Wing Commander (1999)

Memorable, crazy movie

Good movie but grossly overrated

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

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

It seems that there are a lot of people out there that never really liked this movie, but as far as I am concerned it wasn't all that bad. Granted it was based on a computer game in which Mark Hamil, among others, played starring roles, those obviously when the film came out minus Mark Hamil people were incredibly disappointed. Personally, which I had played the game and enjoyed it, I did not expect it to be identical to the game, and also noting that the creator of the Wing Commander franchise directed it, I at least knew that it was going to have the original creative juices flowing into it.Since Wing Commander is a space flight simulator where you fly space fighters around and shoot up Kilrathi, that is in effect was I was going to expect from this film as well, namely lots of dog fights between Kilrathi and Humans. Also the main characters from the game (and the only ones that I can remember were Paladin and Christopher Blair, though I suspect that there were a lot of others as well which I recognised from the game).The thing that I really appreciated about the film was that a lot of the craft had a very World War II feeling to them, especially the raptors, that basically looked like World War II fighter planes (without the propeller because propellers, and in fact jet engines, don't work in space). Unfortunately you don't see much of the Kilrathi, and when you do they are only briefly shown before they are gunned down, however what you do see are their ships. I guess this is because we are simply following the main characters, who are all humans, around and only being able to see what that see.As I said I liked this film, not only because it was science-fiction and had a fair share of dog fights, but also because of the way they created the setting. I also remember seeing this movie with a friend of my who was also a big fan of the games (though I only ever played one of them).

I've seen a few movies about some serious conflicts in space, this movie looks the same but a little bit better. I'm not talking Star Wars here, but this movie is definitely not a train wreck as people say, it has a good script, it has some good action and a good love story. Check this out, a rookie pilot fights aliens, becomes a hero and gets a nice girl at the end of the day. My only problem with this flick is editing, I think that there were a lot of pieces left behind and cut, so if the studio puts out a director's cut - I am definitely buying it.You won't waste your evening watching this one, even your girlfriend can come along, after all this movie stars Freddie Prinze Jr.

I love SFI own just about every SF movie made and have read upwards of 5000 SF titles. Wing Commander is a brilliant work of pulp war fiction based on WW2. Star ships with carrier decks. fighters with wings. torpedoes. Depth charging. Fighter cannons shooting bullets 'in space'. Hand loaded gun mounts.And the science/.. how cheesy can you get.The acting is above par for this type of flick. Prochnow is good and David Suchet outdoes all as captain.. what a great actor.It all works.. And brilliantly. great music.. real nice graphics for the day -still stands up well today-Star wars and the An*l Anti-SF BS Galactica bend over Wing Commander is hereMY all time favorites boys own SF rompNic