

Supernova: tom & jerry in space

A good eighty-percent of science fiction in the movies owes everything to
horror. Yes, Alien was great, but structurally, what's the real difference
in it and, say, Halloween? Event Horizon and Hellraiser? Yet we tend to
privilege sci-fi over such horror, if only the slightest bit, largely
because the emptiness of space allows one thing horror always has to work so
hard for: isolation. Whereas most of the final girls in horror could just up
and leave town, get themselves out of danger, (if they weren't morally
obliged to stop Jason, etc) Ripley's forever stuck on that ship. To leave is
to die, whereas to stay is to at least have a chance. Meaning her staying
on-board doesn't require any suspension of disbelief, as it often does in
horror, where you're often tempted to talk to the screen, tell these
characters to just leave already. Ripley can't. Supernova is no different
here. It's essentially a horror movie set in space, albeit a horror movie
with James Spader, which ups the ante considerably.

Too, instead of opening with a bang, Supernova starts rather thematically,
with a 22nd (or so) century rerun of a Tom & Jerry episode. Initially, it
looks to be just fluff, something we can share with these future humans, a
comical bridge from us to them, which isn't an uncommon device in sci-fi, as
it allows us both to recognize these people and then identify with them. But
director Thomas Lee uses it a little differently. As things unfold, Tom &
Jerry seems to function almost as a comment on the genre, on how ridiculous
it is that Michael Myers (Tom, here) just keeps getting up, no matter how
cleverly he's killed. He's no normal cat, but of the cartoon-variety. The
same goes for the 'bad' guy in Supernova, the more-than-human, Lost
Boys-looking stalker (Peter Facinelli) hellbent on wiping this crew out.
Granted, he does get to talk, unlike Tom, but they're essentially the same
character.

Which means, yes, we need a Jerry. Enter Nick Vanzant, (Spader) recovering
junkie, able pilot, on his first mission with the aptly-named Nightengale,
an interstellar EMT, complete with the (by now generic) surly doctor,
(Angela Basset, looking like Strange Days) token sex-kitten, (Robin Tunney;
even Galaxy Quest had one) disposable captain, lovable programmer, an
android, a female HAL, ('Sweetie") and Yerzy, (Lou Diamond Phillips) who's
strangely showing some grey at first. Don't fret, though; his greyness is
written in, or, better yet, telegraphed. Yes, you can figure it all out a
third of the way into it. But still, it's fun. For one, there's the ship,
which has the coolest way of 'bending' space since Dune, probably. Too,
there's all the Black Hole stuff going on, how the Nightengale gets trapped
in the gravity well of a blue giant, only has so long, etc. And finally,
there's the artifact, which turns out to work much like the sphere in
Sphere, and is just as important to existence as the fifth element was in
Fifth Element.

However. As important as the artifact is made out to be, still, when it's
all said and done and the people who make it out alive have made it out
alive, the universe doesn't really feel saved, mostly because it never
really felt threatened in the first place. Supernova would likely have been
better off keeping the danger local, only putting the crew in jeopardy.
Granted, it makes for a great trailer, but it results in some disappointment
in the theater. Too, it all happens so fast. Not that 90 minutes isn't an
appropriate time for a cerebral action-thriller heavily dependent upon
effects, but it doesn't feel quite long enough for Supernova. Or, rather,
Supernova feels rushed, makes you suspect a lot was left on the editing room
floor, though that likely wasn't the case. In all likelihood, even, the fact
of the matter is that a lot of it was likely left in the pen, when Supernova
was being written, which is too bad for Spader. He's great as usual, but
when it comes right down to the final scene, it's not Vanzant's Jerry-like
cleverness which saves the day, but brute strength. It was a disappointment
in Resurrection, and it's a disappointment here. On the upbeat, though,
Supernova does, in the closing frames, introduce some fluidless sex that
Cronenberg would have been proud of. Perhaps that's why Spader signed on. It
wasn't for the story, anyway.

(c)2000 Stephen Graham Jones, http://www.cinemuck.com