I give it a 'Meh' out of 'Whatever'
2
By Craspy Wrankles
I find the lone ship stranded in space routine to be a plot device too often used upon. I also find that, after one finds out they have 17 hours to fix something or they die, having sex in zero g, while that may be enjoyable, doesn't really solve things. So these are small potatoes, I realize that. But what really puts this movie into my list of "Possible Reasons to Go On Murderous Rampage" is that nothing that goes on in the movie seems to resonate with the entire crew. This I chalk up to Walter Hill saying adios due to creative differences, leaving the studio execs and outside help (Coppola apparently has nothing to do on a Saturday than edit something he has absolutely no interest in doing) to try and piece together something that probably looked really cool written down. The end result is a bunch of really good actors who look bad in space. Not to mention, it's the really bad kind of space.
If you haven't seen the movie, SURPRISE: there's a supernova in it! Well, it's a bit surprising to me, because they mention it, something about a degrading orbit, +17 hours til everyone is incinerated, yada yada, and that's about it. Not joking, that's the attitude everyone has towards this but Lou Diamond Phillips, who decides he'd rather go hang out with the weird alien 9th dimensional yadayada. Robin Tunney can't stop thinking about sex, so she's kind of turned on by the new guy (Peter Facinelli), til he kills her. There's this other problem where James Spader is sabotaged by the New Guy. Turns out the New Guy is the Old Guy, Karl Larsen, the one they thought they were coming for in the first place. So New Guy kills everyone except for Angela Bassett, who he tries to convince this 9th dimensional stuff is the bee's knees. He's forgotten one thing, though, and that is the inevitability of a Plot Hole rematerializing as Deus Ex Machina; James Spader found a rescue shuttle (how New Guy doesn't see this coming, who knows) and the two battle. Well, not really battle. Spader gets tossed around a bunch, Spader lops New Guy's hand off, Spader tries to lock up New Guy, New Guy escapes, rejoins his hand (makes sense, right? 9th dimensional schtuff is better than superglue) and then dies because he's an idiot. Spader and Bassett leave the galaxy by a spacehair and accidentally melded part of their DNA code, giving Bassett a baby and Happy the end.
There, I saved you a lot of time. I made a mistake in not following general consensus on this one being really bad, and now I've told you how ridiculous this movie is. Gosh, I almost forgot to mention, ROBERT FORSTER's in this movie! Well, he knew it was gonna be a bust, so he gets out of the movie before things go to pot.
I've heard a lot of people say this movie isn't that bad, but that's I suppose in comparison to night terrors and muggings. No, this is not the worst movie in the world, but does that mean it should be excused? Why should you see it, when you can watch something as bad as AVP and be 10 more times as entertained than watching Supernova. Supernova is a film that had been given up on by its makers, by people who wanted to do right, but inevitably gave it the Hudson reply of "That's it man. Game Over, man. Game Over."