Do you like science fiction and sex? If the answer is yes then oh boy, you’re in for a treat, because Supernova should be called Sex & Space. I mean, it takes just two minutes to see the first pair of titties during a sex scene. And we have to wait excruciatingly long eight minutes after this for our next nude scene. Just think of those sleazy eighties science fiction movies and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Also, I don’t know why but almost every shot is a Dutch angle, where the camera is slightly tilted. Just another thing to add to the list of curiosities. And this is not some cheap-ass atrocity. Supernova is supposed to be a big movie rivaling Event Horizon or Lost in Space.
But, let us start at the beginning: Director Walter Hill (The Warriors, 48 Hrs, Johnny Handsome, Bullet to the Head) just finished editing the movie when MGM demanded a test screening. At this point, there were no special effects and Walter warned MGM that going forward with this is madness. After horrible reviews and more squabbles, Walter quit and MGM hired Jack Sholder to finish the movie. His version got a little better reception but it was a heavily edited version of the original movie. After all this, they simply stopped working on it, relegating it to the darkest corners of the universe.
Two years later fucking Francis Ford Coppola and his company American Zoetrope finally managed to finish the movie. The final version of the movie was exactly what the studios wanted a funny sex romp in space. Walter Hill’s version, at this point lost forever, was: “much more grotesque, strange and disturbing”. A classic tale of studio interference now let’s get back to the movie we actually get to see.
After this lengthy intro, I would just like to say that I really liked Supernova. It is what it is and it’s a great little piece of science fiction escapism with a nudity and standard-issue plot. Any movie set on a spaceship has a special vibe and when I was younger I really did not care about the plot or anything else. What was important to me was to leave Earth and be in space, in the future. And that did not change as I got older. Only now I laugh more at certain scenes, especially in a movie with this many sexual references. Even the guy who shows up towards the end of the movie wanted to have sex!
Welcome to the world of tomorrow! It’s the 22nd century and we are following a crew of a medical rescue ship Nightingale 9. They receive a distress call and decide to jump to that region of deep space not knowing that this will lead them into all sorts of problems.
Well, maybe there is not that much sexual content, there is also a little mystery and suspense. Special effects are decent, and the quantum jumps are really impressive. So in conclusion, Supernova is a movie that you can watch for both that space-feeling and for the entertainment. And if you are looking for even worse movies that involve sex and space check out the mother-load of bad content Dracula 3000, in the future, there will be a section for these very entertaining movies. Since the future is now: Movies so bad that they are good.
Director: Walter Hill
Cast: James Spader, Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Lou Diamond Phillips, Peter Facinelli, Robin Tunney
Fun Facts: Apparently, the zero gravity sex scene between Angela Bassett and James Spader was put together using out-takes of scenes featuring Robin Tunney and Peter Facinelli, and with Tunney’s skin color being digitally darkened.
Rating:
IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0134983/
