Wing Commander

Oh man, its just as god awfully cheesy as I remember. Its so bad its amazingly entertaining. To be fair, I enjoy the music and the actual lore and setting. The movie itself is well.... Scooby-Doo in space, but with horrible english accents.

i liked it

First of all, no, Wing Commander is not a great film. It has some problems, the most notable being the very underwhelming (to say the least) portrayal of the Kilrathi. However, this is not a terrible film, and if you are a certain type of sci-fi fan, it's not just passable but genuinely enjoyable. Anyone who says that this film is horrible is being a bit more pessimistic than necessary. For its target audience, it's good.The visual design, when it works, is very interesting. The opening title sequence, in particular, is simply one of the best that you will find in any such genre film, in my opinion. A truly captivating, beautiful creation. To give another visual example, the ship interiors feel like what deep space battleships would actually be like. That may be just the sort of niche quality that suggests an appeal to video gamers and/or sci-fi enthusiasts, but it ties into this film's atmosphere, which when you factor in the mostly excellent cast and solid script, is fairly realistic feeling.There is also a rather unique, compelling mythology at work in the background of this film's story. It may not be wholly original (I detect some influence from the novel Hyperion, for example) but as far as movies go, this one has a certain quality that sets it apart. On a basic level, yes it appeals to the fascination with being a starfighter pilot in the vein of the first Star Wars film and the Wing Commander video game source material. But there is something more to it, something that is mostly untapped in sci-fi cinema.There is a great group of characters. I do not know how closely all of them tie into the games, but they feel like real people and again the cast is for the most part very good. Tcheky Karyo, Saffron Burrows, David Warner, Jurgen Prochnow. That's some real talent right there. And the presence of Hugh Quarshie can't help but lead me to note that Wing Commander is parsecs better than the Star Wars prequels in every way except for visual effects budget. The trio of fighter pilots consisting of lead Freddie Prinze Jr, Matthew Lillard and Ginny Holder play more into an "attractive teen movie" trope that takes away from the film just a little, but Holder and Lillard especially do a great job of generating some true emotional resonance in the heavy scenes.Problems? The Kilrathi, who should have been the frightening counterpoint to the human characters, mostly provide unseen menace and when they do make the screen, it is one of the biggest letdowns in any film. Also, some of the Rapier (starfighter) graphics are less than stellar. Those and a few other glitches are what kept this film from being solidly respectable, but they don't keep it from being a lot of fun nonetheless.I will say again that this is really one of the most unique-feeling sci-fi films that I have seen, and it fills a surprising gap in the number of similarly-themed movies about starfighter pilots. With a bigger budget and maybe a different lead actor, Wing Commander could have been something serious. As is, in spite of its flaws, it's a real gem of a genre film, and well worth checking out if you focus on the positives.

I liked it

So I bought this movie on a bit of whim. I bought it on DVD and then the Amazon rental came with it (some promo they are running - you get a free rental of the movie you just bought), so I do not have an opinion on the quality of the disc or any special features because I have not yet received it. But the movie... Oh the movie...I'm not much of a sci-fi fan or Freddie Prinze, Jr. fan, but I am a Matthew Lillard fan and I liked Star Trek (2009). So, taking that into account, the movie was not half bad. I had no idea there was a video game or series until I read the reviews on here, so I'm really taking the movie at face value, BUT having seen Star Trek and a few other sci-fi films (like Star Wars and Transformers) and TV shows (like Eureka and Firefly), this one was not an "A" movie. The acting was okay - FPJr overdid it just a tad and some of the scenes were just not really believable. They could have spent a little more time developing the relationships between the characters. All you really got was this revealing conversation and boom they're BFFs. In Lillard's and Ginny Holder's case, it wasn't even an entire conversation and boom they're lovers! Although it was fairly short, I liked Lillard's relationship with Holder, though. They kind of brought a little relief from the "space talk" and the "your father was a good/bad man" and all that drama FPJr had.Basically, this is your average space movie with aliens (although, again, having not seen the previous stuff on this, I had no idea they were even fighting aliens until about 9 minutes before the movie was over) and a complicated relationship between the male and female lead. They win, the aliens get destroyed and everybody (well, excluding those who died, of course) goes home. It was pretty good quality, as far as the film is concerned, but it WAS made in 1999, which just made everything click for me. It's not the green screen, computer animated stuff we've got in EVERY movie today. They had a little less to work with, but pulled it off. I liked it and feel it was worth my time.

Decent plot. Acting and aliens less than stellar at times but still like it.

This has been one of my favorites since it came out! The fact that it bears little to the videogame series is ok, once you sit back and decide to just love the characters!You've got some heavy hitters here: David Warner, Tchéky Karyo and Jürgen Prochnow to name a few, and of course, the awesome Matthew Lillard and even Freddie Prinze, Jr! The story is pretty similar to movies such as Run Silent, Run Deep, and Das Boot, but with enough character development to add some spice!There's something for everyone here: Overcoming prejudice and bias based on heritage; interracial romance; action; secret agents!; and even a hero who uses paranormal abilities to calculate jump trajectories by feel.Seriously, this movie amps up the excitement, hitting all the bullet points one needs for an enjoyable few hours of mindless entertainment. It's not one for hard science fiction (although the space battles, especially between ships of the line, are decent enough, from a physics standpoint.)I've always loved the subtle parts of this movie: the nihilistic attitude of how the pilots deal with comrades death by telling that anyone dies in action "never existed." The nods to how trusted Paladin really is, because he's a rogue, but his instincts are dead on. The diverse crew of the "Tiger Claw," which was pretty progressive for its time.On the surface, this seems a cheapish B-flick. It's much, MUCH more!Enjoy the story, the effects, and the fun of watching Matthew Lillard just chew through every scene he's in!

Kind of a B movie but it’s a great story.

This is not in the league of a film based on Arthur C. Clarke or Stanislaw Lem but that is not why I bought it. It gets me in the mood for a goodspace strategy game, one of my pleasures in life. The idea brought to life in this film of mapping into interstellar warfare WWII naval battles, including space hardware that recalls hardware of that era, is really clever and fires me up for 'one more turn and I will to to bed' in my space strategy games! Live long and conquer!

Good plot, all star cast, high production values and good fighter scenes... so what was off?The dialogue was often shallow and many characters were frankly juvenile, the acting felt rushed, continuity was weak and many details were skimpy or out-and-out botched. Shame the writers couldn't have got David Weber (Honourverse creator) to write: It's unrecognisable as a professional navy!That said I've seen it a few times and enjoy it each time. I played and enjoyed the original game (that had better depth to its dialogue). I am won over because of the underlying world building and combat carrier feel: The plot dynamics do work very nicely. But it is deeply flawed.See what you think; try before you buy

I was a big fan of the computer games - Wing Commander was the first game I bought for my 386 PC back in the day - so when I randomly ran into this film I immediately bought it.The acting and storyline were both good; although it was let down by trying to rush through too much near the end. It was fairly true to its computer game roots so won't disappoint avid players, but there were a few scenes where I was left thinking "that character wouldn't do that in the game!".As a DVD, it would benefit from re-mastering the sound a bit, and definitely expanding into some wide screen encodings. While I'm not going to give any spoilers in this review, I will say that you will miss a few important things if you "zoom" so that the screen is filled but the top and bottom are chopped off, and stretching horizontally just looks wrong. But if you're content to have black borders at the sides, the film is well worth watching for sci-fi fans and fans of the computer game series.

Like a non political pre curser to Starship Troopers or Enders Game. A computer game tie in that actually works, that's fun and the computer grafics don't jar.

i saw this movie a long time ago and loved it - Something made me think of it - so i ordered it to watch it again. Its a pity it missed the big time in the movie world. Its a cross between a few action sci-fi movies -but all come together well and i liked the story.It will be the first dvd i watch after christmas.