Wing Commander

I finally gave into my curiosity and rented "Wing Commander" last night... and I found myself kinda... you know... liking it.

It is NOT great cinema or great science fiction -- everyone likes to climb all over this movie for scientific errors and not being close enough to the Wing Commander games. Well, scientific inaccuracies don't bug me (I'm an English major!), and I never played the Wing Commander game. Maybe that's the secret to enjoying this movie -- if you take it completely on its (meager) merits, it's not all that bad. It's nowhere near as good as classics like "Star Wars" or even somewhat similar films like "The Last Starfighter" or "Starship Troopers," but it entertained me. I dunno, sometimes you don't need your horizons challenged, you just want to sit back and watch aliens get blow'd up real good, you know?

I consider this a guilty pleasure.

In the 27th century Earth is at war with the Kilrathi Empire. During an attack on an Earth space base, the Kilrathi capture a Navcom unit that will allow their ships to jump directly to Earth and attack before defences can be prepared. Earth turns to Starship Tiger Claw and it's small crew of fighters to stop the assault and ensure that the Kilrathi cannot attack Earth unannounced.

I haven't played the game, seen the game or even know anything about the game – so I'm relatively open and had no images of what the film `should' look like. I've read other reviews and have noticed many focus on the factual errors (like the anti-gravity bulldozers) and the spaceship design. Yes, these were poor things but they are not the only reason why this wasn't very good.

The `plot' seemed to require a history with the game – it was full of nonsense about pilgrims, wars etc, little of which was explained and made me feel like it was my fault for not knowing! Secondly the film felt like a game at parts. I mean that we had some action scenes then we had shots of Admirals talking that felt like it was an interlude between missions on a game. It certainly didn't feel like a scene in a movie.

The effects are a little daft but the WW2 designs are actually quite cool despite being totally impractical and unlikely. The space battles lack tension and simply aren't exciting in the least. The plot clichés are all over the place , ranging from loser come good to a poor love interest aspect.

Prinze Jr should not be allowed to make films if this is all the screen presence he can muster up. He is as vacuous as the space around him and it's hard to care for him. However he shines when beside Burrows who brings a new definition to the word `wooden'. I hate Lillard but at least he brings some energy to the film – he's still irritating but at least he's trying hard! Prochnow is actually alright and rises above the material. The WW2 theme continues in the mainly British cast. This is a little weird because the leads are mostly Yanks. It's also worrying to see actors like Suchet, Warner and several others hawking their wares in this sort of film. The support cast is deep in familiar faces from British TV and film – including the lead of Young Americans and Don Gilet. The only actress that really caught my eye was Ginny Holder who played a sexy love interest as Rosie. But she's black, and a side kick of sorts, and a love interest – so how long do we think that she'll survive?

Overall who cares about the WW2 design or the fact that the ship design is silly or that factual errors are all over the place. These are not reasons the film is bad – no. The poor acting, poor plot and dull `action' scenes that lack tension – these are the things that make this film bad and well worth avoiding apart from the pretty Holder.

First of all, I avoided this movie when it was first released because of the bad reviews. I never played the game so I had no idea what to expect.

I should know better...

I saw this movie for the first time on DVD, sat down with a low expectation, and cranked up my Dolby Digital 5.1 sound system. Was I ever BLOWN away! It was more than I expected and the characters were not as "forgettable" as some critics said. I found the performances of Tcheky Kanyo (Paladin) and David Warner (Admiral Tolwyn) were memorable. Saffron Burrows (Angel) was great, except that she handled her "crisis" at the end rather badly. But overall the movie was a treat. I would recommend it for anyone to at least rent this and check it out!

Wing Commander is for sure no hidden gem nor a masterpiece of the art of sci-fi but provides easy pop-corn cinema with some good old space fights. Production is okay (but looks very outdated compared to modern works), acting too. Interesting not only for those who played the game but for everyone who needs a dose of space war. Give Wing Commander a try if you like such stuff like Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica, Starship Troopers, Ender's Game and the like. Last note: the use of ballistics instead of laser guns gives the fights an extra special "vibe".

This is not a Academy Award winner, nor is it an example of fine acting, nor is it a riveting plot with significant ties to philosophy, life, God, blah blah blah blah ... it's an action/sci-fi movie, so please leave your brain at door and just enjoy this for what it is.

I'm a fan of the Starship Troopers type genre (book was first, movie later) - lots of action, leave brain at door, watch the effects, enjoy the 2 hours of reckless fun! This film, like Starship and others like it, is *just* a fun film to enjoy! I never played the game - and this is the crux of my review - I played something else that seems to predate Wing Commander: "Descent: Freespace - The Great War". I couldn't help but think that there was SO much reference to everything about Freespace, it wasn't funny. The ships, the enemy, jump points, literally everything. It was like watching a movie of the game I just played. BTW, I still play Freespace from time to time - it's good fun.

I did briefly enjoy the "role reprisal" of Jürgen Prochnow in "Das Boot" - "reload tubes 1 and 2, fire when ready": said almost the same line in both movies.

Anyway, I enjoyed it; give it another go and see!