wing comander

Wing Commander

Before I begin I would just like to say that I have only played very little of the wing commander game. I looked up the plot on Wikipedia and the characters and found out some other interesting info so please keep that in mind as you read this and I hope you enjoy.

The plot to wing commander is actually pretty cool. In the wing commander universe there are humans and a cat like warrior race known as the Kilrathi. Humans have discovered space travel and have also invented the Nav computer which allows there ships to make “jumps” between points in space. At the begging of the movie we see the Kilrathi attacking a human ship and they steal the Nav computer and plan on using it to find a jump point close to earth.

After this event we are introduced to our main characters 1st lt. Christopher Blair and lt. Todd Marshall. They are being transported to the ship tiger claw and have just graduated fro flight academy. After some banter the ship’s captain Taggert tells Lt. Marshall to head towards a jump point and retreats to his room. There Blair and Taggert have a talk about a race of humans called pilgrims who helped plot the original jump points and we find out that Blair has a connection to the pilgrims in some way as he carries a cross that represents them.

About now an alarm goes off and both Blair and Taggert race to the cockpit and find out that Todd has increased the speed which has pushed them closer to a gravitatational pull stronger then the sun. The Nav computer goes down and Blair plots a course manually faster than the Nav computer can.

Bye now Blair and Todd have been delivered to the tiger claw and Blair delivers the message that was given to him by the admiral t o give to the captain of the tiger claw. It is reviled to the second in command of the tiger claw that Blair is part pilgrim and this upsets him as the pilgrim war was a horrible memory of his.

Here we are introduced to the rest of the grew which involves some minor characters and the two love interests one is Rosie a black female pilot that ends up giving Todd his call sign maniac and the other is angel(her call sign). After some conversations and a small conflict again over Blair being a pilgrim the pilots then head to the flight deck for some training and recon.

Rosie takes maniac (Todd) up and they go back and forth trying out out fly each other and you can see they have a connection. Then a little later when Blair and angel go up they run into the Kilrathi. The two fighters try to hide but one of the Kilrathi gets a lock on angel and Blair saves her. However when the get back to the ship Blair is again questioned because of his heritage and whether or not the Kilrathi had a lock on angel.

The tiger claw then gets word that the Kilrathi or planning an attack and they are to intercept. So Blair, Maniac, Angel, Rosie and Taggert all go out to find and destroy a ship. When they get closer to the ship Taggert realizes it’s a trap to draw them away from the tiger claw and reveals he is actually a commander and his call sign is paladin and he orders them to return to the tiger claw.

They all return in time to see it getting attacked and engage the enemy but take severe damage in the process. After hiding on a crater they discover that the tiger claws fuel cells are depleted and plan a raid on a Kilrathi ship that has been bombing the asteroid the tiger claw is on.

Maniac, Rosie and the other pilots go out in there fighters while Blair, Taggert and a boarding party head to the ship. Both teams are successful and they find the fuel cells as well as the Nav computer that has the jump points for earth the Kilrathi plan on using for their attack.

On the way back to the ship Rosie and Todd get into another game of one upmenship but in an accident Rosie's wing is clipped and her ship crashes causing her death. Maniac is torn up over the loss of Rosie and refuses to fly until angel gives him a pep talk. The crew of the tiger claw then makes plans to get to earth and relay the info of the jump points the Kilrathi plan on using.

Blair and angel go out as Blair has to make it to a jump point to escape the fighters attacking the tiger claw and warn earth. During their escape angels ship gets destroyed and she has to eject. At first Blair wants to return angels pod to the tiger claw but she refuses the help reminding Blair earth is more important than her and to go.

Blair is almost to the jump point when a Kilrathi destroyer starts chasing him and Blair realizes the only way to escape is to lead the destroyer into a quasar that it can’t escape but the only way to do this is program the Nav computer faster than is possible. Using his pilgrim heritage Blair accomplishes this task and out fly’s the destroyer.

He then makes it to the earth forces and alerts them to the Kilrathi's jump points. The earth’s ships get there in time and set up a 300 like defense where they blast the Kilrathi ships one by one as they exit the jump point earth is saved and Blair learns that maniac and angel and Taggert are all ok.

This review has been one of the hardest so far because it has more plot then any video game movie before it and the next part where I compare won’t be easy either because this is also the first and as far as I know only video game movie to be written and directed by the same guy that invented the game.

Now I have played very little wing commander but I’ve done a lot of research and all the major characters are here paladin angel maniac and Blair are the main characters from the game and the Kilrathi are the main bad guys from the game. Also commander Chen is mentioned who is another character from the game.

The movie itself is actually a pretty good sci-fi movie I mean it’s no star wars but the space dog fights are pretty neat and the originality of it comes from the ww2 like design of the rapier fighters and the sub like design of the bigger cruisers and destroyers. Personally Mathew Lillard is my favorite actor in this movie and out shines Freddie prince in my opinion.

The other things that make this movie different from others based on games is that instead of being a retelling of an already established game story line it actually is a prequel taking place one month before the first game and was made official cannon so it’s not based on a game it is part of the story line much like star wars the forced unleashed was made officially part of the star wars saga story line.
The story of the movie like I said before is pretty in depth for one based on a game and the acting while not the next citizen Cain or anything is pretty decent.

The only complaints I’ve seen from fans of the games is one the look of the Kilrathi and two the actors chosen and I’d like to address those now. As far as the Kilrathi go even the director was not happy with how they looked and has publicly said he could never get there look right and was always unsatisfied with it.

The second is the actors again this was the directors choice in the game Mark Hamil was cast I mean he got Luke Skywalker himself but in the movie he used a lot of fresh actors but as with the games he choose the actors based on acting skill not how they look compared to the character they are portraying. So in that aspect it’s just like the games. So now on to the scores.

Overall I give the movie 7 out of 10 rapier ships. The movie gave us classic wing commander story good acting and some decent special effects and action scenes.

I’d give the acting 7 out of 10. The performances are good and I didn’t really have a problem with anyone I’m not the biggest Freddie prince fan.

The plot gets 10 out of 10 for the simple fact that it was written by the same guy that writes the game and considered part of the official story line so it when comparing it automatically gets a 10

And the content gets a 9 out of a 10 the only thing I felt was missing was a little more diversity in the ships then just the rapier class fighter.

Ok so another one down sorry it took so long to get out. Up next is the first tomb raider move Angelina Jolie skin tight outfits and guns what more could you ask for.