The many visual effects are more than adequate to distract one from the film’s numerous plot holes, incongruities and unrealized possibilities.

Far from being the magnificent bomb many had predicted, Waterworld is worse. It's mediocre, and that just won't do.

You can't dismiss the film's ambitions, Sci-fi movie fans especially will be impressed by its grungy recreation of life where, as inhabitants constantly note, "nothing is free in Waterworld."

An entertaining if occasionally lamebrain adventure.