Supernova Review
by "David N. Butterworth" (dnb AT dca DOT net)January 17th, 2000
SUPERNOVA
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2000 David N. Butterworth
** (out of ****)
In space, no one can hear you repeat yourself.
That appears to be a guiding principle in Hollywood: look in any movie guide and you'll find literally hundreds of films cross-indexed under the categories "Alien Beings, Unfriendly" and "Space Operettas." Ridley Scott's "Alien," arguably the best of these, started a trend in 1979, but even *it* was based on a B-movie from the '50s called "It! The Terror from Beyond Space." Essentially, Hollywood has been telling the same old story over and over again.
Next up is "Supernova," the latest science-fiction adventure to feature a ragtag band of space derelicts who answer a distress call and bring onboard some malevolent extra-terrestrial lifeforce that starts picnicking on them.
I suppose there's a certain cathartic pleasure in witnessing one's fellow man being stalked and eaten by nasty aliens: rather them than us, eh? But why have so many of these recent movies assembled an intriguing cast and then made them nothing more than creature kibble? Whereas "Supernova" isn't much better than "Event Horizon" (a well-cast film from 1997 that got very silly very quickly), it didn't put me to sleep. Although the details leading up to the inevitable moment when the bad guy is forced into the airlock escape me, so perhaps it did.
Aboard medical rescue vessel Nightingale 229, this week's intriguing cast of James Spader, Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Robin Tunney ("End of Days"), Wilson Cruz, and Lou Diamond Phillips (remember him?) answers the obligatory distress call somewhere in the 22nd century. The distressee, it turns out, is not some freaky two-headed, one-eyed drooling monster thing, but an attractive male specimen called Troy Larson (Peter Facinelli). This proves to be fortunate because the crew in "Supernova" has been getting it on like nobody's business. I guess it's pretty boring out there in deep space, but this is a PG-13 rated movie after all, and there's a lot of coupling going on...at least until there's nobody left to couple with.
In addition to bringing Troy onboard, the crew also discover an eerie lifeform on his shuttle that looks like a magenta-colored lava lamp. They only have an eleven-minute window to get the heck out of there after the Nightingale's crippled engines recharge since that star down there is about to go supernova, by the way.
What raises "Supernova" a little--and I do mean a little--above the rest is its script by David Campbell Wilson, which is lightly peppered with clever dialogue, some of it throwaway biblical. Bassett, as the Nightingale's chief medical officer, is fascinating as always; her character is easily the most interesting, with the possible exception of the ship's breathy-voiced computer--did someone say Mother!? Spader ("Crash") gives a good accounting of himself, especially whenever he's around Bassett.
Unfortunately, the menace in "Supernova" is strictly one-dimensional, even with that big bang threatening, and the special effects too run of the mill to make any serious headway. In addition, the film seems surprisingly short--when the end credits snuck up on me I was still anticipating a third act, or a twist, or both. I suspect this has something to do with the fact that "Supernova" was set to open Christmas of last year but some post-production tinkering kept the film out of theaters until now. Why would respected director Walter Hill be credited as Thomas Lee, for example?
If the filmmakers weren't happy with "Supernova," then why on earth should we be?
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David N. Butterworth
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