Synopsis:

Somewhere in the deepest parts of space a distress call is sent to the medical frigate Nightingale. Unable to reach the source of the call by conventional methods, the Nightingale and her crew proceed via a Hyper-Space Dimensional Jump. Once on scene they realize that they have jumped into the orbit of a dying world on the verge of collapsing into a Blue Giant- (a Black hole only Blue) The mining colony that sent the distress call however, is nowhere to be found. All that remains is the "son" of a miner that knew the Nightingale's Chief Medical officer as played by Angela Bassett. Slowly but surely, the truth of the situation begins to unravel and the crew of the Nightingale find themselves under siege by an alien force of unknown destructive potential.

Audio/Video:

The audio for Supernova is very nicely done! The 5.1 platform literally blows you away. The center is perfectly delineated and the surrounds are extremely active. The sub is put to tremendous effect and its LFE is sweet. The video for the film is pretty crystalline in and of itself! The colors are rich and true. The blacks of space are incredibly dark and well represented. The flesh tones were difficult to assess considering the extensive use of blues and whites and the reds associated with the Supernova. The film was presented in a beautiful widescreen format that showed no transfer errors that I could detect. In all both the audio and video for the feature were extremely well done.

Extras:

The extras on the disc consist of one of the film's trailers as well as 20 minutes of unused deleted scenes. Including an alternate ending and opening sequence. I think I liked the alternate ending better than the one used in the film and found that to be a decent segment. The balance of the other scenes were interesting but I don't think that they would have lent anything to the film in the way of plot or execution.

Overall:

This has got to be the most panned film of 1999. Even the director wouldn't allow his name to be associated with the film's final print so the alias "Thomas Lee" was used to round out the film's credits. Is Supernova that bad? Not really. It's not an excellent film and it's certainly predictable but, when you step into this genre, there's precious little ground that hasn't been covered. This film borrows from just about every Sci-Fi film ever made. It assembles those elements not too terribly convincingly and then throws them at you with some really great looking CGI effects. Kind of like Mission to Mars. I have to admit, I went into this film thinking it would be a stinker. With my expectations so low, I was pleasantly surprised while watching the movie. There's no character development, and the dialogue isn't the best but for a no brainer, it's worth a Saturday night rental at least. Take it for what it is and I think you may even find it somewhat enjoyable. Rent it