Reviews

Exactly what anyone was thinking during the making of this movie isn't actually clear as the movie has no idea what it's trying to be, or the audience it's trying to attract.

The list of well known actors coupled with the story line of inheriting a multi-million dollar company (ie. instant wealth) read like a trashy $2 novel, which is what I'm assuming this whole thing was based on, but then they thrown in a snuff-movie sub plot with splashes of nudity. It's like they have one aspect to get in the 70's era middle aged tabloid mag reading women, and then the other so that their bored husbands will have something to oggle and remember the movie by as well.

For starters the editing of the movie is terrible. Scene's just happen, and then are followed up by completely different scene's in different locations. At the start of the movie they actually tried to provide some flow to the story, but by about a third of the way through no attempt to portray any sort of time scale or transition between scene's is provided.

Audrey Hepburn, the main draw card for the movie, is treated almost like a child actor in this. The film tries to re-live scene's she's played out in older movies when she was much younger: eg. when she jumps onto the bed to make a phone call only to find that the phone is dead. This might have worked if the film was a light hearted music love story like the films which made her famous, but this was meant to be during a dramatic and dangerous scene, so it just ends up looking extremely staged and comical (bordering on silly). The one saving grace is that you get to hear her call Ben Gazzara a 'bastard', which in her distinctly European tongue sounds just gold. So roughly, the movies lead actress's high point is when she calls another actor an expletive. Not exactly star studded cinema here.

The biggest gripe I have with ANY of the acting in this movie is how no one actually says anything to anyone. People are dying, mullions are being lost and a huge global enterprise is crumbling .. but everyone DEMANDS that they speak about things 'later'. Why did the brakes fail ?? .. I'll tell you later. When are we going to make a decision ?? .. we'll do that later. Who's the killer ?? .. I'll tell you later.

For people who are fearing for their lives they certainly seem to have more important things to do then actually work out what the hell is going on around them. 'I'm sorry I'm too rich to die now, please kill me later on when it's more dramatic'.

Then we come to the movies snuff-p0rn sub-plot. Exactly what the hell is going on in these scene's is hard to say. They contain NONE of the major actors and so look like they were tacked onto the movie in the editing stage, and seem to happen only through-out the course of the movie to keep some sort of 'threat' level present since the actors are so busy worrying about minor things that the audience might forget that DEATH AND MURDER is actually occurring.

The whole point of the snuff-movie sub-plot it seems is to show that one person is, in fact, the killer. But this, in fact, makes almost no sense since the supposed killer didn't actually kill any of the women, and thus far no one has even been able to pin any of the other deaths on him either (or anyone else). So he's shot because he has a red ribbon in his hands.

'Inspector can you prove this man killed anyone or actually did anything bad ?'

'No your honour but out of all the circumstantial evidence I've collected and been bam-boozled with, this guy's right at the top of the list.'

'Good enough for me Inspector, your free to go. Please feel free to shoot anyone else you think could possibly have maybe done something.'

If you really feel it warranted that you MUST watch this movie, please look out for the following highlights of cinematic and acting glory : 1. Audrey Hepburn sitting on a bouncy seat in a studio while a car crash scene plays out behind her (hilarity on a grand scale) 2. The Inspector talking with a computer .. again and again and again .. all of which is inconclusive.

3. Ben Gazzara displaying his obvious American-ism to Europeans by saying 'Jesus' at inappropriate times.

4. Really bad stock footage of an old F1 race edited seamlessly (cough) into the movie with the volume cranked up to 11.

5. The Inspectors hilarious attempts to hold a rifle during the final climactic scene (seriously, you can see the fear of god in the eyes of the police officers standing around him) 6. The 'building burning' scene which looks like a photo with a match under it.

7. The fact that the entire building looks like it has exploded and burnt down the previous scene / photo .. yet no one seems to really care in the following scene's.

8. The snuff-movie sub plot which makes no sense and seems to be the movies only real talking point (both for it's strange inclusion and for the way it sticks out like a sore thumb compared to everything else that's going on).

9. The cut scene's to Roffe's senior's early life .. which just sort of 'happen' to a back ground of Audrey walking around an old castle looking confused (I was looking confused after watching that scene as well though).

10. The 'over this way there's much the same' comment from Ben Gazzara during Audrey's tour of the drug factory (The actor summed up a pointless scene even before the audience had a chance too).

'Supernova' aired late the other night on Australian TV, and as this was the first time I'd ever heard about or seen the movie I thought I'd hit IMDb and read some reviews before watching it. At least thats what I'd hoped to do. After trawling through a number of pages worth of reviews the variation in responses to it had me wondering just what I was in for.

The general feel of 'Supernova' is that its trying to put some unique twists or angles onto many sci-fi theme's you've probably seen before in other movies. This isn't really a bad thing as just because something has been done before doesn't mean another movie can't create an enjoyable adaptation of it. The problems that I had with this movie though wasn't the story or science or direction, but with the acting and performances.

Robin Tunney : Blank vacant expressions is pretty much all you get from this actress through-out all her scenes. Her one emotion of 'shock' seems to have been applied to everything she takes part in. Also there really doesn't seem to be any relevance to her character even being on the ship other then something for Lou Diamond Phillips to get mad at.

Lou Diamond Phillips : If Robin encompasses shock then Lou is the on-screen portrayal of frustration. Thats about all he does really, walk around looking frustrated and meagerly acting in a frustrated manner. You really get the feeling he's doing this movie for a pay check and thats about it. Its not as if he didn't get a chance to shine either as there are a few scene's where its just his character interacting with the 'crazy' alien artifact. I would have thought an actor who is interested in his role in a movie might have tried to squeeze a bit more .. well .. anything out of the scene's. But Lou is just sitting there with an expression of almost boredom as he discovers the 9th dimension.

For me these two actors create the biggest problem for the movie, as during the whole middle of the film your pretty much just watching these two bumble around the ship. Minor plot holes and bad science I can over-look, but pointless inane characters annoy the heck out of me.

OK enough about the negatives, because amazingly this movie did have some great characters positives . Now I'm not exactly a fan of the shows that James Spader's been appearing in over the last few years, but I have to say that enjoyed the role and performance he gave in this movie. Yes it was dry and monotone, but after watching the movie I think the role actually called for it.

A classic example of this, and probably the part of the movie that I really enjoyed the most, was when Spader's character was rocketing back to the crippled ship in a tiny rescue vessel exclaiming to the super-human bad guy that 'hes gonna get him'. Peter Facinelli's character had just murdered the greater majority of the crew using super-human strength coupled with 100% confidence .. yet here was a single lowely human returning to the ship and the immortal monster was dead set terrified. Where he had previously and smugly dealt with the crew toe-to-toe, Facinelli's character gave himself lots of distance and even armed himself with a weapon for Spader's arrival. I thought this power game between the two was done quite well, in fact once Spader returned to the ship the movie became far more involved and interesting.

Wilson Cruz played a small-ish role in the movie, but unlike Robin and Lou he didn't over or under act it, and out of all the crew seemed to get into the role the most.

Angela Bassett was good when Spader was on screen (or in the ship) with her, but once Spader left the ship to visit the surface of the planet Bassett's character became the 'captain by default' and also the 'hero by default' .. but unfortunately neither her character nor her acting was really up to the task. Admitedly this was during the whole 'lets apply science to fiction' part of the movie where they try fill in the story about what the alien artifact is. Unfortunately Bassett's performance was rather un-emotive and here, but in her defense this was when Robin and Lou were wandering around the ship having their subplots play out so there really wasn't a lot to work with either.

For me Spader saves the movie, and the sequences where they out smart and out wit the super human Facinelli are done quite well and play out quickly and intelligently. Facinelli's monster was in total control with the other crew, but as soon as the captain returns to the ship the whole level of 'control' is shifted.

I can't say this is a classic movie or one that I'd be wanting to watch again and again, but ts definitely NOT unwatchable or terminally flawed. It had a lot of things going for it .. but if only they'd spent more time casting a better crew for the ship.

One last thing though, overall the special effects are very good .. but who-ever thought that splicing some 1960's era 'through a microscope' footage of an embryo during the hyperspace sequence was a good idea really needs to be slapped.