Well worth taking the plunge

SO much has been written about Waterworld - also known as 'Fishtar' or 'Kevin's Gate' - that it's hard to approach this movie with an open mind. It cost close to HK$1.5 billion, making it the most expensive film ever. It all but pushed the Japanese firm Matsushita out of MCA, the parent company of Universal, and the director, Kevin Reynolds, walked out of the editing suite after disagreements with Kevin Costner.

There have been equally troubled productions in the past - look at Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra, or even Francis Ford Coppola's runaway Philippines production Apocalypse Now. The former was disappointingly flashy, the latter became a masterpiece. Waterworld falls somewhere between the two.

Waterworld is an action movie, a Mad Max on water, with no larger pretensions. As such, it exceeds expectations for the most part, but runs into massive third-act problems and practically whimpers to a close. The script was not finished when cameras started rolling in Hawaii last year and constructive editing cannot solve the simple fact that key sequences obviously weren't shot.

These involve motivations for the main character of the Mariner, played by Costner; historical context for all the principal players; and there is a definite continuity problem. If you want to pick holes in this film, it's a veritable fishing net.

But for the first hour at least, Waterworld is thrilling, innovative and impressive. The action sequences are breathtaking, the narrative is impressively stark, and they gel together to completely involve the viewer in a world which Reynolds has painstakingly - and painfully, if you believe the reports - created.

Set in the future, when the polar ice caps have melted and submerged the world, Waterworld starts out with a lone figure plying the seas on an amazing custom-designed trimaran. We learn he is the Mariner (Costner) a mutant who has adapted to an aquatic world by growing webbed feet and gills behind his ears.

He trades earth and paper to survive, which brings him to the Atoll (yet another incredible set), a trading post where ragged survivors live in fear of the pirate-like Smokers, led by the Deacon (Dennis Hopper).