Red-Barracuda In the distant future, humanity is threatened by enemy aliens called the Kilrathi who have stolen a device that allows them to travel through worm holes in space, allowing them the chance launch a deadly surprise attack on planet Earth any time soon. A fighter squadron are the last hope. Two young bucks called Maverick and Maniac, along with female wing commander Angel lead the fight-back.Wing Commander is one of that unloved subset of movies that was based around a video game. I think it's only fair to say that this has rarely proved to be a winning idea. I personally haven't even heard of the game Wing Commander but suspect that it had little in the way of narrative impetus for a movie plot-line to easily be constructed around. In effect, this feels like a space adventure based around the plot of an old World War II fighter pilot yarn. It has the clichéd characters and basic idea that could just as easily be used for a film of that type. This one is typical of many sci-fi space adventures of the late 90's in that it is completely bland with workmanlike special effects and almost nothing to differentiate it from the crowd. The action scenes are quite tedious to be honest and the screenplay is highly mediocre. The film is not helped very much by having Freddie Prinze Jr and Matthew Lillard star as the two central heroes; they seriously fail to convince in these roles and are far too light-weight. There is a decent international cast of respected actors in many of the periphery roles but each and every one of the parts they play are what I would term 'exposition characters', i.e. people who turn up to say something bland but plot-forwarding (sort of like actors in a TV hospital soap opera). Finally, we have very poorly defined and ridiculous looking aliens (who look like comedy cats). They are hardly on screen at all in any case, so much so that it is hard really caring much about them.I wouldn't say this film is really terrible exactly but it is an extremely underwhelming experience. You really need to be a fairly forgiving sci-fi nut to get too much out of this one I reckon.

cornerhorn I have seen this movie 6 times and am about to watch it again tonight. This is along the quality of Serenity, another movie that seems rated less than it deserved. People, this is not Star Wars, or Star Trek! It's better in many ways. How did IMDb get this down to a 3.8? It used to be ranked over 6.5 and I see movies that are horrible ranked above 7. What are people smoking these days? I have 1400 movies, 200 of the top 250, and I am 46, been around a long while seen over 10000 movies. I know good when I see it. This movie is great! Has romance, action, suspense, plot is thick, story is plausible, and it resonates with real life. Good effects, not a B movie, has top actors. What more can you ask for out of Sci Fi? You will never see this remade and if it did get a remake, it would not be as well done, not unless they spent millions then it would top Iron Man in that case. Don't think you could make a Marvel Character out of anyone in this movie, but maybe find a bad guy for the Avengers to fight? Maybe. I rank this a solid 7!

psi_chotic Let's be honest, 95% of the people who saw this in the theater only did so because it was the first movie to feature the Star Wars: Episode I trailer. Otherwise it's not worth the price of a ticket. I found this movie to be utterly unremarkable/unmemorable.Let's see...some good stuff: It's got some cool explosions in it, and some hilarious/awful overacting by Matthew Lillard. Freddie Prinze Jr. also does his best to be melodramatic, but I think Lillard has him beat. I kept waiting for Lillard to shout "GAME OVER, MAN, GAME OVER!"...that's about all his part missed. All in all, it's 2 hours of eye candy. But a good movie, it ain't.

Alexander Hartmann This is not a Academy Award winner, nor is it an example of fine acting, nor is it a riveting plot with significant ties to philosophy, life, God, blah blah blah blah ... it's an action/sci-fi movie, so please leave your brain at door and just enjoy this for what it is.I'm a fan of the Starship Troopers type genre (book was first, movie later) - lots of action, leave brain at door, watch the effects, enjoy the 2 hours of reckless fun! This film, like Starship and others like it, is *just* a fun film to enjoy! I never played the game - and this is the crux of my review - I played something else that seems to predate Wing Commander: "Descent: Freespace - The Great War". I couldn't help but think that there was SO much reference to everything about Freespace, it wasn't funny. The ships, the enemy, jump points, literally everything. It was like watching a movie of the game I just played. BTW, I still play Freespace from time to time - it's good fun.I did briefly enjoy the "role reprisal" of Jürgen Prochnow in "Das Boot" - "reload tubes 1 and 2, fire when ready": said almost the same line in both movies.Anyway, I enjoyed it; give it another go and see!