people not pretty pics?

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I agree that Spader was good in this one. He came across as a very deep character, obviously now in charge of his emotions, after recovering from his 'Hazen' addiction. It may have improved this film if we had understood what drove him to take Hazen. Probably some dark episode in his military career.

Angela Bassett's character described the hell of being involved with someone addicted to the drug, the violence. It's also obvious that the Peter Facinelli character it still someone suffering from it's effects. I can't help feel that the minutes they cut gave us a better explanation of Vansant and why he was on a hospital ship, rather than a military one.

The music was extremely good, very moody, especially when they used it to show the space ship passing or the shots into Earth orbit.

Rather than seeing the clean white of a Star Trek or the grimy surroundings of Alien we initially see dark interiors which seem like emergency lighting. Later on they put on more lights to see whats happening. I think light not only gives mood, but tends to make the viewer focus on the people and the action.

'Mr Physics' on the other board who thought that your head explodes in vacuum is also wrong. For reference to what happens when you are spaced, try seeing the sequence in Mission to Mars when Tim Robbins removes his helmet. It's probably the only thing they got right in that film! Space is not just a vacuum, it also happens to be extremely cold, depending on what radiant objects are in proximity. In Earth orbit, the sunlight can heat an object to between 150 to 250 degrees centigrade, but in the shade (in Mars orbit) or in deep space, the temperature is close to minus 250 degrees centigrade. It makes building structures that can stand the heat stress very difficult. In Mission to Mars, Tim Robbin's face freezes instantly, as it would near Mars. In Supernova, both the spaced people are ejected through hatches. It appears that they are on the 'dark' and cold side of the ship. However, the ship is close to a blue giant star and they are close to the incineration point. One would speculate that if they ejected on the dark side, their heads would freeze, their lungs would rupture and the blood and breath would turn to ice crystals. If they were on the star side, their heads (and bodies) would be instantly roasted to a cinder. They don't need to be too graphic with this, after all, who wants to see a realistic death like that? Only the most psychologically disturbed would get any satisfaction.

I did not find the sex overly gratuitous (maybe just the sequence between Robin Tunney and Facinelli - more later), but rather too much exhibitionist! Do they have to go into the zero G obeservation dome to bonk and don't they find the bodily fluids flying about, a bit grotesque?

The Plasma Drive sequence was good. It didn't seem to be as stupid as warp drive or as simple opening a hyperspace window. From the need to sterilise the chamber before and after each jump, one rather thinks that there were some nasty results from the mistakes in the development.

The only things I didn't like, and didn't think was quite right, was the sexual attraction of Robin Tunney for Facinelli. Sure she was in space and there were few other men about. Sure she obviously thought Facinelli looked good naked, but she was bonking Lou Diamond Phillips every moment she could get. So unless the object also heightened sexual desire, it just didn't seem right that she would allow him to put his paws over her. Unless of course she wanted to find out what her bosses attraction to the guy's father was.

Then there was the relationship between Wilson Cruz and 'Sweetie'. Obviously, the computer has the hots for him, after being extensively modified, against regulations. So it stands to reason that unless Asimov's laws of robotics was included in the AI program, the computer would attempt to protect him. Sweetie asks for the protocol overides, so it must be that there is a software inhibitor. Even though the last password is not given, one wonders why the others (Bassett and Cruz) did not use the protocol to isolate and then space the Facinelli character, immediately they were aware that Tunney and Lou Diamond Phillips were no-longer on board.

But then, as with all films, if they took the logical route, the story would be crap.

I liked the bit that they were racing against time to get out before the ship burnt up (or the object exploded) and then had to choose to both get into the chamber together. After their previous 'encounter', you could see that they were growing to respect each other. Both the Spade and Bassett characters could have been explored better.

I also think that the film would have been better if rather than leaving the pair of them in the chamber, with a blue and brown eye each and her pregnant, that they'd then been rescued by the ships in Earth orbit.

The name is a bit of a misnomer. The Blue Giant in the film did not 'supernova'. Supernovas result from collapsing stars in their dying years. A blue giant, an extremly large and hot star would more likely become a black hole in it's later years. It has too much mass to explode. Obviously, they have used the word to descibe the bomb's effects, but then would a film called:

"MULTIDIMENSIONAL BOMB" have as much attraction as 'Supernova' does?!

Overall, I think it is a very underated film. Walter Hill may have taken his name off, because he had no control over the final edit and was upset at being 'second guessed' by the studio and Francis Ford Coppola.

I liked it and it reminds me of other underated Coppola films like Gardens of Stone. In fact I think it would be interesting to compare the Hill version and the Coppola one. I don't rate Supernova as one of my top films, there were mistakes, but then considering their budget and the fact that the studio decided to 're-hash' a story that could have been deeper and more involved, it's OK.