Wing Commander (1999)

just watch it!

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

I admit to never having played the "Wing Commander" games. I might have, but I'm probably just thinking about another video game with live-action cutscenes. The only reason I'm not giving this a lower score is because I'm not a fan of the series. This must have hit a lot harder with those poor guys. The movie tells the story about people in space fighting aliens and that's about it. It was directed by Chris Roberts which changed a lot from the game even though Chris Roberts MADE the game.The worst character is this Maniac guy as he's so obnoxious and probably has the worst acting of anyone there. It's mostly just nothing but people sitting around and talking and even the battle scenes are incredibly dull. It doesn't help that the CGI looks fake. I wasn't able to follow the plot well simply because I was so uninvested I didn't really try. From what I heard, when Chris Roberts first saw the finished film, he actually CRIED. The aliens look like green bipedal tigers. *1/2

In the distant future, humanity is threatened by enemy aliens called the Kilrathi who have stolen a device that allows them to travel through worm holes in space, allowing them the chance launch a deadly surprise attack on planet Earth any time soon. A fighter squadron are the last hope. Two young bucks called Maverick and Maniac, along with female wing commander Angel lead the fight-back.Wing Commander is one of that unloved subset of movies that was based around a video game. I think it's only fair to say that this has rarely proved to be a winning idea. I personally haven't even heard of the game Wing Commander but suspect that it had little in the way of narrative impetus for a movie plot-line to easily be constructed around. In effect, this feels like a space adventure based around the plot of an old World War II fighter pilot yarn. It has the clichéd characters and basic idea that could just as easily be used for a film of that type. This one is typical of many sci-fi space adventures of the late 90's in that it is completely bland with workmanlike special effects and almost nothing to differentiate it from the crowd. The action scenes are quite tedious to be honest and the screenplay is highly mediocre. The film is not helped very much by having Freddie Prinze Jr and Matthew Lillard star as the two central heroes; they seriously fail to convince in these roles and are far too light-weight. There is a decent international cast of respected actors in many of the periphery roles but each and every one of the parts they play are what I would term 'exposition characters', i.e. people who turn up to say something bland but plot-forwarding (sort of like actors in a TV hospital soap opera). Finally, we have very poorly defined and ridiculous looking aliens (who look like comedy cats). They are hardly on screen at all in any case, so much so that it is hard really caring much about them.I wouldn't say this film is really terrible exactly but it is an extremely underwhelming experience. You really need to be a fairly forgiving sci-fi nut to get too much out of this one I reckon.

I have played all 5 of the video games, and if you were to take all of the cut scenes from them and make a movie. It would have been much better than this garbage!! This movie could have been awesome, there was so much character and information in the game from which to draw. However, they just blew it. The movie was slow, which the game wasn't. The characters were boring except and unbelievable. With the Exception of the character "Maniac", who actually more crazy in the movie that he was in the game, this picture had no life. They actually had the right guy playing Maniac for the time.However, I would advise not watching this disappointing movie. The Karathi look fake, they brought in extra characters and ships that didn't belong in the opening movie and killed them off, they just all around blew the movie with it lethargic pace.

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!