Wing Commander

Rating:
Summary: Much wasted potential, but can be enjoyed
Review: Chris Roberts' big-screen adaptation of his legendary Wing Commander series (the quintissential "space combat simulator" created by Chris and Erin Roberts) is farcry the WC I hoped to see.

Let's get the atrocious and the merely bad out of the way first: The film is not particularly true to its source mythology, which is tragic. Kevin Droney provides the screen story and script, and both are unfortunately sub-par. The Kilrathi have gone from feline to reptilian? and generally far more superficial and bland than they ever were in the game. Even the legendary Tiger's Claw is renamed to just the Tiger Claw, which both practically and grammatically makes no sense. The story itself throws an irrelevant and unnecessary sub-plot about "Pilgrim" space explorers into the mix, and the script itself shamelessly steals from far superior World War II films. To say some of the dialogue is cliche would be too much praise; I can recall two moments in the film worthy of being called good lines.

Next, we have Roberts' flawed vision his own creation. As games, Wing Commander brought classic, WWII intensity to a high-tech future. I'm not sure why, but Roberts' had production designer Peter Lamont (a talented veteran of many Bond films) scrap almost everything futuristic. Despite taking place far into our future, Wing Commander features computers that look like my father's old Macintosh Classic, planes that look like the disgusting marriage of the A-10 Warthog with a WWI bi-plane, and a fighter cockpits and carriers that make those found in Top Gun seem a pipedream in comparison. Overall, this excessive vying for an "authentic" World War II feel is what really hurts WC; moments like the crew quieting down as an enemy destroyer "pings" (a la Das Boot or U-571) its sonar over them IN SPACE just ruin the film. And the film's physics? Well, let's just say they make Star Wars look like a NASA simulation.

The film's script managed to draw a remarkably talented cast, including Freddie Prinze Junior, Saffron Burrows, Tcheky Karyo, Jurgen Prochnow, and goofball Matthew Lillard. Unfortunately, Roberts' talents seem to have atrophied since Wing Commander IV: The Price Of Freedom (which was more a movie than a PC game), as the performances he gets here are of an inferior caliber. Prinze is acceptable and sympathetic as the lead, while Burrows looks like she'd rather be filing her income taxes for most of the film. Karyo stands out among the cast, though is disgustingly miscast; Taggart, a Scotsman through and through in the games, is not renamed for Karyo, and sadly even has a line in French, further destroying any coherent credibility in the script.

So are there any good moments in Wing Commander? Actually, yes. David Arnold provided the film's title theme, and while Kevin Kiner manages to hack up the rest of the film's score, Arnold's theme is majestic, memorable, and far more heroic and impressive than it has any right to be given its subject film. The special effects, despite a few scenes that try too hard to blend techniques, are by and large acceptable, and even impressive here and there. The film's opening title sequence is sheer brilliance, between Arnold's gorgeous theme and the quick "Wing Commander History 101" provided by the background voiceovers. While there are far too few "dogfights" for a film of this sort, the few that do show up are fun, despite Roberts' anemic direction. And if you can overlook all the glaring mistakes made in the conception and production, WC is at heart a fun, old-fashioned adventure.

What funny about Wing Commander is that if it were released as a made-for-TV, Sci-Fi Channel special, it would have worked, and in fact might have been the mother of all TV movies. Unfortunately, it was released as a feature length film, and not surprisingly flopped pathetically. What's saddest about Wing Commander is that the fourth game in the series reached a point of having such an elaborate plot and production team that it was almost a motion picture in itself. Yet whatever talent Roberts showed in The Price Of Freedom is lost in this version of Wing Commander, which between Droney's poor writing and Roberts misguided direction, sets its course straight into a black hole and doesn't pull out in time.

Rating:
Summary: "Not as bad as it's made out to be, but not great either!"
Review: Wing Commander, which is of course based on the popular video game series centers around a war between humans and the Kilrathi, a malevolent alien race bent on destroying earth several centuries in the future. The heroes are a rag tag group of fighter pilots led by Lt. Blair (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and his sidekick "Maniac" (Matthew Lillard). The plot revolves around the Kilrathi discovering a means of "Warp Jumping" into earth territory and the humans desperate attempt to prevent them from doing so. I have never played the video game but have always been a fan of sci-fi. A word to the wise, if you go into this movie expecting a Star Wars like extravaganza, you will be dissapointed. If you go in with the mindset of it being a low budget sci-fi "B" movie, you will be pleseantly surprised. In other words this movie is neither great nor horrible. The special effects are so-so, the plot is very thin and cliched, and the acting with the exception of a few characters is only sub-par. Basically, it's not going to win any awards. However, this can still be a very entertaining and interesting movie for the open minded. It's kind of cheesy in a old fashioned b movie style, but that's kind of cool at times. If you put physics, realism and technicalities aside, the movie works on a basic good vs. evil level. The action sequences are entertaining (although every one is a ripoff of either Top Gun, Star Wars, or Das Boot). If you are a fan of any of the above movies you may enjoy this movies alternative take on them. Harmless sci-fi romp that is good if you have nothing else to do on a Saturday afternoon.

Positives:
1. Warp Jumping Idea and special effects associated with it (much cooler and more realistic than the "Hyperspace" or "Warp Speed" used in Star Wars or Star Trek).
2. Battleship Designs (very militaristic, realistic and functional looking unlike the Millenium Falcon or the Enterprise)
3. Multi-national and Multi-ethnic characters representing humanities unity in the future (British, American, French, Irish, Black, White, and Asian all working together to kill an alien threat. That's definetely cool.)
4. Sexual equality in the future, despite the friendly competative banter (in the future we have gotten over most of the double standards associated with the sexes. Here, women are equal fighter pilots, commanders and even sexual "players" as men. Basically they have balls and are still sexy).

Negatives:
1. Plot (kind of weak and unoriginal. The aliens destroying the earth thing has been a mainstay in Sci-fi serials since the 50's and the fighter pilots and battleships in space has been done often and better by some more notable sci-fi movies and shows.)
2. Acting (especially by the star of the movie 'Prinze' was pretty lame. He is just not believable as a hot shot fighter pilot. He should stick to brainless teen slasher or comedy movies)
3. The Bad guys (These Kilrathi have to be some of the most rediculous looking aliens seen onscreen. They are not scary or threatening in any way and remind you of the aliens in "Galaxy Quest". At least that film was making a mockery of Sci-fi, but this one actually takes itself seriously)
4. Any Special Effects involving weapons (It's extremely dissapointing that in 500 years, we are still using projectile weapons in the form of machine guns and cruise missiles. Where are all of the lasers, plasma weapons, and photon torpedoes? Even the aliens are using machine guns! Maybe they were trying to be original or something, but with the exception of the "Skipper" cloaked missile, the weapons were lame.
5. Obvious scientific and physics errors (I think that most people with a high school level education know by now that sound doesn't not travel in a vacume. Because most other sci-fi shows often ignore this principle I can make exceptions for the sound of the engines, guns, and explosions. But what the hell was all of that sonar pinging and whispering about? "Quiet or they will hear us". No they won't! Sonar wouldn't work in space. THEY ARE NOT ON A FRIGGIN SUBMARINE OKAY, THEY'RE IN SPACE!)

Rating:
Summary: "You die, you never existed"
Review: The above quote, which is said by supposed military personnel, shows how much this movie takes its characters - and in fact, story - seriously. But this is not a real sci-fi movie. It's more like a combination of different sci-fi and war movies. Following examples:

1. A destroyer hunt scene stolen right from "Das Boot." (complete with a beeping noise!) Jurgen Prochnow must've felt very much at home then.
2. A dare game between two pilots that involves one of them dying, stolen right from "The Blue Max."
3. Scenes of pilots scouting through space stolen almost shot for shot from "Battlestar Galactica."
4. A big ship chasing a whee-little ship that looks like the opening of "Star Wars Episode IV."
5. A scene involving a ship firing broadside taken from any given 19th century naval war film. (complete with a "Fire broadside Mr. [insert name]" line)

Granted, I've seen worse-case-scenarios before (maybe I haven't) but the characters weren't all that great either. Freddie Prince Jr couldn't have been a worst choice for a hero, particulary in this movie. The whole time he walks around with that smug look on his face talking in a stupid voice like he was abducted straight from a teen bopper movie. I also love how they try to make Maniac's girlfriend dying such a big deal - all we know is that they slept together five minutes before the battle, I don't really feel too connected with him. The best actor in this whole thing is David Warner, but he's about five minutes and most of that is his voice on a radio.

The graphics weren't all that great either, I'm afraid, and yes even for the time this movie came out. They must have taken the graphics straight from the game. I'm not kidding. It looks like that. It's even worse in the scene where we zoom in on Freddie while he's looking out a window - you have to see it to understand it. And the enemies were extremely laughable: they are giant cats, complete with claws growing out of their fingers. The costumes for said aliens look like something out of a 1970's sci-fi film...but worst. By the way, how many ships did the alien fleet have? It was supposedly their main attack force but there are only about four or five ships. Maybe six.

Really lackluster film that doesn't boggle the mind one bit. Even for mindless sci-fi fun, I wouldn't suggest it.

Rating:
Summary: The Iceman (doesn't) Cometh
Review: As a battle-hardened PC gamer, I tried to put all predjudices aside about Wing Commander (the Movie) and approach it from an objective standpoint. I would say that the movie failed to impress on 3 aspects. First, the movie is not true to the venerable WC game series on any level. Second, it's not good sci-fi. Third, Freddie Prinze Jr. is terribly miscast as Christopher Blair.

With regard to the first point, I could have lived with the movie taking some liberties with the game series had they been thoughtfully rendered. However, I am wondering why Chris Roberts (the creator of the game) would allow such a maiming of otherwise interesting characters and objects in the WC universe. So many reviewers have pointed out these inaccuracies in the characters, but failed to as the critical question "Why?"! For instance, why is Taggart no longer a Scotsman? Why is Deveraux no longer French? Does it add something to the plot to change thier ethnicities?

There are further inaccuracies that will be equally annoying to the diehard WC gamer. Why is the ship's name "Tiger Claw" in the movie, when in the orignial game series, it was the "Tiger's Claw"? Why is Maniac (Lillard) depicted as a loveavle wildman, when his original PC character was an obnoxious coward that was so fun to hate? Where is the "Iceman" from the original Tiger's Claw? To reiterate, I don't want to be accused of hair-splitting here, but I didn't see any valid reason why original characters had to be maimed or otherwise excluded from the movie.

The second, and most important, point is that this was not good sci-fi. Practically the first 45 minutes of the movie are dedicated to establishing the identity of the Blair and Marshall characters, while the nature of relations between the Humans and Kilrathi are addressed as some kind of subplot. This movie claims to be a movie about fighter combat in deep space a la Battlestar Galactica...where's the beef?!

There's no space combat for the first 45 minutes of the movie, then we get one major battle that lasts for a few minutes and then the movie starts to look like Das Boot in space, with the carrier-ship playing cat and mouse while trying to undergo clandestine repairs. The only other battle in the movie does not involve fighters, but two capital ships squaring off (which is kind of cool), but still no more air-to-air dogfights.

Top the lack of action off with a general failure to develop the details of the Kilrathi/Human conflict, and you don't have any real story at all. Ultimately, the Blair (Prinze) character is explained as having some sort of special gene that makes him a better pilot than others, but we really never see him prove it to the extent that will impress.

On another brief note, the special effects are also a bit lacking. Am I wrong, or do those fighters look a bit too much like Norelco razors with wings?

Finally, while the Blair character is supposed to be the protagonist here, Prinze just does not have the on-screen presence of a Mark Hamill or Dirk Benedict (or even the dude who played Buck Rogers). I liked him in Summer Catch, but, alas, he seems a bit one-dimensional as an actor. Lillard has more charisma. So, honk if you agree: "Maybe Mainiac should be the Colonel!"! (Inside Joke for all the WC 4 purists).

Rating:
Summary: Tchéky Karyo
Review: I got this movie ...on VHS. Yeah its a good watch,...

Rating:
Summary: You can lead a director to water...
Review: Some of the space battle scenes are pretty good but the film as a whole is blech!!
How could they screw this one up?? I mean, did anyone involved with the movie play any version of W.C.? The fighters in the movie look ridiculous and Freddie Prinz Jr. was a terrible choice for the lead. I love the scene where the good guys are hiding on an asteroid and a Kilrathi battlecruiser is passing over. Jurgan Prochnow tells everyone to be quiet since any sound might give them away....IN SPACE?? Hoo-boy, what a dumb technical gaff.