**6**/10 if you really appreciate plasmic blue and purple
**5**/10 realistically, and not worth rewatching

Would be a completely forgettable "**5**", but I really appreciate the colored monochromatic scenes of stellar vistas and generally good and intense cinematography. It's very moody, and, when the score is good, it, along with the effects and lighting work, are able to create a fascinating and foreboding atmosphere. Unfortunately, there's really not enough inspired artistry or _Alien_-like plot and production design, and the shots are generally too short.

The script's problems are the spare and uninspired writing and storytelling, and the lack of dynamics of the tone. There are also a lot of really abrupt cuts which keep the film from immersing the viewer in important ways. The characters just aren't that compelling, either, despite James Spader's quiet intensity, and the villain is just creepy in a banal way.

The --no spoilers-- mystery premise is interesting, if not exactly original, but it still boils down to being an action survival thriller in space. Still, the blue and purple thing is really nice to look at.

Ps. Oh! Vanessa Marshall voices the computer. I didn't even recognize her. I swear, that woman had the most naturally wide range of any female voice actress I know of. Great performance and absolutely silky and sultry.

Heal thyself, doctor.

The back story to Supernova is actually more interesting than the studio cut of the film that is available to view. Director's coming and going, one (Walter Hill) taking his name off the credits, butchery by studio interference, different endings, different planned thematics, shelved for two years and etc. Supernova was a messy production and sadly it shows, making Walter Hill's original cut (unavailable) the Magnificent Ambersons of the sci-fi genre.

Plot, in the skew-whiff edited version we are fed here, is basically a riff on Ridley Scott's Alien. Space dudes up in space take on board a too good to be true hitch-hiker dude, which is a bad idea. Sadly it's all very dull, yet strangely you can see that in amongst the mess, and the often used diversion tactic of Robin Tunney's breasts, there was a very good film here. Brains and effects work to light up the screen, some sexy sizzle marrying up to the tension up there in the galaxy, James Spader on wonderfully broody and heroically damaged form, and some belting deleted scenes on the DVD. But, it's not to be, so the studio should be ashamed of themselves, even if it isn't quite the ultimate stinker it has been painted as. But! Super it is not, in any shape or form. 5/10