The Film
Waterworld is a remarkable reminder of a unique time in film history. A time fueled by ego, untrammeled star power, and the last vestiges of an unbridled, money’s-no-object ambition that powered through the 1980s with enough creative impetus and over-confidence to carry films like Waterworld (except, really, there haven’t been many films like Waterworld) at least halfway up the hill of the 1990s.
The endless, in some cases apocryphal tales surrounding Waterworld’s undoubtedly fraught, uber-expensive production became the stuff of Hollywood excess legend even before the film was released, tarnishing its initial reception with critics and seemingly turning off contemporary audiences too.
Latest estimates suggest, though, that over the years since bombing on its 1995 release, Waterworld has gradually recouped its production, marketing and distribution costs to the point where it’s finally a few million dollars back in the black. Which may be some belated comfort, at least, to star Kevin Costner, who reportedly sunk $22m of his own money into what many initially chose to see as a monstrous vanity project.
Viewing the film now, it’s certainly far from perfect. The pacing’s awkward, the tone’s as inconsistent as you might expect when different egos seemingly want to take the film in different directions, the score often feels out of kilter with the script, and the ending feels forced and abrupt.
And yet… there’s a lot to like here if you just sit back, relax and take it all at face value. The sets are genuinely spectacular. The action is imaginative, intricately thought through and at least functionally directed (even if Kevin Reynolds is no James Cameron).
The Mad Max-inspired idea of a world destroyed by man-made ecological disaster is pretty well developed in its lore and vision too, especially in the extended cut (though this can try a bit too hard at times).
It’s great to be reminded as well of just what a charismatic chewer of scenery Dennis Hopper was, while Jeanne Tripplehorn and Costner are, in truth, perfectly acceptable in their headline roles.
In short, all things considered, it’s easy to see why Waterworld has developed a cult following over the past two and a half decades. Unfortunately, though, it’s also pretty easy to imagine the film’s dedicated fan base being less than impressed with Universal’s 4K Blu-ray release of their beloved film…
Release details
Studio: Universal Pictures
What you get: Region-free 4K Blu-ray, Region A/B/C HD Blu-ray, US-only Movies Anywhere code
Extra features: Extended but adjusted-for-TV edition of the film. Trailer. D-Box motion code.
Best soundtrack option: DTS:X
Video options: HDR10
HDR10 Metadata: 986 nit max light level, 180 nit Max Frame Average Light Level
Key kit used for this review: Oppo UDP-205 4K Blu-ray player, Samsung QN65Q90R TV, Sony 65A9F OLED TV, Panasonic UB820 4K Blu-ray player
Picture quality
The picture quality delivered by the 4K Blu-ray is… odd. It’s inconsistent in a number of ways, making it hard to feel certain where the 4K master has been derived from (though Universal was heavily involved in creating the 4K scan of the film from 35mm that was used as the source for Arrow Video’s recent Limited Edition HD Blu-ray release).
It also sometimes fails to deliver a really convincing upgrade over the HD Blu-ray picture. In fact, with some scenes, at least, the HD Blu-ray looks better.
Or, to be more precise, the HD transfer of the film’s extended cut provided as an extra on the 4K BD disc looks better. The HD transfer of the theatrical release found on the separate HD Blu-ray disc looks noticeably softer, noisier and less contrasty than the HD extended edition, suggesting that the latter version has benefited from a proper remaster while the theatrical cut image on the separate HD Blu-ray has not.
One of the biggest issues with the 4K transfer is the wholesale way it dials up color. In some scenes this works fine, giving skies, sunsets, the endless ocean and some of the more outlandish outfits welcome extra punch. It can also, though, fairly routinely leave skin tones looking overcooked. Literally.
The impact of the orangey skin tones can almost be shocking at times, and is glaringly obvious if you toggle between the HD/SDR Extended Cut and the HDR Theatrical version. The orangey tone creeps into some interiors too – most notably the one where Enola is being guarded by Nord on Deacon’s ship.
There’s even sometimes a rather peaky look to skin tones, where some parts of faces stand out artificially against the rest.
Also distracting is the striking shift in color tones between shots within certain scenes. The early section where the Mariner has a run in with first a lime thief and then some smokers is particularly noticeable for this.
To be fair there’s some variance in tone between shots with the HD Blu-ray too. However, the wide color gamut of the 4K Blu-ray makes such variance more noticeable.
A Dolby Vision grade of the film might have helped in this respect, but the disc only carries a ‘basic’ HDR10 master.
The 4K master’s sharpness and detail lacks consistency too. Some shots – predominantly close ups, but also some footage on the atoll and Dryland – enjoy a clear increase in detail, as well as tending to look slightly more like celluloid than the HD image. At other times, though, the 4K Blu-ray picture looks rather soft and noisy – nothing like the gorgeously detailed, filmic images seen on some other 4K Blu-rays of old films derived from 35mm sources, such as Black Hawk Down and Alien.
The use of HDR’s wider brightness range is a mixed bag as well. The 1000-nit master saves those peaks predominantly for pretty obvious image elements, such as direct sunlight or sun reflecting on the ripples of the sea, while at the other end of the spectrum, arguably the 4K transfer’s biggest success is that it delivers much deeper, inkier black levels during night-time sequences than the HD versions of the film.
The problem is that there doesn’t seem to be as much subtle, dynamic use of HDR’s full light range between Waterworld’s light and dark extremes as I’d expect to see, leaving many shots – particularly interiors – feeling flattened out.
Sound quality
While Universal doesn’t seem to have put much effort into Waterworld’s 4K HDR picture, it has at least delivered a respectable new DTS:X mix for the film’s latest home video release.
This is clean, impressively well rounded and surprisingly full-blooded for a film that’s nearly 25 years old, making extensive and expansive use of the rear channels, and doing a decent job of wrapping you in the film’s densely scored soundtrack.
Actually, my main complaint about the soundtrack would be that it’s not nearly as exciting in its delivery of ambient and action effects as it is in its DTS:X mixing of the score. This may, I guess, be down to a lack of elements to work with in the original audio assets.
Overall, though, there’s no doubt that the DTS:X mix contributes something new to the film’s attempt to transport you hundred of years into the Earth’s watery future.
Extra Features
There’s more disappointment in store here, alas, as the only extra feature provided is an extended cut of the film.
Despite being carried on the (BD100) 4K Blu-ray, this extended edition only appears throughout in HD. There’s no attempt to insert the extra content into the 4K version via branching.
The biggest problem with the extended cut, though, is that while it adds around 40 minutes of extra footage, it also features a few cuts and over-dubs – all done to sanitize proceedings. So Tripplehorn’s nude shot (well, the nude shot of her body double, anyway) is gone. Various violent shots get trimmed. And some of the dialogue gets toned down (despite being actually pretty tame in the first place). For instance, “turd that won’t flush” hilariously becomes “toilet that won’t flush”, and “freakin’ retard” becomes “slimo”.
The reason for these unfortunate extended cut ‘interventions’ is that the extended cut Universal has got its hands on was first aired on TV, meaning it had to be made family friendly.
To be fair, the extra footage in the extended cut does provide some interesting extra insight into Waterworld‘s lore and culture. Plus there’s definitely some fun to be had in watching a classic TV ‘tone down’ in action. Or at least there would be if Universal’s release also provided the so-called Ulysses Cut of the film (found on Arrow Video’s HD Blu-ray release) that adds similarly large amounts of extra content but without the sanitizing cuts and dubs.
Only providing the child-friendly version of the extended cut isn’t likely to please the film’s ardent fans much.
It’s a shame Universal hasn’t gone to the trouble of rustling up any other background features for its latest release of its cult favorite, such as retrospective interviews, commentaries or documentaries, or even contemporary promotional material made for the film’s original release (beyond a single trailer found on the HD Blu-ray).
Compare this with the recent Arrow Video HD Blu-ray, which carries a new feature-length documentary on the film’s fraught production, a documentary about Hollywood’s penchant for ecological disaster films, a ‘making of’ featurette from the time of the film’s release, various stills galleries, trailers and more besides.
Verdict
Overall, while the 4K master improves over the HD Blu-ray image in some ways, there are times – plenty of them – where the HD/SDR image of the extended cut arguably looks superior overall. So given that the Arrow Video HD Blu-ray of Waterworld released back in January also carries vastly superior extra features, I think you’re better off with that than this half-baked 4K release.
—
If you enjoyed this review, you might also like these:
‘Avengers: Endgame’ 4K Blu-ray Set to Frustrate AV Fans
‘Us’ 4K Blu-ray Review: Double Trouble
‘Captain Marvel’ 4K Blu-ray Review: The Mother Of All Marvel Origin Films
