Supernova
1.5/4
Starring: James Spader, Angela Bassett, Peter Facinelli, Lou Diamond Philips, Robin Tunney, Wilson Cruz, Robert Forster
Rated R for Sexuality and Some Violence
I've heard "Supernova" described as "sci-fi porn." While none of the characters get freaky with aliens like Captain Kirk does in the "Star Trek" movies, it has the same level of entertainment value. The story is trite and often doesn't make much sense. The script is awful. The special effects are lousy. The direction is shitty (constant close-ups). The acting is okay when the director (who I'll get to later) isn't forcing his actors to mumble their lines. All in all, it's a movie that deserves its status as a legendary bomb.
In the future, humans have achieved space travel. Medical rescue vessel Nightingale 9 has received a distress call from deep space. They have a small crew: Captain A.J. Marley (Forster), medical officer Kayla Evers (Bassett), medical tech Yerzy Penalosa (Philips), paramedic Danika Lund (Tunney) and computer tech Benjamin Sotomejor (Cruz). The pilot, recovering drug addict Nick Vanzant (Spader), is a newcomer. Not that the film does anything with their jobs aboard the ship; for the majority of the film it's all about who is sleeping with whom (Yerzy and Danika have as much sex as they can, Kayla and Nick have an emerging relationship, while Benjamin is dealing with flirtations from the ship's computer. A.J. just overanalyzes cartoons for some graduate degree). At least until they get a distress call and a survivor named Troy Larson (pre-"Twilight" Facinelli) comes aboard. Then it's more sleeping around and Troy goes insane because of some purple thing he brought with him. Then he starts killing people.
How could anyone think this script could have worked at all, much less thought it was worth spending $90 million on? This is a pretty lame idea for a movie, and they made just about every mistake they could putting it into production.
In general, this is a sci-fi slasher movie, although without the slashing. The action scenes take about 30 seconds each. The rest of the time is devoted to sex scenes (none of which are hot in any way) or the characters blabbing about the plot that no one will give a shit about.
The biggest mistake is that the characters mumble their lines. I get that there's no need to shout at each other during normal conversation, but there is something to be said for good diction; a lot of the dialogue is unintelligible. Closely following it is the over-reliance on sci-fi mumbo jumbo. Not only does it make zero sense, it's entirely pointless. None of it amounts to anything.
The only thing that keeps this movie a shade above painful is that the actors can act. Even Lou Diamond Philips has his moments (probably because he isn't given anything to do). Peter Facinelli seems to be eager to have some fun with his role, but all he has to do is play a seducer-turned-serial killer.
On paper, the film is directed by Thomas Lee. This is a pseudonym. Previously, directors whose work was taken out of their hands to the point where they don't want to be associated with it would replace their name with "Alan Smithee." But then a movie called "An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn" made the pseudonym well known, so it was replaced with Thomas Lee. The original director was acclaimed director Walter Hill (who made "The Warriors" and "48 Hours"), but reshoots directed by Jack Sholder were so prevalent that very little of his film remained. Regardless of the drama behind the scenes, the end result is still the same: the movie sucks.
Starring: James Spader, Angela Bassett, Peter Facinelli, Lou Diamond Philips, Robin Tunney, Wilson Cruz, Robert Forster
Rated R for Sexuality and Some Violence
I've heard "Supernova" described as "sci-fi porn." While none of the characters get freaky with aliens like Captain Kirk does in the "Star Trek" movies, it has the same level of entertainment value. The story is trite and often doesn't make much sense. The script is awful. The special effects are lousy. The direction is shitty (constant close-ups). The acting is okay when the director (who I'll get to later) isn't forcing his actors to mumble their lines. All in all, it's a movie that deserves its status as a legendary bomb.
In the future, humans have achieved space travel. Medical rescue vessel Nightingale 9 has received a distress call from deep space. They have a small crew: Captain A.J. Marley (Forster), medical officer Kayla Evers (Bassett), medical tech Yerzy Penalosa (Philips), paramedic Danika Lund (Tunney) and computer tech Benjamin Sotomejor (Cruz). The pilot, recovering drug addict Nick Vanzant (Spader), is a newcomer. Not that the film does anything with their jobs aboard the ship; for the majority of the film it's all about who is sleeping with whom (Yerzy and Danika have as much sex as they can, Kayla and Nick have an emerging relationship, while Benjamin is dealing with flirtations from the ship's computer. A.J. just overanalyzes cartoons for some graduate degree). At least until they get a distress call and a survivor named Troy Larson (pre-"Twilight" Facinelli) comes aboard. Then it's more sleeping around and Troy goes insane because of some purple thing he brought with him. Then he starts killing people.
How could anyone think this script could have worked at all, much less thought it was worth spending $90 million on? This is a pretty lame idea for a movie, and they made just about every mistake they could putting it into production.
In general, this is a sci-fi slasher movie, although without the slashing. The action scenes take about 30 seconds each. The rest of the time is devoted to sex scenes (none of which are hot in any way) or the characters blabbing about the plot that no one will give a shit about.
The biggest mistake is that the characters mumble their lines. I get that there's no need to shout at each other during normal conversation, but there is something to be said for good diction; a lot of the dialogue is unintelligible. Closely following it is the over-reliance on sci-fi mumbo jumbo. Not only does it make zero sense, it's entirely pointless. None of it amounts to anything.
The only thing that keeps this movie a shade above painful is that the actors can act. Even Lou Diamond Philips has his moments (probably because he isn't given anything to do). Peter Facinelli seems to be eager to have some fun with his role, but all he has to do is play a seducer-turned-serial killer.
On paper, the film is directed by Thomas Lee. This is a pseudonym. Previously, directors whose work was taken out of their hands to the point where they don't want to be associated with it would replace their name with "Alan Smithee." But then a movie called "An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn" made the pseudonym well known, so it was replaced with Thomas Lee. The original director was acclaimed director Walter Hill (who made "The Warriors" and "48 Hours"), but reshoots directed by Jack Sholder were so prevalent that very little of his film remained. Regardless of the drama behind the scenes, the end result is still the same: the movie sucks.
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