Cast: Freddie Prinze Jr., Matthew Lillard, Saffron Burrows, Jürgen Prochnow, Tchéky Karyo, David Warner, David Suchet, Ginny Holder
Director: Chris Roberts
Producer: Todd Moyer
Screenplay: Kevin Droney
Cinematography: Thierry Arbogast
U.S. Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox
As I entered the theater to watch Wing Commander, I observed a prominently displayed sign stating that no refunds would be given to patrons of this film. The reason for the notification was obvious: to prevent Star Wars fans from asking for their money back after seeing the much ballyhooed trailer for The Phantom Menace, which is attached to Wing Commander. For those who elect to pay the price, I hope the trailer's worth the $8, because the feature following it certainly isn't. In fact, Fox should be paying potential viewers not to walk out of this turkey.
The plot has all the depth and originality of a video game without the fun of the interactivity (it shouldn't come as a surprise, therefore, to learn that it's based on a popular title). The visuals, which consist primarily of rotating asteroids and spaceships shooting at each other, are consistently more interesting than any of the characters. And the action is so lifeless and generic that it's more likely to induce slumber than an adrenaline rush. Had I not gotten enough sleep the night before, I'm sure I would have dozed off about halfway through this movie. Few things are more dreary than cinematic "excitement" that provokes yawns.
Wing Commander starts out in the same way that almost every second or third-rate science fiction movie begins: a few centuries in the future, humanity is at war with a vile-looking alien species. The year is 2654 and the bad guys are called the Kilrathi. They look vaguely reptilian, but they're not given enough screen time for us to really study their features. Instead, that exposure is wasted on a group of shockingly uninteresting humans: Blair (Freddie Prinze Jr.), Marshall (Matthew Lillard), and Devereaux (Saffron Burrows). These three are hotshot spaceship fighter pilots, and, as one might expect, the fate of Earth will eventually rest on their shoulders. It's not worth going into much detail about how that comes to be - suffice it to say that there are a few space battles, several chases, and a lot of painfully inept "character building" filler that has the acuity and intelligence of something written by a grade-schooler. The sheer stupidity of the dialogue made my jaw drop. For epics like this, Hollywood should consider reviving the silent movie.
One of Wing Commander's biggest mistakes is attempting to tackle the subject of racism (using an allegory, of course). Blair's mother was a "Pilgrim" (early human space explorers who developed the genetic ability to navigate through space-time anomalies), and he is reviled for being a half-breed. In the end, through his courage and determination, Blair proves that there's more to a man than his heritage. Even the sour and sneering Commander Gerald (Das Boot's captain, Jürgen Prochnow), the most militant anti-Pilgrim on board, hails him as a hero. Nice to know that racism is such a superficial trait that it can be wiped away so easily.
Character interaction is perfunctory, trite, and unconvincing. Two of the leads apparently fall in love. Another suffers pangs of guilt after an ill-advised daredevil stunt contributes to a friend's death. One could argue that the actors do the best they can with the material, but no one shows much enthusiasm or energy. Freddie Prinze Jr., the hot young actor from She's All That and the I Know What You Did movies, displays some charisma, but not much else. Matthew Lillard (the killer in Scream) is irritating. And Saffron Burrows (who exhibits both range and ability in Mike Figgis' upcoming The Loss of Sexual Innocence) spends the entire movie scowling or pouting. Supporting actors picking up paychecks include the aforementioned Prochnow, Tchéky Karyo (Addicted to Love) as Taggart, a rogue space pilot, David Warner (Star Trek VI) as Admiral Tolwyn, and David Suchet (Air Force One, TV's "Poirot") as the anemic-looking Captain Sansky.
I don't know how much money went into the special effects, but a significant portion of it should have been diverted to the script. Then again, even David Mamet might have had trouble crafting something worthwhile from such a thin premise. Wing Commander is the motion picture debut of director Chris Roberts (who has helmed video segments for episodes of the computer game), and it's not a promising start. This is science fiction at its worst: a hack job that makes movies like Judge Dredd and Battlestar Galactica look brilliant by comparison. So my advice is to leave once the Star Wars trailer is over. Don't compound the loss of $8 with the waste of 100 minutes of your life.
© 1999 James Berardinelli