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Supernova

Deckerd

Fleet Arse
Premium Member
I'd never heard of this film until it suddenly appeared on TV last night. Despite being formulaic and woefully predictable, I liked the performances of the principal actors.
 
A film that could have been great in theory, but was pretty messed up in reality. And as far as I know "Supernova" got heavily re-edited by the studio. Supposedly, there were also a lot of scenes cut. I always wondered if some sort of "Director's Cut" would be any better.

It's no masterpiece, but belongs to the movies I occasionally enjoy to watch.
 
I bought it on DVD years ago as part of one of those 5 for £30 deals, I've only watched it once and I don't remember much about it, so it can't have made much of an impression.
 
It left us both saying "why did they bother?" (to make it). With a modicum of imagination from the writers it could have been a little gem, considering the calibre of actors in it.
 
Weird. I've seen it, but it keeps merging in my mind's eye with 'Event Horizon'. Can't separate them.
 
Pretty sure this was our first DVD back in the day.

From memory, we thought it was woeful for one reason or another.
 
"That’s one of the great and yet ironic facts about the future in Supernova: even though ships can ‘jump’ at faster than the speed of light, you still have to take off your clothes to do it."

That's a quote from my review of it. They managed to all get naked in the first five minutes, which always makes an impression on me.

Other than that, James Spader was great, and the movie was average - but there's so little sci-fi made, so I always watch them.
 
I was hoping the computer go all Hal on the crew after the death of it's favorite guy.
 
"That’s one of the great and yet ironic facts about the future in Supernova: even though ships can ‘jump’ at faster than the speed of light, you still have to take off your clothes to do it."

That's a quote from my review of it. They managed to all get naked in the first five minutes, which always makes an impression on me.

Other than that, James Spader was great, and the movie was average - but there's so little sci-fi made, so I always watch them.

I agree the stripping off was one of film's better ideas.
 
I picked up this DVD in a bargain store (Big Lots) for $2. While on a week long business trip, I took it with me and watched it one evening. Probably one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Absolutely pointless. Pretty good cast with some decent acting, but the story was woefully lacking.
 
Brutally sucky film. Spader was cut when he made it. He went almost immediately to flab after. Wonder what happened there.

Could have been cool. The asshole from Can't Hardly Wait as the main villain? Come on.
 
I remember seeing this years ago, and the only reason to watch it was for the hot guys. And even they weren't enough to keep my interest. It left me with a "meh" feeling.
 
I picked up this DVD in a bargain store (Big Lots) for $2. While on a week long business trip, I took it with me and watched it one evening. Probably one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Absolutely pointless. Pretty good cast with some decent acting, but the story was woefully lacking.

Yeah, $2 or $3 at Big Lots. I almost bought it for someone for Xmas, then decided I couldn't do anything that cruel.

Movie sucked more than a black hole. What is it with Robert Forster and bad sci-fi movies? (Though THE BLACK HOLE is almost Bladerunner compared to Supernova.) And when did Walter Hill's directing turn to shit? I gotta blame him for chosing to make the damn thing. "Last Man Standing" mostly blew, too, and when you have Bruce Willis and Christopher Walken in a film...and it sucks...for shame.
 
From what I remember, Walter Hill and the studio disagreed and he pretty much Alan Smithee'd the project. They then brought in Coppola to re-edit bits of it into a comprehensible film.

I think whatever the original concept was it would've been a good sci-fi thriller.
 
I watched this movie once and immediately traded it in. It's pretty bad. It makes Event Horizon look like Lord of the Rings.
 
Was this the movie where the weird little guy kept calling the ship's computer "Sweetie"? I kept waiting for this movie to get better since it had a fairly good cast and director. It seemed really similar to Event Horizon but the execution was lacking.
 
Watched it again tonight. I bought the DVD used a few years ago.
So much time passes between my viewings that I forget most of the plot on this one.

I really liked the ships corridors and production design as well as the CGI models and lighting of the ships exteriors. Interesting large rotating center of the ship.
The exterior of the ship Nightingale 229 has a crazy foldback Transformers-like design when Nick leaves in the smaller shuttle.

I did like the idea of a 'dimension jump' which is a teleportation plot device using the Nightingale 229
exiting one physical universe or plane of existence, then re-entering it at a different location.
It's a lot like the graviton drive in Event Horizon (1997) except the Event Horizon used a Wormhole for travel.
The other odd thing was the Nightingale 229
had the antennas and such folding back for the dimension jump which is really crazy because it's just mass moving through space without atmosphere resistance although perhaps a bubble is only a certain size for the ship to pass through.

The dimension pods are very similar to those in Alien or 2001:A Space Odyssey.
Interesting that they have to go into them nude which is very similar to the telepods in The Fly (1986) which required being nude.
 
As I recall, the studio booted the original director, rejected the first score (by Burkhard Dallwitz), and re-cut the film to try to make it more appealing to the masses.


(Intrada Records released both scores just a month or two ago -- almost sold out, as I recall)
 
I watched this movie once and immediately traded it in. It's pretty bad. It makes Event Horizon look like Lord of the Rings.

:lol:

Yes, it does. I remember seeing this in the theater when it came out, and being absolutely PO'ed when it ended. What a piece of CRAP.

I ADORE James Spader, so I went in wanting to like it. However, the plot made little if any sense, the direction and cinematography were absurd (there were some shots where you can't even tell whose speaking!) and even the film seemed cheap. Everything was grainy and washed out; some scenes seemed out of focus while others were crystal clear.

The motivations of the characters weren't even that interesting---or understandable. It was just an all-around hot mess.

I think you have a 50/50 shot at finding a better made film on the SyFy Channel......on Saturday morning.
 
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