Star Command (1996)

Fantastic!

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Though I would have like to seen more of Chad and Morgan, and though the acting wasn't exactly Academy Award (it was a bit kitchy), this was a fun story with an interesting plot, watchable special effects, and a storyline that I always like (junior officer takes command and saves the day). Seeing the hero win by cleverness and bravery instead of a plot trick makes it worth watching. The bad guys were suitably evil to deserve their fate. There was probably an even better movie in here somewhere, but what we got was a lot of fun. I'd compare it to Midshipman's Hope by David Feintuch or On Basilisk Station by David Weber (though those are probably a cut above this movie in story). Seafort in Midshipman's Hope is a bit more doom ridden though, and that gets kind of old. The hero here is gets to actually enjoy the experience, finding his forte at last instead of washing out of the academy.

I'm not sure what they were going for when they created this movie, but i'll attempt to fathom it out for some. In the far future we find that a group of students are about to graduate a space academy. But if anyone has closely looked at the uniforms being shown during the first ten minutes, the students are in fact two different groups. Much like the military cadre was breaking down between two distinct ideologies before the outbreak of the civil war in the United States. As the story progresses we learn that there is the possibility of a civil war between two groups of humanity. One bent on exploration and peaceful mindset...and the other group which is bent on expansion by any means necessary.I also believe this was a failed pilot which never really took off. The show really did surround the youthful ensemble put together. I really didn't believe the character story arcs were ever that strong to begin with, and by the end was more of a coming of age film for the actors themselves and NOT the characters.And my worst comment will have to be for the space footage, with some of the worst spaceships and video toaster graphics I have ever seen to date. Well, besides the dragons from the Dungeons and Dragons, probably the worst flying tin cans I had a hard time believing could even fly in space.

What do you get if you take every space sci-fi cliche in the book, a limp story, mix with some pretty faces and Dynasty cast-off costumes? You get something pretty close to this - a truly awful movie that you just have to watch out of complete and utter disbelief. Which is a pity, as with a bit more thought and a lot less gloss this could have been very good. I have seen some cheesy movies in the past, but this was irridemable. Even MST3K would be embarrased to use this!

When i first heard about this movie, I thought it was going to be another total Star Trek knockoff, but when I finally sat down and watched it, I was totally wrong. Now I may be the only person on the planet who liked it, but I have to say the best parts of this movie were Chad Everett and Jennifer Bransford. Chad's been a favorite actor of mine since I could walk, and Jennifer's portrayal of Ali had all the attitude I only wish I had(I'm really REALLY shy in real life).All in all I loved this movie, and I think UPN should re-air it soon so I can tape it :)