Review of Wing Commander (1999) by Bradley G — 07 Jun 2006
[font=Comic Sans MS]As a general rule, video game movies suck. Let's examine some examples; [i]BloodRayne[/i], [i]Resident Evil, Doom[/i], etc. The only clear exception is the [i]Tomb Raider[/i] films. Those were at least interesting, enjoyable action movies. For the most part people put 1999's [i]Wing Commander[/i] into the first category. While I agree the movie wasn't worthy of any awards, I at least found it enjoyable for its plot and special effects.
Freddie Prinze Jr. plays Lieutenant (or Leftenant if you're like the bazillion Brits in the movie) Christopher Blair, a fighter pilot fresh out of the academy looking for his shot in the intergalactic war threatening mankind. Joined by his arrogant hotshot flying mate (Matt Lillard), the two are forced into high octane, intense battle sequences that, while fun to watch, try too hard to be [i]Star Wars[/i] when, let's face it, there's no comparison between the two. Overall the premise of the movie is clever and shows potential to be a truly good, if not great, science fiction film. And unlike with VG movies, even the bad or mediocre sci-fi movies are sometimes fun to watch.
Where this movie falters is its dialogue and the somewhat lack of connection to the characters. While it's easy to find Prinze Jr. as Blair likable and Lillard as "Maniac" Marshall is fun to watch for both his smartass antics and his obnoxious side, at no point in the movie do you really find yourself caring about their success. You might root for them as you would any "good guy", but because you expect them to succeed in the end anyway, you're never really concerned even when the characters are in "grave" danger. And as for the writing, at its high points its tolerable. At its low points it makes the dialogue in [i]Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith[/i] sound like [i]Casablanca[/i]. So while its true the movie will inevitably be relegated to the discount bins and high-triple-digit movie channels, [i]Wing Commander[/i] is at the very least a fun space shooter.
FINAL GRADE: 6/10. There's stuff to like, but its not worth abandoning a trip to a galaxy far, far away.
==TJ==.
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This review of Wing Commander (1999) was written by Bradley G on 07 Jun 2006.
Wing Commander has generally received negative reviews.
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