Wing Commander

The original Wing Commander video games were not-so-subtle rip-offs of the Star Wars franchise — think Star Wars without the Force or Jedi, concentrating just on space combat. (Mark Hammill was even cast as the main character when they began incorporating live-action cut-scenes into the game, forever cementing the connection.)

So one can understand that when Chris Roberts decided to bring it to the big screen, he felt the need to make changes to the Wing Commander franchise to differentiate it more from the Star Wars franchise — thus the clunky WW2 fighter designs and naval-style battles. Although this works fine on film, it really changes the look and feel of the franchise completely, giving nothing for fans of the amazing games to connect with… and lets face it, fans of the games were really the core target audience (or should have been!)

The whole added subplot about the “Pilgrims” — something not found in the games — felt a little bit like a rip-off of Star Wars’ “The Force” in a way, too (that is, as we understood the Force before The Empire Strikes Back): a plot device to give the main character a special power to set him apart from the other characters. Again, it works okay, but I wish Roberts had taken all the time spent talking about the Pilgrims and used it instead to flesh out the enemy Kilrathi, who were much more interesting and fully-realized characters in the video games. (Though admittedly, the budget probably wouldn’t have allowed that much time with the creature effects.)

It’s bound to be a disappointment for fans of the video game franchise upon which it was based, simply because it had so little in common — and because the video games themselves featured more well-known actors, such as Mark Hammill, Malcolm McDowell, John Rhys-Davies and Tom Wilson.

But in the end, it still makes a fine sci-fi film, well worth watching if you’re flipping channels and find it on television, or renting if you are a fan of the sci-fi genre or any of the film’s actors.