parts.

Copyright (c) 1995 Tony Zidek