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April 1999

Waterworld (DTS)
Reviewed by Roger Kanno
DVD Format

Overall Enjoyment: **1/2
Picture Quality: ****1/2
Sound Quality: *****
Packaged Extras: 1/2

Starring Kevin Costner, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Dennis Hopper, Tina Majorino

Directed by Kevin Reynolds

Theatrical Release: 1995
DVD Release: 1999
Dolby Digital/DTS 5.1
Widescreen (Anamorphic)


Waterworld, starring Kevin Costner, is one of Universal’s initial DTS DVD releases. Although Costner has won Academy Awards for best picture and best director for Dances With Wolves, Waterworld was universally panned and was a major box-office disappointment. These two Costner films are among the first DVDs to be available with DTS sound, but this is where the similarities end. Dances With Wolves is the story an officer in the US cavalry who embarks on a journey of self-discovery and learns to understand and appreciate the culture of the Sioux people. Waterworld is about a mutant mariner with gills who must fight a band of pirates called Smokers in a future where the earth is completely covered by water.

Costner stars as the mariner who must do battle and save a little girl with a mysterious tattoo on her back that purportedly shows the way to the legendary "Dryland." The Smokers are led by the Deacon, played by Dennis Hopper, who kidnaps the girl in an attempt to find Dryland. Hopper’s portrayal of the Deacon is sometimes comically overdone, and Costner seems uncomfortable in his role as the mariner. Jeanne Tripplehorn, who did a credible job in both The Firm and Basic Instinct, also seems out of place as the little girl’s guardian.

This film really is not as bad as it sounds -- it’s really more of a disappointment than anything else. For instance, the comedy tends to be quite simplistic. When the camera pulls back from the ship that is the Smokers’ hideout, it is revealed to be an oil tanker, the Exxon Valdez. Wow, what a zinger. The character development is also flimsy, and the whole movie is like a rehash of the Road Warrior, but lacking that film’s intensity and originality.

The cinematography is excellent and well transferred for this disc. There are some minor scratches on the print that separate this transfer from some of today’s finest. The picture is very sharp throughout, but sometimes suffers from a slight exaggeration in contrast. Some of the scenes also exhibit an over-saturation of color, which leads to an unnatural reddish hue. Other scenes, such as those featuring the man-made atoll, have an amazing amount of texture and detail in the atoll’s metal panels and display great depth and a three-dimensional quality.

However, the real reason to get this DVD is the soundtrack. While not as bombastic or aggressively directional as that of the film Daylight, it is a very holographic and enveloping soundtrack. The dialog sounds totally natural, is well integrated, and never calls undue attention to itself. Delicate sound effects such as the flapping of sails, wind rustling through rigging, the creaking of planks, and small waves lapping against the side of the mariner’s catamaran, are all reproduced with incredible realism and subtlety. Scenes such as the attack on the atoll are notable for the impressive dynamics of the explosions and machine-gun fire, but it is the more subtle details of the sound design that distinguish this soundtrack as one of the best.

The DTS soundtrack offers higher fidelity and a heightened sense of realism over the Dolby Digital. For instance, during the attack on the atoll, the sound of the shell casings being ejected from the large machine gun and hitting the deck of the boat are better defined and less a part of the general din that dominates the scene. In the final scene, as the survivors from the atoll reach Dryland, the DTS soundtrack places the sounds of wild horses and birds further back in the soundstage, making it all more expansive and enveloping. The orchestral score is also better reproduced by DTS. The increase in fidelity is not startling, but it is noticeable throughout the film, mostly as an increase in depth and better imaging, especially to the sides of the room. Interestingly, the DTS version is a 5.1 soundtrack, but the Dolby Digital is credited as being 5.0 and, as such, lacks a low-frequency effects channel.

As with the DTS version of Daylight, Waterworld DTS is also totally lacking any extras. However, unlike Daylight, the Dolby Digital version of Waterworld is not a collector’s edition and does not have nearly as many extras. The Dolby Digital version of Waterworld does feature production notes, a theatrical trailer, cast and filmmaker biographies as well as 5.0 soundtracks in both French and Spanish.

Were it not for the high fidelity of the DTS soundtrack and the excellent sound design, I would not have enjoyed Waterworld nearly as much as I did. For those of you who do not care about such things, I would recommend avoiding this DVD. However, for those who do, this disc has a very natural and realistic soundtrack that is at times visceral and exciting, but at the same time subtle and very detailed.


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