Review of Wing Commander (1999) by Stuart M — 14 Nov 2015

Gosh, a video game adaptation that didn't sweep the Oscars? What an astonishing turn of events! This film isn't very good, which is a shame since the series it's based on relied heavily on VAs and was about as film-like as it was possible for a game to be. And some of this does translate on screen with a somewhat developed backstory and naval structure. The problem is that they either introduce this material clumsily or omit to explain it altogether. For example, Blair, our lead, is discriminated against because of his race (being a white male sure is tough) and has been his whole life. And yet he seems surprised by it here, and even has to ask his boss what his people did that made them so disliked. That's better than the universe's backstory. All we really know is that mankind is at war.

The basic idea is cool: naval combat in space. This can be taken to stupid extremes (staying quiet so the enemy can't hear you? In space?) but it offers us a great chance for military scifi. Some of the space scenes are kinda cool. They actually reminded me of BSG in a way, which is quite a compliment. Unfortunately, the graphics, while sometimes pretty, never come close to being believable. And we're not given enough information to know how all this combat works. It's technical without being intuitive. The ships are also too similar and unimaginative. We can't tell hero from villain.

The film also has a terrible case of 90sitis. The lead characters are bland pretty boys and it's just filled with loud yet harmless testosterone. They also have the standard wild dog pilot, whose reckless behavior puts everyone in danger yet we're to accept as youthful good spirits. Yuck. The film does have the occasional good military space opera moment, but mostly it's too disorganized and confused to make sense.