In the future, the polar ice caps have melted and the world is covered in water. In Waterworld, nothing is for free as people believe in the mythical place known as Dry Land. The movie follows a mutant human known as the Mariner (Kevin Costner) where he must escape an atoll settlement when it is under attack by pirates known as Smokers lead by the Deacon (Dennis Hopper). Tagging along with the mariner on his boat are Helen (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and her adopted daughter Nola (who has a mysterious tattoo on her back which may to the location of Dry Land. They are trying to dodge the Smokers and the Deacon on the wide oceans where the world is in the need of hope in this post-apocalyptic environmental fable.

WATERWORLD is a film with a troubled history. After fighting with the studio in post-production, director Kevin Reynolds quit and Costner took over the editing room during post-production (Costner did the same thing to Reynolds during the post-production of ROBIN HOOD: THE PRINCE OF THIEVES). The Theatrical cut is what Kevin Costner and Universal Pictures provided to the public without the director's final say.

The Extended Cut- which includes over 40 minutes never seen in the theatrical cut- shows that the Theatrical cut has enough plot holes to sink a ship. The extended cut first aired on ABC over two nights and it has also been shown on the Starz! and Encore channels in two versions (with the language intact cut and language censored cut). It is a shame that the extended version wasn't the version that was shown in theaters because it is far superior to the theatrical cut and fleshes out a great many things including the people in the Atoll and the people on the Deacon's ship- The Exxon Valdez, the relationship between the Mariner (Costner) and Helen, The Mariner gets a name, and you know where they landed.

WATERWORLD's theatrical and extended cuts were scanned in 4K from the original 35mm camera negatives and 35mm interpositives for this release of the movie with remastering done by Universal Pictures

SPECIAL FEATURES:
MAELSTROM: THE ODYSSEY OF WATERWORLD- all new making-of documentary that runs over 100 minutes that features behind-the-scenes footage, clips from the movie, interviews with the crew, and some archival interviews with the cast. Learn about how the press decided to attack WATERWORLD, how the movie grew from being a smaller $60 million picture before Kevin Costner jumped onboard (and Universal Pictures came in) to make it a $175 million dollar picture, and the original screenwriter adds that one of the producers said the original script was better (but they had to go with what they had built sets for).

DANCING WITH WAVES- original archival promotional featurette on WATERWORLD
GLOBAL WARNINGS- a video essay on post-apocalyptic movies by film critic Glenn Kenny as he explores the subgenre of ecologically themed end-of-the-world movies
Two theatrical trailers and over nine minutes of TV commercials

Promotional still gallery, several production galleries, and a visual effects still gallery

DISC TWO has the censored extended TV cut which first aired on ABC and then Encore/ Starz channels
DISC THREE features the uncensored extended cut (aka the Ulysses Cut) which may (or may not be a fan cut), but an uncensored version of the TV cut did air on Encore Starz channels (in rotation with the censored TV extended cut because I saw both versions air on those channels) before getting a release on DVD back in 2008.

Also this limited edition includes a reversal cover, a fold-out poster of the artwork for this release, promotional cards, and a booklet featuring an essay and reprint of a couple of old articles (including an interview with Kevin Costner from STARLOG), an article on all of the WATERWORLD merchandise, and an interview with the producer of the WATERWORLD PC game (too bad the video footage shot for that game couldn't have been included as an extra on the three disc blu-ray release).

FINAL ANALYSIS: Arrow Video has put together a fine Limited Edition package that contains all cuts for WATERWORLD, a great making-of documentary, and many extras. This will probably be the best release of the movie on blu-ray despite there not being additional extras like the video footage shot for the PC game or interviews with any of the actors.

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