SUPERNOVA
An MGM release

review by Shade Rupe

Where's the boom?

Wow. This is not a movie. Nothing happened. I mean yeah, this guy got off a spaceship near this comet where this star is going to go supernova, carrying strange cargo. Yeah, the travel through hyperspace. But that's about it. There's some interracial love, between the ever-so-stern Angela Bassett (why don't they just make an automaton of her? It would probably be cheaper.) and James Spader (all rough and tough here), that goes nowhere. Some people die. Yeah, whatever.

Walter Hill, credited here as Thomas Lee (the only time he's taken a pseudonymous credit), wrote the screenplay for the dreary, uninteresting Alien 3. Walter Hill has done some amazing work. The Warriors, Southern Comfort, and yeah, Streets of Fire. Alien 3, man, that messed him up. Bill Malone worked on this one. He directed that 1980 Mr. Hankey biopic Scared To Death and 1985's Alien-edsque Creature (with Klaus Kinski in the role of Hans Rudy, which is what H.R. in HR Giger stands for. That's the guy who created the Alien creature). He also did the remake of The House on Haunted Hill, which I really liked a lot. I saw it twice.

Walter Hill must've had some script notes left over from Alien 3, and maybe Bill Malone had some leftovers from Creature, because this flick traces Alien's steps down to everything but the Alien. I'm not being fair. I guess they don't land on a planet either. There is an alien, or something, in the guise of Troy Larson (Peter Facinelli), who they find after jetting into hyperspace, which is, at least, a really cool sequence. Since they're a medical rescue ship, they gotta rescue the guy. Too bad one of their own members melted in the time jump. Oh well.

So this guy has this thing on him. Looks normal enough, it's three-dimensional. But it's got some ninth-dimensional stuff in it. Why the computer knows this, like who programmed it to know this, we know not, but it figures it out. So tough lady Angela goes to have a chat with. He's not into giving it up. He makes them keep it quiet. Then he takes off. First he kills some people. I really shouldn't say who gets it, but Robin Tunney, man, I can't stand that upper lip thing. So I'm happy to say she bites it. See, this guy is controlled by the ninth-dimensional space stuff (I think that's why he does what he does) that's inside the thing on his little ship. And if that thing goes off, then everyone in the whole universe is gonna die!

So, of course, they can't leave yet 'cause the ship is a little busted, but they gotta get moving soon 'cause they're right near a star that's about to go supernova. But don't think you're gonna get to see it. This movie is more about hyperspace effects than supernova effects.

There's like two minutes in this movie that are cool to see. Maybe three. Daniel Chuba, one of the writers on this pic, has done tons of visual effects work from Natural Born Killers to Showgirls to the 1997 Flubber. So the movie ends up with like 4 mins. humanity and the rest is just some guys at computers tapping in effects. But I guess someone didn't tell them the movie is called Supernova, 'cause they forgot to put it in.

If you like science-fiction a LOT and just have to see some more space, spacesuits, and spaceships, then you might get off looking at the model and effects work. If you want to have a story told for you, I'd tune in to anything on Sci-Fi Channel, even Lexx.

OFFICIAL WEB SITE:
http://www.mgm.com/supernova/

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