Supernova

I do believe that I watched this movie some time back in the early 2000s, but it is not a movie that have left much of an impression with me back then, because I don't really recall anything from it, aside from it having James Spader on the cast list.

I got the chance to sit down and revisit "Supernova" now in 2017 and decided to watch it again, and did of course grab the opportunity as it arose. When I was younger I wasn't much of a sci-fi fan, aside from loving "Star Wars", but as I have grown older I have come to find enjoyment in the sci-fi genre as well.

I must admit that I was more than genuinely excited to see Angela Bassett being on the cast list too, because I have come to enjoy her work over the years, and she is actually a very talented actress. The cast list also had Lou Diamond Phillips and Robert Forster playing in the movie, so there were some familiar faces for sure. Now, I have never been much fan of James Spader, but I must admit that he was really well-cast for this movie and he performed very well. However, I can't help but sit and think that James Spader sounds so much like a space-Batman as he talks throughout the course of "Supernova".

Taking into consideration that the movie is from 2000, then I will say that the special effects, CGI and visual effects are actually still quite good even by today's standards. And having convincing CGI and proper effects is alpha and omega for a sci-fi movie to have the proper punch to it. And the visual effects team here really managed to perform quite well. The robot, however, well at least it served its purpose, but its movement were so weird, rigid and jerky that it looked comical. The designs of the space vessels were also quite interesting and it looked very realistic - well, as far as sci-fi takes realism, of course.

"Supernova" picks up pace very early on and throws the audience right into the thrill and excitement of the Space adventure. Writers William Malone, Daniel Chuba and David C. Wilson really had managed to create something very compelling and thrilling, while director Walter Hill brought the script onto the screen quite nicely and it made for a very entertaining movie indeed.

There was a great atmosphere to the movie, and it was a very believable setting that they managed to create. And that applied to both the deep space scenes and also all the scenes aboard the spacecraft.

This movie makes good use of a mixture between action, thrills, storytelling and character development. So there definitely is something for just about everyone here.

"Supernova" was actually a much better movie than I initially remember it, so I can honestly say that it is a movie that is well-worth taking the time to watch, especially if you enjoy sci-fi movies that fall into the thriller/horror genre.

This is gonna be a short one: For all you sci-fi buffs out there, you probably know the wild behind-the-scenes drama this movie went through, the reason why the trailer was way off the mark, and that feeling of, well, emptiness it leaves you with after watching. There's however one noteworthy detail to you young people out there ☺, particularly in this era of streaming: on my old DVD copy, there are some deleted scenes that could've made the film better. Why Mr. Coppola decided to leave them out (and not some other stuff) to 'save' the film, we'll never really figure out. I've always had a soft spot for this flick, and I still believe there's a solid movie hiding somewhere in there, waiting to be discovered. But I guess we'll never live to see it.

It's not the greatest movie ever, no doubt. But it's not bad. As far as Science Fiction movies go, this is definitely one of the better ones, maybe the best in recent memory. It's science was dead on, having a NASA employee as a technical adviser certainly shows. As for the story, it's not out of the realm of science fiction, which is no more and no less than can really be expected. It keeps it's pace well and doesn't slow down to wax philosophic like a cheesy 50's Sci-Fi would have done. The plot progresses logically and doesn't tend to jump around (a thing that I HATE in a movie). It kept me entertained, which is more than I can say for a lot of movies today.

Supernova was the beginning of the Downfall for Lou Diamond Phillips if you ask me. Anyway, the movie is about a traveling hospital rescue spaceship, that moves about the cosmos to save stranded vessels and what not. They come across a distress call, and zip off in some sort of warp travel.

After arriving there they come across a stranded miner and some strange material, that turns out to be pieces of the 5th dimension. And then the movie finally collapses under its own stupidity.

Mediocre acting, nice special effects, REALLY stupid plot, all create a nice mixture to cause minor insanity in the viewer. Some people even lose all conscious memory of having ever seen this movie, confusing it with Red Planet or some other such film.

In other words, Run!

Ridiculous "loud & lazy" sci-fi thriller that makes ample use of Robin Tunney's willingness to disrobe but has little time for things like logic and characterization. The plot is that a search and rescue ship in deep space answers a distress beacon. For their trouble, they get Peter Facinelli. Oversexed, overly derivative mess of a film offers nothing you haven't seen before and better. Hell, just a few years before this was Event Horizon, with a very similar plot but a much better movie. A dark-haired and particularly buff James Spader gives the only performance worth mentioning with a straight face. How about that laugh-inducing ending? You wouldn't think a movie that has the names of both Francis Ford Coppola and Walter Hill attached to it could be this bad but it just goes to show I guess.