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Wing Commander/ 1/2* (rated PG-13)
When I decide to create this film review site, I made a promise to my wonderfully supportive mother. I promised that I would write nice reviews. It seems that nobody will go to movies with me anymore as I have a tendency to offer only negative opinions. Indeed, if you read my review of "Analyze This", you will see that I was able to find much to praise. Unfortunately, in reviewing "Wing Commander", I must break my promise to my mother (and it is only my first issue). You see, there is very little if anything good that can be said about this movie. Not only does this film not seem to understand when and where the story is set, not only does it not demonstrate a basic understanding of high school science, it has a nasty racist undertone that cannot be tolerated (more about that later).
Wing Commander is a film that is based on a popular CD-ROM based
computer game. I must confess that I have never played this particular
game. When it comes to movies based on games, the record is not
very good. The movie based on the game "Clue" at least
stood a chance as it had characters that had the potential of
fleshing out into an interesting story. Wing Commander, a standard
shoot-em-up, didn't stand a chance.
The movie opens with an interesting montage of voices, beginning
with President John F. Kennedy's speech declaring mankind's destiny
in space. On-screen titles then tell us that it is the year 2654,
and in the centuries since President Kennedy made that declaration,
apparently things are not going well. The Earth Confederation
has failed in its negotiations with a race known as Kilrathi who
then turns around and attack a Confederation base in a Pearl Harbor-
type attack, destroying much of the Confederation fleet. It is
then up to a group of fighter pilots, "Maverick" (Freddie
Prinze, Jr), "Paladin" (Tcheky Karyo) and "Angel"
(Saffron Burrows) to get to Earth in time to save the planet from
a massive attack.
Whereas "Starship Troopers" tried to recreate the films
that were made in the early years of WWII, "Wing Commander"
is very much a traditional battleship movie in the style of "Destination
Tokyo" and "Action in the North Atlantic", with
a dash of "They Were Expendable". Unfortunately, the
production team decided to make this 30th Century spaceship look
like a WWII submarine, right down to the doorknobs, desks and
lights. In one horrific moment, the inside of a co-ed pilot's
lounge is decorated with what appear to be pin-up posters purchased
from the local poster shop! In fact, many of the props seemed
to have come from the neighborhood stationary store. To make matters
worse, this ship, which can't decide if it is an aircraft carrier
or a submarine, has both a flat-top to launch planes and tubes
to launch "torpedoes" (Don't get me started aboutwhy
do the pilots wear helmets with WWII era oxygen masks which they
snap on before each run).
All of this would be a simple space film except for a very nasty
subplot with a nasty racist overtone. It seems that "Maverick",
played by Freddie Prinze, Jr. (the son of the late comedian) is
a member of a group of Earthlings known as "Pilgrims".
Apparently, they are an old race of humans who were the first
to explore the galaxy and thus possess unique navigation skills.
If these are supposed to be a reference to the stereotype of Native
Americans, then the name Pilgrim is rather twisted. In any case,
it seems that the Pilgrims were on the wrong side of some past
war and now they are hated. Here then is the problem; the film
is laced with characters who refuse to work with "Maverick",
fight with him, or accept his knowledge accompanied by variations
of "half-breed" and "those people". If in
the end, when "Maverick" uses these skills to successfully
bring the fleet to Earth to defend the planet, there was a scene
in which the other characters learn the ignorance of their beliefs,
then the film could be credited with teaching an important lesson.
Instead, the film ends with just the usual "we are alive,
let's kiss" scene. This has the effect of making it seem
that it is ok to hate someone or subject him or her to ridicule
because of their race. The filmmakers opened the door to discuss
a serious subject and then turn their backs in favor of a happier
ending. Calling this irresponsible is a severe understatement.
What we are left with is a mess of a movie that cannot decide
where it is or what it wants to say.
The film was shot in "The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg", so I guess the whole film was meant to provide all the parties involved with one big tax shelter. As for my rating, I was tempted to give the film a "BOMB" rating, but decided to give it a half a star for the performance of Saffron Burrows as "Angel". She is the ship's Wing Commander. In that role, she often gives the order "Ladies, let's fight" as well as as John Wayne ever did in similar roles. Her work in Circle of Friends was outstanding. She deserves a lot better then this film.
Note: one other thing bothers me. The point of science fiction
is that the film has a science component that should at least
be given lip service. In numerous scenes, references are made
to the ships "SONAR", "RADAR" and "RADIO".
The aforementioned inventions of the early 20th Century have one
thing in common: SOUND. SONAR works by bouncing sound off of ship's
under water. RADAR does the same in the air. Radio uses sound
waves to transmit voices. ALL of these require air, which does
not exist in space. In one very bad scene they play the "we
are in a submarine and the enemy is dropping depth charges so
lets all be very quiet scene". OK, let me explain this one
more time. In a space ship, in the middle of space, Led Zeppelin
could be blasting away in Quad Dolby Surround Sound and no one
out side would hear a thing. In space no one can hear you scream,
except in theaters where you can hear audiences screaming for
the exits.
Rated PG-13