Retrospective: Wing Commander (1999)
Dragan Antulov
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2005
Hollywood in 1990s provided many arguments to those
claiming that movies based on video games were bad idea. On
the other hand, there was MORTAL KOMBAT to prove those
critics wrong, and, even more importantly, WING
COMMANDER, extremely popular space combat simulation
which, in its latter instalments, successfully merged interactive
videogame with live movie-like action. Because of that, it
seemed like WING COMMANDER is videogame most suitable
to become successful feature film. Chris Roberts, who had
created the game, became director of feature film version in
1999.
The plot begins in 25th Century when humanity, after five
centuries of spreading through galaxy, stumbles into hostile
alien race known as Kilrathi. This leads to war during which
Kilrathi manage to get hold of NAVCOM, super-secret space
navigation device of Terran Confederation Navy and thus
become able to attack Earth before main forces of TCN could do
anything about it. The only thing standing between Earth and
Kilrathi is "Tiger's Claw", TCN ship commanded by Paul
Gerald (played by Jürgen Prochnow). Gerald receives his orders
together with two fresh pilots - Todd "Maniac" Marshall
(played by Matthew Lillard) and Christopher "Maverick" Blair
(played by Freddie Prinze Jr.). Before the actual combat, Blair,
whose mother was Pilgrim - human genetically altered in order
to travel through space, must fight racial prejudice and hostility
of Jeanette "Angel" Deveraux (played by Saffron Burrows),
fighter wing commander who happens to be attractive woman.
Like many films based on video games, WING COMMANDER
turned into disaster - original fan base was too limited for
commercial sucess, while critics universally dropped vitriol on
it. Main problem of WING COMMANDER is the one shared by
many films based on video games - lack of interaction. Video
games are popular because they allow players to create their
own adventures and be heroes themselves. Without that
interaction all those adventures are reduced to poor script, one-
dimensional characters and abysmal dialogue. Presence of
young and not particularly inspired actors like Prinze and
Lillard doesn't help either, especially when they get compared
with their over-qualified colleagues like Prochnow, Burrows,
David Warner, David Suchet and Tcheky Karyo. All fine acting
talents try very hard, but they still can't put some life into their
characters. On the other hand, special effects are passable and
film's relatively short running time makes WING
COMMANDER slightly better than its atrocious reputation.
That, however, isn't enough to rescue WING COMMANDER
from sinking into well-deserved oblivion.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
Review written on March 31st 2005
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
http://film.purger.com
Film Reviews in Croatian/Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom
http://draxreview.blogspot.com
Draxblog Movie Reviews
http://www.ofcs.org
Online Film Critics Society
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X-RT-RatingText: 3/10