Wing Commander

Starring: Freddie Prinze, Jr., Matthew Lillard, Saffron Burrows, Jurgen Prochnow
Directed by: Chris Roberts
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Science Fiction, Action
1999

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An alien race is bent on destroying the universe, and only two hotshot pilots (Freddie Prinze, Jr., Matthew Lillard) stand in their way.

Review:

Tim: When you're going to make a space film that will require a great deal of special effects, you have got to have a bigger budget than $30 million. As is, the movie just looks cheap. This immediately pulls us out of the film and makes it more difficult to become engaged. Besides the hastily slopped together special effects, the script is just utterly weak. It is a cheap rip-off of a hodgepodge of other films, including Top Gun, Star Wars, and Starship Troopers. This would be very difficult to pull off, and here, it proves to be impossible.

The film hopes its two stars will be a big enough draw. True, Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Matthew Lillard have made a number of films together, and are generally enjoyable together. Here, their characters are just too weak and the dialogue too cheesy for them to achieve very much. I really believe they both tried and put effort into it, but it was just not enough.

Once you get past the absurd plot, there are a few enjoyable scenes of sci-fi goodness. These are few and far between, but they do exist. Some films appear lazy, like they didn't even bother trying. This movie looks like it put forth the effort, but it just failed in an exploding ball of flames.

This is a cheap, minor-league, busch-league science fiction film. It aspires to the same heights of some sci-fi classics, and that is the film's biggest weakness- the sheer audacity that it could be more than it is. There is something to be said for ambition, but this is just presumptuous. This is a silly movie that offers up only dreams that it could be something more. That is not nearly close to being good enough.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 4.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Summer Catch, Scooby-Doo,