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The
Franchise That Could Have Been†
Perhaps
the most popular series in personal computer gaming history
is Chris Roberts' incredible Wing Commander series of space
flight simulators. The game placed you into the action as
Christopher Blair and pitted you against the greatest enemy
race Earth has ever known, the Kilrathi. The game mixed a
good bit of humor and storyline with a decent space flight
simulator. Everything was futuristic and the characters really
helped the faux storyline along. Origin had a winner on their
hands and have spawned it into quite a successful franchise
that has seen the Privateer spinoffs and others. Wing Commander
was to space combat, what Mortal Kombat was to fighting games.
After the
solid success of the two Mortal Kombat films and other video
game based hits, it only seemed natural that Wing Commander
would make it to the silver screen. Science Fiction films
have seen modest success over the past couple of years and
would blast into hyperdrive with the upcoming Star Wars Episode
1: The Phantom Menace. It took a bit of time, but Twentieth
Century Fox brought the video game classic to the silver screen
with a budget of $30 million and a release date that would
come before the Star Wars behemoth. However, unlike Origin
and the PC game franchise, Twentieth Century Fox would produce
an absolute bomb that would open on more than two thousand
screens and make under $12 million in box office receipts.
In my honest
opinion, a couple major mistakes were made during the filming
of Wing Commander. First of all, Mark Hamill (aka Luke Skywalker)
portrayed the main character in the game series and only appeared
in the film as ¨the voice of merlin' and was credited as being
¨?.' With Star Wars Episode 1 on the horizon, Hamill would
have been a mark of genius as being cast as Blair in the film
version. The second major goof was the desire by Roberts and
others to mimic another film of recent times, Starship Troopers.
It seems that the moviegoers are getting tired of the teen-hits
and want more mature films. Wing Commander is a sad attempt
to combine science fiction with I Still Know What You Did
Last Summer. Guess what? It doesn't work well here. A few
more veteran actors and a more mature and entertaining character
set would have been better. All we had in the film was Paladin
(Tcheky Karyo) and Commander Paul Gerald (Jurgen Prochnow).
The worst casting possible was Matthew Lillard as Maniac.
Roberts should have portrayed this character more closely
to the game and had someone that looked grizzled and of the
edge, not someone that has yet to reach puberty.
Other than
the horrible casting errors, the storytelling and Kilrathi
came in at sub par. If you have ever played the game, you
would know about the kitty taunts and other enjoyment against
the Kilrathi. The cat-like Kilrathi looked nothing like felines
in the film and had less character than the skeletons from
Raiders of the Lost Ark. One or two kitty taunts would have
made the film entertaining. The Kilrathi looked poor and at
the end of the film, you would know nothing of them from watching
the film alone. I could point out deficiencies and errors
in the making of Wing Commander for a week, but casting, poor
characters and lack of attention to the Kilrathi were the
major mistakes made. Twentieth Century Fox should have easily
put a product that would have grossed $75 million or more
at the box office, but sadly, they did not.
Wing Commander
is a tale about a bunch of young hotshots who are Earth's
only hope to save the planet from an enemy race known as the
Kilrathi. The Kilrathi have won a major battle and secured
a computer that plots navigational points and paves the way
to Earth. Ironically, this computer, which is in a language
foreign to the Kilrathi easily plugs into their communication
ship's systems and lets them prepare to travel to Earth. The
spacecraft carrier, Tiger's Claw, is the only ship that can
stop them before the Kilrathi reach the jump point to finally
defeat the human element.
The Tiger's
Claw is running short on crew members. Their very young crew
is augmented by adding Christopher Blair (Freddie Prinze,
Jr.) and Maniac (Matthew Lillard). Blair is a half-breed of
a race of humans that are hated outcasts by the crew of the
Tiger's Claw and has trouble fitting in. Maniac is a platinum
haired wonder of intelligence. He sounds unintelligent and
becomes rather annoying at a fast pace. The rest of the crew
is run by Angel (Saffron Burrows) and they fly around in some
extremely old looking starfighters that defract from the wonder
of the original game. Eventually, Maniac makes some bad moves
and must redeem himself, Angel and Blair fall in love and
of course, Blair overcomes his ¨pilgrim' heritage and single
handedly saves Earth from the Kilrathi threat.
The story
is an absolute joke and slap in the face to the legions of
loyal Wing Commander fans who eagerly anticipated the film
and stood in line to purchase tickets. For an unknown reason,
Chris Roberts and his writers changed the story drastically
from the original storyline that made the game such a hit.
The main characters are the only three that seem to ever be
around for hairy situations. Whether it is to save the Tiger's
Claw from an ambush, man the bridge during a first attack
or to be in a maintenance bay when the ship is being attacked
again and nearly get sucked out a hull breach, the story tries
to hard to create the ultimate hero factor for its main characters.
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
Most of
the visual effects in Wing Commander look very well done.
There are certainly times when the film takes on a heavy CGI
look, but it does not take much away from the picture. The
Kilrathi spacecraft look wonderful, though the Kilrathi creatures
do not. The human spacecraft are absolutely horrible to the
eye. The first issue is the huge mass driver cannons on the
front of the Rapier starfighters. The Rapiers look too familiar
to old F-86 Sabre aircraft of the Korean War. They look old
and it is hard to believe they have any chance against the
Kilrathi Dralthi fighters. Credit really has to be given for
the nearly top notch CGI work done in a film that cost only
$30 million dollars. The film is behind such wunderkind as
Starship Troopers and The Phantom Menace, but it is just as
good as Star Trek Insurrection.
Credit also
has to be given to Twentieth Century Fox for a wonderful visual
presentation of the disc. The film is presented in its original
2.35:1 aspect ratio, but sadly, it is not anamorphic. The
film features many space sequences and therefore demands strong
black levels and shadow detail. The CGI elements and compression
of the DVD are splendid. And speaking of compression, there
are absolutely no errors to be found in the digital transfer.
Contrast levels are solid, as skin tones are dead on and colors
are remarkably bright and vivid showcasing solid color saturation.
Detail is stunning and would certainly show the faults of
the CGI work. The fact that faults were not found while viewing
the picture is another testament to the great bargain priced
effects of the film. It has been said that modern pictures
need to cost around $80 million or more to look like Wing
Commander, but they have proved them wrong. Overall, the visuals
of this film are well done and the disc only suffers from
not being 16x9 anamorphically enhanced.
Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?
The best
reason to purchase the Wing Commander DVD is the sonic pleasure
received while watching the film in multi-channel 5.1 Dolby
Digital sound. Wing Commander has many sequences of space
battle and loud events in the Tiger's Claw. There is a ton
of space combat, hyperspace jumps and things that go ¨bang.'
The film does move rather quickly and it does keep the action
coming. There are scenes of dialogue in the picture, but most
of these are energetic and perhaps hide many of the actors
dramatic shortcomings. The nature of this picture demands
a solid soundtrack to allow the full sonic presence of the
film to be heard. Since the film was a total bomb in the box
office, it came as a bit of a surprise that Twentieth Century
Fox would release something that could be considered reference
quality in regards to audio presentation.
Wing Commander
rocks audibly. All 5.1 channels are used throughout the film
and they are used well. The .1 LFE subwoofer channel bumps
continuously through most of the film and sets a curfew time
due to the fact it will cause your neighbors to complain about
all the thumping. Very impressive was the top-notch use of
the split surrounds that are capable thanks to Dolby Digital
AC-3 and DTS surround sound. This disc, which is Dolby Digital
keeps things moving all around the room and from one side
to another. There are many times when one surround speaker
is extremely full of life, while the other one is playing
second fiddle. The front channels and center speaker never
slow down. From the opening credits to the closing credits
they are rather busy. Dialogue and clarity are as good as
it can get, but be warned, if you have your volume set where
the dialogue is nice and loud, you are going to be pasted
against the wall during some explosion sequences. I will probably
watch this film again once or twice just to enjoy the soundtrack.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There? Twentieth
Century Fox has fumbled the ball again in respect to Wing
Commander by giving it a $34.95 price. In recent times, some
studios have learned that science fiction bombs can become
huge sellers on DVD if they are packaged nicely, given a good
price and chocked full of supplements. A great example of
this is New Line's Lost In Space. Twentieth Century Fox has
proven with this release that they do not fully understand
the DVD market yet. They have included a few supplements on
the disc, but nothing to get excited about. First of all,
there is there is the original theatrical trailer. This is
standard on fox releases. They have also included some decent
animated menus that are full of sound and little going ons.
The only true extra supplement listed is the original television
spots. Included are a couple of television commercials that
were used to poorly advertise the picture. Looking through
the menus, one can also stumble across an unlisted feature.
There are some talent information to be found if you look.
Then again, my copy was a test disc and perhaps some strange
twist of fate kept them from the production discs.
Parting Thoughts
Fox really
could have had something when they got the rights to Wing
Commander. The film had a very large following from its personal
computer days. The characters were entertaining, the story
fairly solid and great potential for effects. The lead character
was played by the first Star Wars trilogy's main character,
Mark Hamill. What more could you want to spin a new and successful
franchise? However, once Wing Commander was delivered to the
big screen, it quickly became a bomb and a lesson of what
not to do in Hollywood cinema. A large portion of its $11
million plus final gross came from viewers going to see the
Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace trailer. The marketing
and development of Wing Commander was horrendous and the final
numbers show. Many a faithful fan, including myself, felt
disappointed and betrayed by the picture. It really could
have been better.
As far as
the DVD goes, it is expensive. There are a minor amount of
supplements, though the overall treatment is rather good.
The sound quality is about as good as it gets and my hat goes
off to all of those who worked on the original Dolby Digital
5.1 mix and the DVDs Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. The picture quality
is extremely good as well, but loses some points because of
it not being anamorphically enhanced for 16x9 televisions.
A special edition and lower price point could have brought
Fox a great deal of money in the DVD marketplace, but they
fumbled. Poor film, low supplements, great sound, solid picture
but overall disappointment. Perhaps if I ever finish one of
my screenplays and make it to Hollywood I can have a part
in Wing Commander 2 and get things fixed.
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