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Wing Commander
EMAILPRINT20th Century Fox Film Corporation

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 21 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 12 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Sci-fi
Written by:
Kevin Droney (also screen story)
Chris Roberts (characters and story)
Directed by: Chris Roberts
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 12, 1999
DVD: December 17, 2002
Running Time: 100 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for sexual references and sci-fi action/violence
Starring Freddie Prinze Jr., Saffron Burrows, Matthew Lillard, Tchéky Karyo, Jürgen Prochnow, David Suchet, David Warner, and Ginny Holder
A futuristic outer space dogfight adventure starring Freddie Prinze Jr.
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
While much of the film is taken over by enormously entertaining dogfight sequences much of it also rests on the narrative drive, which seems clipped part and parcel from one of those old Why We Fight documentaries that Frank Capra doled out to keep our G.I.s in fighting mode.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
The script too often sounds like an encrypted communique itself, and it's tiring trying to keep all the nonsensical space-jargon straight. The effort is more demanding than hanging onto a joystick, and not entirely worth the effort.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
Even if this movie wasn't based on a computer game, Starship Troopers' reputation would still have just shot up another 50 notches. [19 March 1999, Life, p.11E]
Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan
Tries mightily to give these warmed-over cliches the proper seasoning, but in the end, these leftovers fail to satisfy. [12 March 1999, Friday, p.L]
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Pretty much everything in this high-space war yarn has been swiped from other, better movies.
Read Full Review >Variety Godfrey Cheshire
Formulaic, humdrum and sometimes unintentionally laughable.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Athima Chansanchai
Gets sucked into a gravitational cesspool of sci-fi clichés.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
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.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
While the plot is worthless and the battle scenes cheap-looking and unengrossing, Wing Commander has clearly defined characters and relationships. In other words, the film's young actors have nothing interesting to say, but they say it well.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
These actors, alas, are at the service of a submoronic script and special effects that look like a video game writ large.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
While it may be true that in space no one can hear you scream, groaning should be a perfectly audible way of saying the intergalactic alien-buster Wing Commander sucks.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Either a thoroughly incomprehensible movie or a daring exercise in the cinema of disorientation, and a painful viewing experience either way.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Gene Seymour
You won't feel anything. Period. Oh, maybe bored or disoriented by the inside jargon and alien references that will be comprehensible only if you happen to have played the computer game on which Wing Commander is based. [12 March 1999, Calendar, p.F-10]
Film Threat Merle Bertrand
When all is said and done, then, the only thing this juvenile and shameless "Star Wars" knock-off does is whet your appetite for the real deal.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Nicole Campos
An excruciating no-brainer blend of Starship Troopers and Top Gun, without the formers guilty-pleasure concoction of gory F/X and dark humor or Tom Cruises megawatt smile.
Read Full Review >Newsweek Ted Gideonse
Matthew Lillard of "Scream," flies like his nickname and tries to bring the film some comic relief not already provided by the stultifying stupidity of the script.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Anita Gates
The film is painfully boring and funny in the wrong places.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Staff (Not credited)
The effects are laughably primitive, the dialogue hilariously atrocious -- and those are the good parts.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 4.0 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Anders B. gave it a10:
Brilliantly scripted and marvelously acted Sci-Fi movie based on the all-time favorite PC-game. The intense combination of an intergalactic war-story and a classic Shakespearian love-tale makes this movie an adrenaline-pumping tears-jerker of historical proportion. Mankind can traverse the darkest depths of space, it will always bring along its emotions! The Kilrathi character-depth is the secret of its success, diminishing the personality of Hamlet to a superficial cartoon-character. While the lines spoken by the Kilrathi have the rhythm of a Swiss watch, it is the depth of their meanings that truly fascinates. Only repeated viewing can reveal the many layers of its message. Once discovered, your will agree that this is what takes Wing Commander beyond the level of the greatest classics of Hollywood or even global cinema. The people of the future will divide human history in the pre-Wing Commander era (or the Dark Age) and the post-Wing Commander era, when humanity finally became enlightened by this masterpiece and its powerful message. At a lower level, you are bound to forget the part of your life that was spent - wasted really - before you could become a wittness yourself to the brillance that is Wing Commander. Oscars may be awarded for artistry in film-making, only a Nobel Prize (or several) could do justice to the levels of excellence reached by Wing Commander. This production will no-doubt be remembered by the many generations to come as a turning point in movie-making. Its message, when correctly interpreted, will influence society as only the Holy Bible may have done before. Be ready to experience never-felt-before emotions as you watch this hallmark movie over and over again. It will leave its tracks on your soul – tractor-pull deep tracks.
J B. gave it a6:
It really saddens me to see this film here. Let me break it down: the settings and scenery and especially the Kilrathi (cat-people) costumes were clearly produced on a low budget. That's the bad part. The good part? The acting, which was solid the entire way through. It's really not that bad a film, but perhaps one needs to see really bad films to realize that.
Sam gave it a6:
I'm not surprised the movie was critically panned. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy myself.
Nick B gave it a3:
The best thing I can say about this movie, aside from the competent space battles (I liked the WWII thematics of the fighters) was that, when viewing it in the theatre many years ago, the projector broke and the film burned up. We all got complimentary tickets....woo hoo!.....that allowed us to return another day to see a better movie.
Pat C. gave it a 0:
This should be rated under video games.
Anders B. gave it a10:
Brilliantly scripted and marvelously acted Sci-Fi movie based on the all-time favorite PC-game. The intense combination of an intergalactic war-story and a classic Shakespearian love-tale makes this movie an adrenaline-pumping tears-jerker of historical proportion. Mankind can traverse the darkest depths of space, it will always bring along its emotions! The Kilrathi character-depth is the secret of its success, diminishing the personality of Hamlet to a superficial cartoon-character. While the lines spoken by the Kilrathi have the rhythm of a Swiss watch, it is the depth of their meanings that truly fascinates. Only repeated viewing can reveal the many layers of its message. Once discovered, your will agree that this is what takes Wing Commander beyond the level of the greatest classics of Hollywood or even global cinema. The people of the future will divide human history in the pre-Wing Commander era (or the Dark Age) and the post-Wing Commander era, when humanity finally became enlightened by this masterpiece and its powerful message. At a lower level, you are bound to forget the part of your life that was spent - wasted really - before you could become a wittness yourself to the brillance that is Wing Commander. Oscars may be awarded for artistry in film-making, only a Nobel Prize (or several) could do justice to the levels of excellence reached by Wing Commander. This production will no-doubt be remembered by the many generations to come as a turning point in movie-making. Its message, when correctly interpreted, will influence society as only the Holy Bible may have done before. Be ready to experience never-felt-before emotions as you watch this hallmark movie over and over again. It will leave its tracks on your soul – tractor-pull deep tracks.
J B gave it a6:
It really saddens me to see this film here. Let me break it down: the settings and scenery and especially the Kilrathi (cat-people) costumes were clearly produced on a low budget. That's the bad part. The good part? The acting, which was solid the entire way through. It's really not that bad a film, but perhaps one needs to see really bad films to realize that.
