Wing Commander (1999) User Reviews

Not as bad as everyone says it is... but not as good either

[Oreolove · 5/10 · 30 June 2002]

I was intrigued, after hearing many different points of views on this movie, to go see it. So I go to this used tape store, (why rent it for $5 when you can buy it for $2?) and buy it. I just wanted to see which side I agreed with. Most people that stated their opinions, said that this movie was a waste of time. Other people said it was the best movie they've ever seen, but I'm guessing they were fans of the video game or the 1977 version of this movie, both of which I've never seen. To go straight to the point and make it easy for those who don't know whether to see it or not, I'll let you decide for yourself based on my opinion. So to make it simple I'll just say the good and bad stuff about it.

Bad Stuff:

~Freddie Prinze Jr. sucks at acting. There's no other way to put it. I got very bored watching his one expression and monotone voice.

~Right from the beginning, I thought the music was terrible. Music is supposed to drag you in from the beginning and give you a sense of what's coming, (think "Jaws.") This just made me feel like I was about to see Captain America.

~The alien make-up was so extremely ridiculous that they looked like overgrown house pets. Not scary at all.

~I got tired of hearing people state the obvious. "Hey! I think something's wrong!" Well, aren't you the sharp one. The exploding bombs and loud "red alert" beeping didn't give it away, did it?

~The story had it's boring moments. There were parts I didn't follow and soon didn't even care, because I had gotten so lost by then it didn't matter.

~*This may or may not be a downside* I wasn't sure if the accents in this movie were taken from the video game or original, but it was way too weird. We had a Scottish guy, a ton of Englishmen, Americans, and some Asians. How did they all get on this one ship?

Good Stuff:

~Matthew Lillard did a fabulous job. I'm so used to seeing him act like an a**hole, (no offense, think "Scream.") that I wasn't expecting the serious performance he gave. It blew me away how serious he had to be in some scenes, and he pulled it off beautifully. (Although I gave the movie 5 stars, I would like to give his performance a 10.)

~The plotline, although confusing, did have it's certain interesting moments. I don't know which came first, Starship Troopers or this, but I have a feeling one of them is a rip-off of the first. However, it certainly had it's moments that put you in suspense.

~The special effect were great. It reminded me a lot of Star Wars. And the battle scenes were exciting.

~The rest of the cast didn't do too bad a job of acting. I was able to feel sorry for most of them.

I gave this movie a 5. If you have nothing better to do, I suggest you watch it. I certainly have seen worse, (read my review of "Jeepers Creepers.") If you liked "Starship Troopers" this is a movie for you. However, if you want something more out of a Sci-Fi movie of this sort, I suggest "Pitch Black." *****/10

Strictly By-The-Numbers Space Opera/Coming of Age Potboiler

[lemon_magic · 5/10 · 27 August 2005]

It's easy to forget the fact that "Wing Commander" is a decent film with professional level acting, writing and production values -even if this is strictly by-the-numbers hackwork - until you see a really dumb movie in the Sci Fi Space Opera genre such as "Fatal Conflict","Star Crash" or "Message From Space". Compared to Grade D efforts like those turkeys, "Wing Commander" is at least smooth and easy to take and offers enough eye candy for the fan boy who can't get enough of his space fighters, laser beams and alien races.

But in comparison to the Big Boys of the genre ("Star Wars", the "Star Trek" franchise) or even under-sung classics ("Enemy Mine","The Last Starfighter", etc), "Wing Commander" is a nothing more than a wanna-be.

Almost every story element and character of "Wing Commander" seems to be lifted whole from other, more original efforts. The Kilrathi seem to be taken directly from Larry Niven's "Man/Kzin War" stories. The Prinze character is a Rent-A-Center version of Luke Skywalker. His hotheaded best friend is an amalgamation of every sidekick EVER in Space Opera along with quite a bit of "Mongoose" from "Top Gun" thrown in. His flight commander is the female character from "Top Gun" and VERY little else. One of the battle scenes (where the Tiger Claw must hide from the Kilrathi fleet) is a blatant rip-off/tribute to every WWII submarine flick ever made. And the list goes on.

There is "A" level professional level talent involved here (and yes, I count Freddie Prinze as a "A" level, even if I don't care for his screen persona), but they all seem to be in in purely for in it the paycheck. Seriously, how can you have Jurgen Prochnow, David Warner and David Suchet - each of whom have carried entire movies - and not produce something memorable? The answer: "Paycheck." How can you have talented, interesting character actors like Lillard and Karyo in almost every scene and completely waste them? I don't know, but I suspect: "Paycheck."

Even as hackwork, though, the movie is OK...kind of the Space Opera equivalent of the dozens of "Shaw Brothers/Golden Harvest" martial arts pieces which the USA Network used to air on "Kung Fu Theater". Uncritical fans of the genre will still find all the standard elements they expect from these movies, and a few polished touches here and there:The clunky, bristly designs of the space ships makes them look like heavy duty battle-wagons, not space age toys. The script does generate a little suspense here and there with its depictions fleets manoeuvrings to get the best advantage. David Warner and David Suchet are incapable of delivering a dull or inept line. Tcheky Karyo's light touch and charming accent are almost enough to save any scene he is in. Lillard is his usual fire-hose of manic energy, even if his character is a complete tool. The depiction of the Kilrathi warships popping one by one out of the 'warp hole', only to be torn to pieces by weapons of the human fleet, has a nice heft and rhythm to it that is viscerally satisfying.

But whatever you do, do NOT come into "Wing Commander" expecting anything new or fresh, or even very impressive.

Trust your part-Pilgrim instincts and steer clear!

[La Gremlin · 3/10 · 23 November 2001]

I know this guy who works at a multiplex and is a movie maniac. He insists that "Wing Commander" is the worst movie ever made, so when I saw that SciFi Channel was going to air it this week, I thought, "Oh, good! I will get to see it for free and see if it's everything my friend promises it is, because I've got a perverse obsession with bad movies!"

I will tell you how much I... well, I suppose the word is "enjoyed"... "Wing Commander" by describing my favorite part of the movie for you.

The setting is a big war in outer space between Earthlings and some aliens called the Kilrathi (more about them later), and most of the action we are chiefly concerned with takes place on a big spaceship that is something like an aircraft carrier. The hero's annoying best friend and his sort-of-girlfriend have disobeyed the leader of their team and, thanks to Cosmic Revenge, the sort-of-girlfriend dies when she crashes her little spaceship into the landing pad thing on the big ship. Now, this is supposed to be the big, dramatic sad part. We cut from a scene where the hero's annoying best friend is crying and begging to save his sort-of-girlfriend, to a scene where the sort-of-girlfriend's ship is being pushed by a little snowplow off the runway thing of the big ship.

In the middle of Outer Space.

In Zero Gravity.

I suppose there's some B.S. about there being big magnets or something lining the runway so that the ships can't just float away. But, you know, that's something that's supposed to be the screenplay writers' responsibility to tell us.

My second favorite part is when we finally see the Kilrathi for the first time. At about the forty-five minute mark, it occurred to me that we don't even know who or what the Kilrathi are. We only know that they're at war with Earth and that they hate humans. But for the first full hour and a half or so, we don't even know what a Kilrathi looks like.

Well, the Kilrathi end up being something like an anthropomorphic Mr. Bigglesworth.

And they really like fog machines. When the hero and his buddies invade the Kilrathi ship, the whole place is choked with green fog.

Oh, and for all this, we never find out why they hate humans.

I came up with a theory. The Kilrathi are the descendants of a bunch of hairless cats who were sent in a probe many years ago to a strange planet. This planet was highly irradiated, and the cats were sent there to see if Earthlings could survive on it. Well, the radiation made the cats evolve very quickly, and eventually their descendants began to look more and more humanoid. They built some spaceships and went to war against humanity, to avenge the fact that the humans never remembered to clean out their grandparents' litter boxes. As for the green fog, that's to remind all the Kilrathi of the awful stench their ancestors had to suffer when their litter was left unchanged.

But, again, this is the screenwriter's job.

And I'm not even going to start on the whole "Pilgrim" thing.

"Wing Commander" gets a three, because of it's parody value and because it isn't as bad as my friend promised but it's close. VERY close. Essentially, this is the kind of movie that "Starship Troopers", as a *very* small part of it's agenda, set out to parody. Go watch that movie instead. It's a great date movie.

Okay, I'll Come Clean...

[Shield-3 · 22 December 1999]

I finally gave into my curiosity and rented "Wing Commander" last night... and I found myself kinda... you know... liking it.

It is NOT great cinema or great science fiction -- everyone likes to climb all over this movie for scientific errors and not being close enough to the Wing Commander games. Well, scientific inaccuracies don't bug me (I'm an English major!), and I never played the Wing Commander game. Maybe that's the secret to enjoying this movie -- if you take it completely on its (meager) merits, it's not all that bad. It's nowhere near as good as classics like "Star Wars" or even somewhat similar films like "The Last Starfighter" or "Starship Troopers," but it entertained me. I dunno, sometimes you don't need your horizons challenged, you just want to sit back and watch aliens get blow'd up real good, you know?

I consider this a guilty pleasure.

Wow....this sucks

[x49ers16 · 1/10 · 9 July 2004]

First of all, the games in the Wing Commander series are some of the best video games I've ever played. Technology has gotten to the point where these games look dated and the full motion video seems impractical, but the story lines and combat sequences are amazing. If anyone has the opportunity to play these games and hasn't do yourself a favor and do it. That said...

This movie is ridiculous and the storyline might just as well be from a 1950's B movie. The dialogue is awful, the acting worse, and the supposedly futuristic spacecraft looked like they were bought from a studio auctioning off props from old World War II movies. The director, who happens to have designed the games, apparently thought that it would be cool to throw his story lines from the games out the window in favor of some World War II allegory. If I wanted to see World War II, I would've put in my "Saving Private Ryan" DVD and not watched this crap on basic cable.

The characters are extremely well crafted in the game series, well, for a video game series anyway. Here, they come off as a bunch of tired clichés. Also, I take issue with the fact that Blair, the main character, is some kind of chosen one with special powers. The Wing Commander games gave us characters who were normal people forced into an extraordinary situation, something direly lacking in the genre of science fiction. In other words, there were no mythical "Pilgrims" or other hocus pocus like there are in the movie. I wouldn't mind if it was well done but it just feels tacked on for no good reason.

Speaking of the Kilrathi, its not even discussed in the film why the Humans are at war with them or what they are. Instead of the ten foot tall, menacing, tiger creatures from the games they look like hamsters on steroids. Also, one of the best characters from the games, the evil kilrathi prince thrakath (in the games Thrakath is a cross between hanibal lectar and josef stalin), is not in the movie, leaving it without a strong villain.

Now, of course, as a fan of the games I'm a little bitter that this movie is one of the worst that I've ever seen. But I know a horrible movie when I see one, and this movie is pretty much unwatchable whether you've played the games or not. Honestly, if you're in the mood for sci fi and if you see it anywhere, just ignore it and watch Star Wars again.

No, it isn't that bad. It is worse.

[mentalcritic · 1/10 · 20 May 2005]

Have you ever heard the expression "so stupid it is brilliant"? Well, you will see plenty of stupidity on offer here. So much of it, in fact, that you will begin to understand where the expression "so bad that it is awesome" comes from. Forget about Mortal Kombat, or even Resident Evil: Apocalypse. This is the film that video game adaptations get their reputation from. Every error of film-making you can think of, and even some you can't, is committed here. So many acting careers die here that the film should have been called Career Holocaust. You can bet that many members of the support cast neglect to mention this effort when discussing their CVs. About the only cast member who seems to have recovered from being in this abomination is Tchéky Karyo, and I am sure even he would rather forget this one. Incidentally, since when do you cast an actor with a French accent as thick as pea soup to play a character who was known in the early video games for having a Scottish accent so broad that it cemented the games reputation as a collection of stereotypes. Incidentally, Angel was supposed to be the French accent.

But this is all pure digression. The cast's collective heart was in it, and the crew did the best job they could, but the direction is so weak that the film winds up looking like it was intended to form the cutscenes of a video game. No explanation for the technology on show is offered. No reference to the time in which the film takes place is offered. Many references place the film in the time just after the declaration of war against the Kilrathi. But the scenario being depicted shows the Kilrathi imminently approaching Earth, which was one of the available scenarios in the third video game, which in turn is set decades into the war. Not to mention the stealth technology, which is introduced some years into the war, and yet the most prominent fighters of the Terran confederation look like rejected designs for World War II aircraft with shower nozzles stuck to their fronts.

The spacecraft design leads me to believe that members of the crew might be at least half right when they say that the problem with this film is the budget. In a time when science-fiction theatre was costing upwards of a hundred million per film, a miniscule thirty million was spent on this production. It shows. Shots of the main enemy in anything other than spacecraft form are rare, and when we do finally get to see the Kilrathi, they look more like big turds than humanoid cats. In one memorable sequence, we get to see a wrecked space fighter, with its pilot still within, pushed off the runway by a futuristic bulldozer that seems to grip the tarmac using the traditional wheel arrangement. In zero gravity, mind you. Of course, the runway could have gravity wells, or the bulldozer could have magnetically-charged wheels, but this is something the director or the screenwriter is supposed to explain to the audience. Very little explanation of anything, even why the Pilgrims are so space-savvy, is offered. There is basically a whole lot of tell and very little show.

Speaking of the Pilgrims, a subplot is added to this film that states the original Human explorers of space were a group dubbed the Pilgrims, who began to renounce their Human qualities. Apparently, a war started between the Pilgrims and the rest of Humanity, with the present Terran Confederation beset by a severe prejudice against Pilgrims. This is all well and fine, but it adds nothing to the actual plot, and only muddies the waters as to what the Humans are fighting about. All it really serves to do is give our central hero a Luke Skywalker sort of quality, and not a very convincing one at that. The idiotic game the Terran pilots play that dead pilots basically never existed flies right in the face of every convention set in the original video games. And it isn't like the crew have the excuse of not having played the games, because the director is the same guy who oversaw their creation. All this turns out to be is a very stupid attempt at a creative plot arc that, like the Pilgrim element, has no bearing upon the story whatsoever.

Unlike most of the rotten films I have commented about lately, I gave Wing Commander a one out of ten. Watching the cast, respectable otherwise or no, trying to chew their way through boot-like dialogue is pure comedy gold. Realising that the director expects us to feel scared of these gigantic turd monsters he calls the Kilrathi is even funnier. Therefore, Wing Commander is not just so bad it is good. It is so stupid it is utterly brilliant.

This is a movie???!!??

[baumer · 1/10 · 29 June 1999]

First of all, I went see this movie only because I heard it was going to be the first one to have the trailer for the new Star Wars movie. And it did and that was by far the best part of the experience.

This is the kind of movie that really bothers me. Because when scripts or ideas are pitched to studio executives, they must sit around in a room and decide whether or not they are going to spend 40 million dollars on some film that they hope will give them a significnat return. With Wing Commander, I would like to know how anyone could actually read the script and say to themselves " Yea!!!! We are going to make a huge profit off this one. " How exactly do executives do it? How do they get paid the ridiculous amounts of money that they do and then give the green light to make unbelievably bad movies like this? I know sometimes it is a gamble because you never know what will succeed and what won't ( remember the unbelievable success of Lethal Weapon? No one saw that coming ) but at least when you gamble, there should be some educated reasoning behind it. And any educated person would tell you that this film was destined to fail right from the beginning. Freddie Prinze Jr. and Mathew Lilliard are not that big enough yet to carry a film by themselves, especially if they are working with the deck stacked against them. And plus, another film sort of like this one was scheduled to get released in mere months after this came out, and that film is called The Phantom Menace. And I think everyone could wait a few more months to get their fix than to catch some simple imitation called Wing Commander.

I won't even get into the story because it is so simple that I'm sure you already know. Some bad guys want to take over the world and some good guys have to stop them.

The story is uninteresting, the acting is okay and the direction is a muddled confusing mess. And to top it off they wasted Lilliard in this film. He deserves better than this. He has a presence on film and he makes almost every scene he's in better. Even in this film he was good, but he can't help something that is this bad.

Don't waste your money or your inteligence on this piece of garbage. It is terrible. Bad Bad Bad. Awful.... You get the point!

Stupid, idiotic, weak plot, physics? What physics?

[rick-918 · 1/10 · 22 October 2006]

Let's see. Space ships painted jungle cameo. - useless in a black environment. "Radar" in space that pings like sonar, even though sonar pings would not work in vacuum.

A fighter gets bulldozed off a landing area and falls down past the ship - when there is no gravity! There are just so many stupid mistakes on that level - or worse - that it boggles the mind.

The writers, director, an everyone thought they were directing a WWII submarine movie - that's the only explanation, as they apply the behavior and physics of water to space.

The acting is pathetic. Only a 10 year old could enjoy this movie. Even the script can't get the action right - one line described ships coming through one at a time, but the movie shows three and four coming through.

If you want a laugh and have time to kill, watch it. Otherwise, avoid at all costs!

Fun but could have been much better as a TV mini-series

[mstomaso · 5/10 · 7 August 2005]

This film assembles one of the strangest casts of the late 1990s to play out a plot loosely based on the Wing Commander PC Game series. I have never played these games, but I was intrigued by the film for a variety of reasons, so I have now seen it a couple of times. I have to admit, I was more impressed and entertained the first time around. Sure, the film is reality-challenged, with several absurdities (misinterpretation of a black-hole, gravity problems etc), but I do not think that the film-makers were attempting to do anything as artistic as Star Wars nor anything as philosophical as Star Trek. This film, instead, fits solidly into the FUN, action-based sci-fi tradition, like Starship Troopers.

The plot is pretty cliché. Freddy Prinze Jr and Matt Lillard play young hotshot fighter pilots assigned to their first deep space mission. They are being delivered by Tchéky Karyo. As they arrive on a ship commanded by David Suchet and Jurgen Prochnow, they learn that the Sol System is about to fall under attack by Kilrathi invaders with a powerful armada. There is little time for complexity and character development as the single Confederation (earth) cruiser tries to make its way to a nearby jumpgate (basically the film's equivalent of warp ten or a "hyperspace button") before the Kilrathi do, fending off Kilrathi attacks the whole way. There are a couple of weakly explored love stories and a few surprises along the way concerning the identities of the characters, but there is little time for these to truly develop. So many of the characters do feel a bit one-dimensional, and the more intriguing plot points (such as "the pilgrims") are left unsatisfactorily explored.

I think this film would have made a better miniseries than a cinematic release. Given a little more breathing room, and perhaps time to consult with astronomers or even people with a couple of higher education science courses under their belt, this could have been a really good sci fi film. The cast was certainly decent (some of the European cast-members were very good); the money was obviously there, and the script would have been fine had it not been stretched by the overly ambitious scope of the film.

Bottom line: Entertaining with the help of a few drinks. Fun for action fans. Generally not recommended for the average moviewatcher.

A fun ride, not a serious one. A must for all fans of the game.

[morbelle · 7/10 · 14 March 2004]

The film has been critically panned and it bombed at the cinemas. But it's actually a pretty good film. Yes it isn't technically the best, nor is it scientifically plausible. And for devotees of the games it kinda screws with history, but for all that it is a good ride. You watch it and appreciate it. Saffron Burrows is great. David Warner and David Suchet excel in their (small) roles. It's a shame John Rhys-Davis and Mark Hamill don't reprise their roles, but their replacements do well enough.

You get caught up in the story, and the visual effects are fantastic, aided by good acting with the actors working well together.

So overall I would recommend this film. Don't expect it to be fantastic, but just enjoy it. It's a fun film and a worthy addition to Wing Commander lore.

Thought it would be worse

[Denver53 · 4/10 · 20 September 2000]

I don't know anything about the Wing Commander game or previous shows. I stumbled upon this movie on a movie channel and watched it because I like sci-fi.

To my surprise, it wasn't bad. In fact, if it were not for the goofy acting of Freddy Prinze Jr., I might even say this was a good movie. The plot was interesting, the production was much better than I thought (dark sci-fi, like Space: Above and Beyond)it would be and some of the actors did very well (the two ship commanders, the female lead).

But Prinze is over the top as the newbie who seems to be amazed by everything. His jaw literally drops and he spends half the movie (it seems like) with his mouth agape like some dumb fish. I actually cringed near the end when he battled the black hole and then watched the enemy ship try to do the same thing. "Gosh, the Kilrathi ship is too big! Caribdis has her!" (said with an earnest wonder and a mouth wide open to catch flies)It was the Wesley Crusher syndrome, but worse.

Still, if you like sci-fi, Wing Commander ain't bad. I gave it a 4 but it could be a 5.

It's really not that bad...

[doom1701 · 9/10 · 13 May 1999]

Well, I've seen it twice now. I'm sure that says something. The one thing that I told myself as I went into the theater was "This isn't the game". Too many people were expecting Mark Hammil, or Biff from Back to the Future, and were miffed that the movie didn't include them, or anyone that looked like them. So far, I haven't heard anyone say complain that Val Kilmer or George Clooney didn't LOOK like Michael Keaton; the portrayal of their character is a different story...

I'll admit, the movie had a cookie-cutter plot. Young guy doesn't realize his potential, young guy is mocked, best friend stands up for him, young guy saves the day. That, and the standard "Have someone how loves and loses, and someone who falls in love at the end." But, then again, how many movies have been made that have a cookie cutter plot?

I was quite impressed with the acting. I'll admit, I haven't been a big fan of the teen slasher movies, so this was my first experience at seeing a lot of these guys. The young Blair was portrayed exactly as I would have expected, not too sure of himself, too willing to scurry into a corner rather than face confrontation. Maniac was great; much better than the poor portrayal in the last 3 iterations of the video game. I mean, let's face it, Maniac's character was completely re-done in WC3, to make him exactly like Biff. And Paladin was excellent. Not anything like the Paladin of the games (it took a while to get used to a non-scottish Paladin), but a very good, dark, but fatherly figure.

The effects were incredible, especially when you consider the (relatively) meager budget the film was done on. Yeah, the NavCom looked like a car battery, and the Kilrathi were lacking. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if the original intent was to NOT show the Kilrathi at all; someone decided this would be too artistic of a move, and created some cheesy looking aliens at the last minute.

My favorite aspect of the movie, though, was how it abandons the standard "Everything is bright and pretty and technological in Sci-Fi". The ships were beat on. The cruisers looked like they had to be held together with bailing wire. The bridges of the vessels were dark, cramped, and simple. The ships shot bullets, rather giving us bright and technical laser beams. Also, humanity wasn't portrayed as being perfect; there were factions, and racism, and everything else that we experience on earth today.

I'm just waiting for the DVD...

Not bad, not bad at all.

[RudyA · 7/10 · 5 August 1999]

First of all, I avoided this movie when it was first released because of the bad reviews. I never played the game so I had no idea what to expect.

I should know better...

I saw this movie for the first time on DVD, sat down with a low expectation, and cranked up my Dolby Digital 5.1 sound system. Was I ever BLOWN away! It was more than I expected and the characters were not as "forgettable" as some critics said. I found the performances of Tcheky Kanyo (Paladin) and David Warner (Admiral Tolwyn) were memorable. Saffron Burrows (Angel) was great, except that she handled her "crisis" at the end rather badly. But overall the movie was a treat. I would recommend it for anyone to at least rent this and check it out!

I forgot I even saw this.

[alienlegend · 3/10 · 19 February 2023]

I had to ask my brother if we did in fact see this in the theater back in the day. Sadly, we did. But doesn't that tell you everything? If you watched a movie but you can't even really remember watching it, that isn't a good sign. I remember they kind of ripped off the new bullet time Matrix effect for a time travel jump thing (it's in the trailer so not a spoiler I'd say) but dang this came out the same year as The Matrix? If only they hadn't made such awful sequels to that but still the first film is a masterpiece and Wing Commander is not. I played the games a lot as a kid and I'm still surprised they made a movie out of them but I don't think anyone is shocked that it really isn't very good.

WW2 in space

[nmanole · 4 June 2011]

I love SF

I 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 here

MY all time favorites boys own SF romp

Nic

Solid Space War

[Tweetienator · 5/10 · 16 December 2021]

Wing Commander is for sure no hidden gem nor a masterpiece of the art of sci-fi but provides easy pop-corn cinema with some good old space fights. Production is okay (but looks very outdated compared to modern works), acting too. Interesting not only for those who played the game but for everyone who needs a dose of space war. Give Wing Commander a try if you like such stuff like Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica, Starship Troopers, Ender's Game and the like. Last note: the use of ballistics instead of laser guns gives the fights an extra special "vibe".

One word, blech

[Zephyr-9 · 1/10 · 21 March 1999]

I can't say I was actually disappointed in this movie because I went in fully expecting it to be junky, wunky, and what's that other word, oh yeah, stunky. So in a sense, I got more than I bargained for because it was even worse than that.

If you're a loyal Wing Commander games fan (I'm not, but you may be), don't bother seeing this one because you'll be disappointed. Only the names haven't been changed to protect the innocent.

It almost seems Roberts (creator of the Wing Commander series)at some point was attempting to make a movie that was as far removed from the actual idea of the game as he could get just in case he didn't want the Wing Commander name tacked on it. The strange thing is he still called it Wing Commander and stuck his name in the credits. This movie might have done well as an anonymous, direct-to-video B science fiction action flick if he had.

I can't criticize the plot as there wasn't much of one other than the Earth is at war with the Kilrathi and the hero has to do something or other just in the nick of time to save everyone.

Characters: nothing much there either. Pouty kid fresh out of the academy with cocky friend. Straight-laced commander types and a couple women who have bigger balls than the guys.

Sets, take some cheesy WWII submarine sets and put flashy lights in them, done.

Fighters, take fighter models from same cheesy WWII flick, tear off the propellor and put some jet engine type things on it, done.

Special effects, film explosions through a green filter to make them look like they might be atomic or something.

There, now you've seen the movie and saved $8.00. You can thank me later.

This was a disgrace to the franchise!

[Sabre_Wolf · 1/10 · 8 March 2012]

As a fan of the Wing Commander franchise I watched this I thought nothing was worse then Wing Commander: Prophecy, unfortunately when I watched this I'll admit one thing: I was proved wrong! As I watched this I wonder 'Is this REALLY Wing Commander?' I beheld crap special effects were complete and utter crud! I understand the budget situation but shows like Blake's 7 and Doctor Who did FAR better on their own shoestring budgets then this! Also the Kilrathi were hardly shown and when they were, they were unconvincing unlike tiger-like warrior species I remembered.

Also the storyline was complete and total rubbish especially compared to the games and how space travel was presented in them! The ship designs were a disgrace and the Tiger's Claw didn't look like a carrier at all and the fighter craft were not very well designed and there was no light fighter or medium fighter or heavy fighter or bomber distinction that really defined the games! Because in the future that's how things will work! Because in space combat there will be fighter craft warfare as well as ship to ship battles.

Also I hated the touch of how they make it like modern jet fighters taking off while its obvious in the future and in space that's totally unbelievable.

Also I did not care much for the Pilgrim back-story let alone Blair being part one maybe its just me. Plus Blair and Maniac being friends from the beginning made no sense.

Kevin Droney's screenplay was complete and utter rubbish in short. Also how Chris Roberts approved it let alone be part of it I don't know but I imagine he was probably embarrassed by how the movie based on the classic franchise he created turned out and I doubt he would have been happy with Prophecy either.

Maybe Chris Roberts may well revive the franchise perhaps even manage to redeem himself in the respect of the Wing Commander franchise with either a movie or TV series or even a game reboot or he might give his blessings for someone else to do it, perhaps with him acting as some consultant or whatever or partner.

Only time will tell. Otherwise this movie is a total disgrace to a classic series!

This movie sucked more than a decompressing compartment

[de-vaughn-elledge · 2/10 · 12 June 2013]

I have played all 5 of the video games, and if you were to take all of the cut scenes from them and make a movie. It would have been much better than this garbage!! This movie could have been awesome, there was so much character and information in the game from which to draw. However, they just blew it. The movie was slow, which the game wasn't. The characters were boring except and unbelievable. With the Exception of the character "Maniac", who actually more crazy in the movie that he was in the game, this picture had no life. They actually had the right guy playing Maniac for the time.

However, I would advise not watching this disappointing movie. The Karathi look fake, they brought in extra characters and ships that didn't belong in the opening movie and killed them off, they just all around blew the movie with it lethargic pace.

mindless entertainment, lots of explosions, great overacting

[psi_chotic · 2/10 · 15 June 2013]

Let's be honest, 95% of the people who saw this in the theater only did so because it was the first movie to feature the Star Wars: Episode I trailer. Otherwise it's not worth the price of a ticket. I found this movie to be utterly unremarkable/unmemorable.

Let's see...some good stuff: It's got some cool explosions in it, and some hilarious/awful overacting by Matthew Lillard. Freddie Prinze Jr. also does his best to be melodramatic, but I think Lillard has him beat. I kept waiting for Lillard to shout "GAME OVER, MAN, GAME OVER!"...that's about all his part missed.

All in all, it's 2 hours of eye candy. But a good movie, it ain't.

Despite others' negative reviews, I liked it!

[alex-1122 · 7/10 · 26 November 2012]

This is not a Academy Award winner, nor is it an example of fine acting, nor is it a riveting plot with significant ties to philosophy, life, God, blah blah blah blah ... it's an action/sci-fi movie, so please leave your brain at door and just enjoy this for what it is.

I'm a fan of the Starship Troopers type genre (book was first, movie later) - lots of action, leave brain at door, watch the effects, enjoy the 2 hours of reckless fun! This film, like Starship and others like it, is *just* a fun film to enjoy! I never played the game - and this is the crux of my review - I played something else that seems to predate Wing Commander: "Descent: Freespace - The Great War". I couldn't help but think that there was SO much reference to everything about Freespace, it wasn't funny. The ships, the enemy, jump points, literally everything. It was like watching a movie of the game I just played. BTW, I still play Freespace from time to time - it's good fun.

I did briefly enjoy the "role reprisal" of Jürgen Prochnow in "Das Boot" - "reload tubes 1 and 2, fire when ready": said almost the same line in both movies.

Anyway, I enjoyed it; give it another go and see!

....and I thought "Starship Troopers" was as bad as it gets

[loukia12 · 1/10 · 1 February 2001]

I have just seen this film on tv, only because my friends insisted, and could not resist adding a comment. **SPOILER ALERT**I was laughing hysterically throughout the film, and could not even stop when my friends where almost in tears over Rosie's death or at the end over Angel's and Blair's "passionate" kiss. I don't think i have seen a film this bad ever since i paid £4 to watch "Starship Troopers" at my local cinema, and the £4 are the only reason why i still think "Starship Troopers" was worse. To start with, this film has some of the sloppiest special effects i have ever seen in a sci-fi film, second only to the "Star-Trek:The original series" special effects which were practically non-existent. Even the spaceships looked like submarines from World War 2, and what was the deal with those hideous hats? If they bothered to use Freddie Prinze Jr, in order to obviously attract all those 13-14 year old girls, then why did they make him wear that hat that made him look like a frog, to say the least?(A friend suggested that this could be a conspiracy to ruin Freddie's career!!!). AND WHAT ABOUT THE ALIENS? I agree with another user's comment who said that they probably had not planned for the aliens to actually appear on screen but then changed their minds the last minute. This is the only reasonable explanation i can come up with to justify the fact that the aliens looked more like a couple of senile tyrranosaurus's in a retirement home. And finally, this is the first sci-fi film i have ever seen where a truck clears the airway by throughing the wreckage (including a dead body which noone bothered to retrieve)into space!!! 1/10

Not The Best But Its Definetly Not Boring

[schrimp · 8/10 · 29 July 1999]

People are way too hard on this movie. The acting is better than average and action is awesome. This alone makes up for the weak plot and so so special effects. And it moves at such a pace that it is impossible to be bored unlike Star Wars Episode 1 where I sat through that entire pod race scene wondering when it was going to end. I'm not saying that this is better than Star Wars but I could watch this movie over and over which is something I couldn't say for Star Wars. (***/****)

Not bad at all......

[rabishopp · 7/10 · 31 January 2001]

Not a bad movie at all. Better than one would think. Great special effects and good battle scenes. The sets were a bit tacky but it had potential. Not so far removed from reality. I never saw the video game so it was a new story to me. It looked a bit like Space: Above and Beyond. I reckon there was even scope for a TV series. I presume it was made in Oz as there was a lot of Antipodeans/Brits in it (and it was 20th Century Fox which has a stuido down there). However, the titles say it was made in Luxembourg ! If it had a slightly better script, more depth to the characters, it could have been a real classic. It was 70% of the way there.

One of the worst movies put to film

[jason-donato · 1/10 · 22 December 2013]

It is so bad, it could not qualify as a cult film.

Physics are completely off, then again, only six year old kids were the target audience. WRONG. this movie was made for teens and adults. (based specifically from the popular video game.)

Plots and sub plots were directly taken from several movies of the era, likely word for word dialog taken too. Even when taking the plot from other movies, they did not adjust the scenes to reflect these people were in SPACE!

1. calling out for a "MEDIC" was a sure sign that character was going to die.

2. "in space no one can hear you scream" apparently this movie director, writer, and anyone else associated with making the film bothered to show the film makes the movie title to "ALIEN"

3. costumes right out of the third grade play at your local kids school. not to mention, the people making the costume did not even try!

please get the "tralierJunkies" and MovieSins, guys to do a work on this film. even thinking of this movie, i can remember why i know this is about the worst film created.

There were points in this movie I actually stood up in the audience and wondered aloud what the F was going on in the movie, and i was only 18.

Good lord!