Wing Commander (Film Review)

Director(s): Chris Roberts

Release Date: March 12, 1999

Wing Commander.  Last of the 1990s video game film adaptations.  Unlike the previous adaptations, I knew absolutely nothing about Wing Commander’s video game series.  I didn’t even know it was a video game series until learning about this film.  While there’s nothing wrong going into an adaptation blind (though with adaptations like Mortal Kombat, its best to know the source material) I decided to read up on the series and watch some informative let's plays.  From what I collected, the video game series (at least the early 90s ones) looks really fun and impressive—with clear effort and passion put behind it.  When learning that Wing Commander’s creator also directed its film adaptation, I grew hopeful for a positive experience, followed by my hopes crashing and burning up after seeing the finished product.

Wing Commander is a prime example of how adapting a great concept on one medium doesn’t mean it’ll be great on another—even with the series creator in control.  From what I gathered, the original Wing Commander game is all about choice—allowing the player to affect and change the plot based on their interactions and combat results.  On the other hand, Wing Commander’s adaptation tells a straightforward, linear storyline.  Wing Commander the game took concepts from Star Wars and turned it into something fresh and new for its medium, while Wing Commander the film took the game’s concepts and brought them back to the movies—unsurprisingly resulting in a story that feels stale and derivative.  The film’s plot is basically every space story told meets every plane story told.  There’s an intergalactic future war going on between humans and a hostile alien race.  The evil one-note aliens have captured a navigation computer that will lead them directly to Earth, where they will:

1. Buy and trade Pokémon cards,
2. Try selling the humans overly-expensive sofas, or
3. Eradicate all human life

To prevent humanity from buying unreasonably priced sofas, a message is sent to two fresh-out-of-training pilots Blair (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) and Marshall (Matthew Lillard)—who would later go on to co-star in the live-action Scooby-Doo films oddly enough—and their Captain Taggart (Tchéky Karyo) to delay the alien fleet with the help of the carrier TCS Tiger Claw.  Blair is half-human, half-evolved human known as Pilgrims whom can navigate space with ease.  Blair’s Pilgrim heritage is held in contempt by humans, yet he’s nonetheless entrusted with the mission because, as the Admiral puts it; “I fought alongside your father. He was a good man.” 

The trio makes it to the Tiger Claw, and everything basically goes as you’d expect it. MAJOR SPOILERS BEGIN: Blair starts off on the wrong foot with his wing commander Angel (Saffron Burrows), who is a woman, so you know they’re going to be a couple by the end.  There’s the distrusting, racist commander (Jürgen Prochnow) who is always there to object to the protagonists’s plans but ultimately comes around in the end.  There’s the minor character (Ginny Holder)—who the audience doesn’t really care about, but the characters do—who tragically dies and causes a whole bunch of drama.  There’s a bunch of generic space battles where all seems lost but Blair and co. come through and save the day and everyone celebrates as the alien race—with no other defining characteristics than being aggressive and malicious—are destroyed.

If you can’t tell, Wing Commander brings absolutely nothing new to the table.  Storytelling-wise, it’s about as generic as you can get.  A good chunk of the drama and issues are caused by the good guys’s general stupidity, and I’m not just referring to the bland racism subplot.  The entire minor character’s death subplot (which takes up a good six to ten minutes of the film) is caused because the trained pilots—who are Earth’s only hope from complete annihalation—decide to disobey orders and go on a reckless dick-measuring contest against the evil aliens.  In another scene, the Tiger Claw ends up getting bombed because the good guys preemptively cheer during a scene where they’re trying to avoid detection.

The main cast is an obnoxious group of stock characters given subpar performances.  Marshall is a downright obnoxious sidekick that the film continuously pushes has a brain somewhere underneath his idiotic antics.  Angel is just a flat-out asshole to Blair throughout the film.  Even when Angel’s acting “nice” to Blair, she comes across as abrasive and distant, which is not the right way to go when trying to write a developing relationship.  In terms of action, Wing Commander is by far the weakest of the 90s video game adaptations.  The “battles”, whether on foot or flying, are lifeless and ugly to look at.  The usages of bleak, murky colors and haze to fog up the setting add to the unpleasantness. MAJOR SPOILERS END

Wing Commander represents the last and worst of the 90s video game adaptations.  Even at their worst, the past adaptations possess their own unique personality, and at their best, contain charm and entertainment.  Wing Commander is just a generic, lifeless experience with nothing unique or entertaining going for it.  When it comes to Wing Commander, the only thing I'm interested in are the video games, which I only know of thanks to the film.  So, if anything, the film has my thanks for introducing me to its superior medium.