Wing Commander

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.

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!

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. (***/****)

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!

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.