filmcritic.com presents a review from staff member James Brundage. You can find the review with full credits at http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/2a460f93626cd4678625624c007f2b46/c59282bf90b124ce8825686f00209bc9?OpenDocument
Supernova (2000, PG-13)
Directed by Thomas Lee
Written by David Campbell Wilson
Story by William Malone and Daniel Chuba
Starring James Spader, Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Lou Diamond Phillips, Peter Facinelli, Robin Tunney, and Wilson Cruz
As Reviewed by James Brundage
When near objects of immense gravity such as black holes, it is said that all things bend. Perhaps it is only fitting that a movie such as Supernova, which poses as sci-fi / mystery / horror and that takes place near an object of large gravity, should have the plot twists bent. Common sense tells us that if you bend something that is already bent it will either become more bent or straighten out. Supernova's plot twists straight out, and the result is something completely by the books.
Supernova is the story about a rescue vessel sent into deep space to pick someone up from a rogue moon. To make a short story shorter, they find both the person (who is, of course, accompanied with creepy music) and an alien artifact capable of creating new matter. Every person who touches the stuff becomes endowed with superhuman strength.
It only takes the discerning viewer a few seconds to figure all this out.
Since the creepy guy the crew picked up from the planet has touched the thing, and since he is obviously the bad guy, the rest of the crew spends all of their time trying to stop him.
That's about it. I have eliminated your need to see it.
Supernova is so absolutely traditional that it voyages into the realm of idiocy. It is as if someone had taken the morons guide to sci-fi and used it to create a film, step by step, with no originality.
The cast is remarkably top-notch for the occasion. Angela Bassett, James Spader, Robert Forster, Robin Tunney, and Lou Diamond Phillips help comprise the cast of what amounts to a very bad movie. If they had all combined their talent, rewrote the script, and filmed it themselves they could have done better.
As proof of how much this film is terrible, even the director didn't want it on him. Although the director is credited as Thomas Lee, he is actually Walter Hill of 48 Hours and Last Man Standing. Any time a director tries to conceal the fact that they made the picture, it is bad news, and Supernova is proof of this thesis.
The last really, really cheesy sci-fi horror about a rescue vessel, Event Horizon had some Latin in it: liberte tutu meus ex inferni. The translation of this is "Save yourself from Hell." Save yourself from Supernova… it's a step in the right direction.
2 stars
-- Christopher Null - cnull@mindspring.com - http://www.filmcritic.com
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