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      Wing Commander

      PG-13 Released Mar 12, 1999 1 hr. 40 min. Sci-Fi List
      10% 51 Reviews Tomatometer 26% 10,000+ Ratings Audience Score A space pilot (Freddie Prinze Jr.) with an encoded message, his sidekick (Matthew Lillard) and their superior (Saffron Burrows) fight attacking aliens. Read More Read Less Watch on Fandango at Home Premiered Jan 02 Buy Now

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      Critics Consensus

      The low budget may explain Wing Commander's cheesy special effects, but can't excuse the lame dialogue or the movie's obsessive reliance on sci-fi cliches.

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      Audience Reviews

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      harry r A fun and thoroughly enjoyable movie. This is one of the few movies I really like David Warner. When he is good, he is great. Although, this is not a big part for him, it suited him very well. I dont know what is up with Jürgen Prochnow. His best part was in Dune. I have not seen anything as good as that yet and this just takes away from his persona. David Suchat, hmmm, I did not like his part in this, but that might be a good thing for his character. I'm undecided since I really did not care for him in this movie. Freddie, Matthew, Saffron, and Tchéky with David, were a great mix that made this movie. I liked the background and interaction with the present in the movie. I have not seen the video game so my opinion might have been different otherwise, but as a new viewer to this movie, It was a refreshing change in Sci Fi that told a good story. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Yes, I played the video games and this movie is nothing like them but a good entertaining B flick for its time. Much better than Mortal Combat, Street Fighter, and other crap video game movies of the time. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review jonathan d Are used to adore this movie when I was younger but, upon a recent viewing of this movie I couldn't help but be aghast. This movie is absolutely atrocious. I wish that it was better given the source material that they had to work with. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member I spent several decades avoiding this film because I thought it would be horrible but it's actually not that bad! There are three major flaws that I'm guessing most people can't get over. The first is a handful of illogical moments that happen because the movie needs drama to occur. The second is the Kilrathi design. I get that they didn't want to make them cute-and-cuddly like in the video game - likely because they didn't want the audience to empathize with them, so instead they made them "scary generic" - but it just sorta falls flat. The third is, of course, the cast. I actually feel like most of the cast did a decent job here, but Freddy Prince Jr., who plays the lead...let's just say that when you are being upstaged by Matthew Lillard, you probably shouldn't be the movies lead. To be fair, this would be the character that you play in the game, so he pulls off that bland "every man" type, but in the movie he comes off as TOO bland. Other than that, the plot to the movie is serviceable...if not slightly jumbled... and the film doesn't really overstay its welcome. There are some nice space-combat action scenes. Despite not using the theme from the game - which is a classic ;) - the David Arnold score is quite good and Arnold is exactly who you'd want to score to a sci-fi space move like this. I'm actually surprised at how competent this move is considering that it's Chris Robert's first movie and that Hollywood was actually willing to give some video game nerd money to make a movie in the late 90s (those experimental days are long gone, I'm afraid). I think perhaps people are disappointed because the writing and characters in the original games are much better than what's put on display here - hell, even the ship design and costumes were better in the games - but it's not a bad way to waste 90 minutes, so long as you know what you are getting into and aren't coming from the video games expecting some grand, elegant sci-fi epic. I think the movie's greatest fault is that, like most vg adaptations, it suffers from video game was better sydrome Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review ruben r Sci-fi blandness. But that star wars trailer was cool right? Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review steve d The cast may have pulled it off given a better script. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Critics Reviews

      View All (51) Critics Reviews
      Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly Rated: F Sep 7, 2011 Full Review Empire Magazine Playing up the military angle is the best move, but this and some excellent incidental effects can't completely disguise the shortcomings. Rated: 3/5 Apr 7, 2010 Full Review Lisa Alspector Chicago Reader Excruciatingly earnest yet convictionless. Apr 7, 2010 Full Review Mike Massie Gone With The Twins It would have worked better as a single episode of a sci-fi television show rather than a standalone theatrical picture. Rated: 3/10 Sep 25, 2020 Full Review Sebastian Zavala Kahn Más Gamers One of the most kitschy adaptation of a video game to film, and one of the biggest box office failures ever. [Full review in Spanish] Rated: 1/4 Oct 17, 2016 Full Review Brian Costello Common Sense Media Cliched sci-fi movie has slow pace, gratuitous sex talk. Rated: 2/5 Sep 21, 2015 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis A space pilot (Freddie Prinze Jr.) with an encoded message, his sidekick (Matthew Lillard) and their superior (Saffron Burrows) fight attacking aliens.
      Director
      Chris Roberts
      Executive Producer
      Joseph Newton Cohen, Jean-Martial Lefranc, Romain Schroeder
      Screenwriter
      Chris Roberts, Chris Roberts, Kevin Droney
      Distributor
      20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures Entertainment
      Production Co
      20th Century Fox
      Rating
      PG-13
      Genre
      Sci-Fi
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Mar 12, 1999, Original
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Jun 30, 2012
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $11.6M
      Sound Mix
      Surround, Dolby Digital
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