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Plot |
In the distant future the United Earth forces are in the midst of intergalactic war with a race known as the Kilrathi. As the film opens the Kilrathi carry out a surprise attack on an Earth forward base and capture the hyperspace jump coordinates to Earth itself. When Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn (David Warner) learns of this he sends word to the star fighter carrier TCS Tiger Claw by another ship that was delivering two fresh pilots and a shipment of supplies. At first the message isn’t received because one of the pilots, Lt. Christopher Blair (Freddie Prinze Jr.) is discovered to be a pilgrim (combatant in an early human war). This causes some conflict amongst the pilots because pilgrims have been thought to be sabotaging war efforts. Lt. Blair must prove himself, mostly to his superior officer, Lt. Cdr. Deveraux (Saffron Burrows), gain her trust so they can defeat the Kilrahi and save Earth. |
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Character Development |
A couple characters needed to believe in themselves in the end, but there isn’t really much time devoted to any character development. At 100 minutes there was not a lot of time given to development of anything so the storyline was rather simple and light for the most part. |
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Acting |
The acting remains serviceable here. One of the performances I would have liked extended would be the role of Admiral Tolwyn (David Warner). I was disappointed not to see more of him on the screen. But the other actors did a believe job for what they were given in way of lines. Other performances that stood out where that of Saffron Burrows, Tchéky Lillard, Jürgen Prochnow, and David Suchet. |
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Overview |
Few movies have Earth in an intergalactic war with an alien race or with space battles where there are capital ships and carrier ships and dozens of space fighters zooming about on either side. Other than this movie I can only think of Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica and Battlestar Galactica wasn’t a movie so I am thinking maybe Wing Commander could have been better served as a TV Show too. Perhaps in a TV Show there could be been room for more character development because this movie didn’t allow much time for that. Regardless there was something here, beyond its faults and sidesteps I think what was done here was special. From all the work that went in the video game by the same name over the years I thought that this story deserved a movie to be made in its honor, it is just a shame that the creators of this movie weren’t able to dream a little bigger no matter what obstacle got in their way. |
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