Film Review: Wing Commander

Space battles! Ah man, I can't ever get enough of them.  Some of the coolest moments in film and TV have beautiful starfields and nebulae with giant starships and fast fighters blasting each other to hell with lasers, torpedoes, and other far-out weaponry.  Cinema has been blessed with many great space battles in the Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and Starship Troopers franchises.  Unfortunately, that's as good as it gets; there aren't that many movies that really show space warfare, and I personally wish there were more.  This is probably why I turn to Wing Commander once in a while.

The sole appeal to Wing Commander will be its space battles and special effects.  They aren't that great per se; the graphics are fairly low-tech and haven't aged well.  Regardless, the actual battles are fairly cool, with some nicely colorful backdrops, cool-looking ships, and plenty of explosions and laser beams flying around everywhere.

The rest of the movie is comprised of some of the purest and densest cheese.  It's a light and fluffy film, full of playful banter and juvenile characters; it makes for an entertaining flick in its own right, but it does not leave any lasting impact, and will likely repulse many viewers.

I've never played the original Wing Commander video games, but I have no doubt that they probably have a better story and more immersive universe than this film.  This film covers a pretty standard story, with stuff we've seen before in shows like Battlestar Galactica.  There's nothing much new to seeing space-faring pilots fighting aliens, getting involved with each other, breaking the rules, and inevitably having to make sacrifices.  With the film's lightweight tone, none of it bears any weight.  The film also never lets the audience get to know the characters beyond the surface level.  We also never get to know much about the universe, aside from the fact that there are aliens, there are humans in spaceships, and they're at war.

This film uses pretty standard photography and editing.  Acting is nothing worth screaming about:  Freddie Prinze Jr. looks and acts very juvenile, and Matthew Lillard even moreso.  Saffron Burrows is easily the bright spot here, not only in terms of looks and that awesome accent of hers, but also in taking the role a little more seriously than everybody else.  Writing is average at best.  This production has pretty weak-looking sets, props, and costumes.  The Kilrathi look especially awful toward the end, appearing like giant plastic cat-people.  Special effects are used liberally - there's even one totally useless Matrix effect, where the camera spins around the characters while they're in slow-motion.  As mentioned above, the space battles are cool, but still fairly cheap.  Music is not bad though.

Not a great film by any means, and certainly not the best space combat movie ever made.  But in a genre that's rather lacking, I find Wing Commander fun.  If you enjoy epic space combat like I do, then this is worth renting once.

3/5 (Entertainment:  Good | Story:  Average | Film:  Marginal)