The deep space medical rescue vessel Nightingale 229 comes across a mysterious distress signal from an abandoned mining complex. After a dangerous dimensional jump (read:warp speed) Captain Nick Vanzant(James Spader) and crew discover a barren rogue moon on a collision course with a blue giant (A large gravitational body very similar to a black hole in it's gravitational pull). Immediately the crew runs into the moon's debris field and the main fuel tank of the Nightingale is ruptured. Thanks to the quick reaction of the ship's captain the Nightingale manages to maintain a stable orbit around the moon, unfortunately it used up most of the ship's fuel. While the crew is trying to figure out how to get back home safely a ship, containing the man who sent the distress call, is spiraling towards the Nightingale out of control. The man on board the lost craft has a mysterious alien artifact with him which holds strange, mystical powers. Will the crew survive? Is the artifact of friend or foe? Will the crew stop have sex at every free moment in their day? Will the movie be a big budget disaster for MGM/UA? Read on and find on.

Plot: The original script to Supernova was written nearly a decade ago and has gone through so many rewrites it is hard to tell what the story is supposed to be. The film credits William Malone(Universal Soldier: The Return) and Daniel Chuba with writing the story and David C. Wilson(The Perfect Weapon) with the screenplay. This film is riddled with so many plot holes, character development problems, motivation inconsistencies, and a basic vagueness of the whole story it makes the movie hurt to watch. For example Cap. Vanzant (James Spader) and Dr. Kaela Evers(Angela Bassett) are talking about how much they hate each other and then in the next scene they are having sex in some sort of zero gravity pod (Which is visited by several other crew members latter in the film). The sub plot of a computer becoming self aware and the story of crew members love are poorly developed and mixed in with the main plot of the strange alien device like a five year-old with finger paint. This film is a perfect example of why scripts shouldn't be rewritten over and over again. zero(out of five)

Acting: The sad part about this whole film is that the cast is actually a decent ensemble of actors who just don't work together. James Spader(Critical Care, 2 Days in the Valley, Crash, Driftwood, Stargate, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, and Wall Street), Angela Bassett (Music of the Heart, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Contact, Strange Days, Vampire in Brooklyn, Waiting to Exhale, and Malcolm X), Robert Forster(Psycho(1998), Jackie Brown, Original Gangstas, South Beach, and The Delta Force), and Lou Diamond Phillips (Bats, The Big Hit, Courage Under Fire, Sioux City, Dakota, Young Guns, and La Bamba) make up the main cast and individually these are all exceptional actors, but together they fall apart like toilet paper in a washing machine. James Spader and Angela Bassett come off as two people so cold and so distant that they couldn't possibly realize the situation at hand. They act worse then their lines are written. If they weren't supposed to be a couple then perhaps the whole thing could have worked. Spader could have been the unfeeling military man and Angela Bassett could have been the independent Doctor who has been hurt too many times to be involved with anyone, but no they had to put these two in an unlikely couple. Robert Forster is great...if he was in a seventies cop film. Lou Diamond Phillips is the only slightly entertaining person out of the whole bunch, unfortunately because he is the only good one he sticks out like a sore thumb. **(out of five)

Directing: Director Walter Hill(Last Man Standing, Wild Bill, Geronimo, and 48 hrs.) was so upset with the way MGM/UA reedited his film he demanded to have his name removed and replaced by Allen Smithee(the Director Guild of America's name for a director who wants to stay anonymous). MGM/UA wouldn't allow a $75 million film be released without a director's name on it so MGM/UA and Walter Hill reached a compromise, they created a new director named Thomas Lee (Who the final film credits as the director). During the year that this film was being reedited, acclaimed director Francis Ford Coppola.(The Rainmaker, Jack, The Godfather Trilogy, Dracula, and Apocalypse Now) to help fix the film...it didn't work. The movie is an hour and a half of ultra-tight closeups and action sequences that are so blurred that the audience can't even discern what is happening. The film seems to have lost a few important points in the film during the reedits. Basically this movie never draws the audience in to it's world. It suffers the same fate of Soldier and Event Horizon, the movie looks good on paper and the directors have a really good vision, but the final product simply doesn't allow the audience escape in to the film's world. **(out of five)

Music: David C. Williams(Wishmaster 2, Phantoms, The Prophecy 2, No Way Back, The Prophecy, Children of the Corn 4, Critters 3, and After School), an experienced horror composer, adds a little bit of environment to the picture. Sometimes the audience will find itself relying entirely on the music to understand what is "supposed" to be happening in the movie. Although not the best film score ever it earns some points for holding the structural integrity of the movie together...sort of. ***(out of five)

Special Effects: Acclaimed effects house Digital Domain(Apollo 13, Armageddon, Chain Reaction, Dante's Peak, The Fifth Element, Fight Club, Interview with a Vampire, Strange Days, Titanic, True Lies, and What Dreams may come) came through and provided the best part of the whole movie. None of the special effects in this film are revolutionary or spectacular, but they are fun to look at. In comparison to the rest of D2s work this is probably their worst stuff, but inside the context of this film it's a saving grace. The exterior space shots of the Nightingale and various celestial bodies are believable, but not awe-inspiring. The best effects work is the first landing scene on the abandoned mining colony. The mix of live action footage and CG(computer generated) footage is seamless. Not their best work, but still worthy of praise. ***1/2(out of five)

Bottom Line: Supernova is the Insomniacs dream. To put it more bluntly, this movie isn't worth the price of admission, the price of a rental, the price of pay-per-view, or the price of your monthly cable bill. Only watch this film with permission from your physician. ** (out of five)