Seeing Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard featured on the poster, you’d be forgiven for thinking this movie must be She’s All That in space.
Once you pop it in the DVD/Blu-ray player (or VCR if you’re still one of the cool ones), you quickly realize that Rachel Leigh-Cook is nowhere to be seen, there’s no space DJ played by Usher, and even if Anna Paquin were to come in and give it a makeover, there’s probably no saving this movie.
It’s Wing Commander, and it’s here to show you the most poorly designed alien costumes since Howard the Duck.
Though it’s probably the most derided sci-fi film since Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and made less at the box office than Baby Geniuses, not everything about this movie is terrible.
Here are 4 things about Wing Commander that are actually cool:
1. The Soundtrack
The film’s score was composed by Kevin Kiner (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Stargate: SG-1) with a sweeping main overture composed by David Arnold (Stargate, every Pierce Brosnan Bond movie except Goldeneye).
The main theme is probably what most people remember about the movie. It’s an epic, militaristic march that sounds like General Patton leading a campaign against space Nazis on Venus. Give it a listen if it’s been awhile.
It will for sure make you want to break out any loose WC action figures you have collecting dust in the attic and recreate all your favorite moments.
2. The Cast
Besides Prinze Jr. and Lillard, this movie is like a Hickory Farms sampler basket of familiar faces.
Seeing actors like David Suchet (Agatha Christie’s Poirot), Jurgen Prochnow (Das Boot), Hugh Quarshie (it’s Captain Panaka!), Saffron Burrows (Troy), and Tchéky Karyo (The Patriot) makes you point at the TV and say “Hey I know them! They were on…uh…they’re from that one movie…” more times than you can count.
Notice the heading says “The Cast” and not “The Cast’s Performances”. Let’s just say they did the best with the script they had, and Matthew Lillard’s Eminem-blonde hair is the real star of the show.
3. The Starships
Even if some of the special effects are cheesier than a Big Kahuna Burger, the Wing Commander spaceships are still pretty cool. From the Rapier starfighters to the Kilrathi ships, you can be sure something is going up in a pulse-wave-induced ball of fire somewhere along the line.
After reading all you can about Star Wars’ Star Destroyers and Battlestar Galactica’s Battlestars, it may be high time to delve into some Wing Commander ships.
4. It’s One of the Movies That Played The Phantom Menace Trailer
If you’ve ever picked up an issue of Star Wars: Insider magazine or know a fan of the Prequels, you’ve probably heard the story of the Star Wars fans in 1999 who payed full price for a movie ticket, only to walk out of the theatre after the trailer for The Phantom Menace had played.
Many of those movie tickets were for Wing Commander.
Most of the would-be moviegoers tried to get refunds for their tickets, which the theatres soon caught onto. Special disclaimers began to be displayed in the lobbies to let audiences know that if they bought a ticket for Wing Commander, they were in it for the long haul.
“Au revoir, mes amis.”
If you haven’t already guessed, I like this movie. Call me a traitor, turn me into powdered milk, and feed me to a hungry Kilrathi, but it’s an intergalactic war movie with 90s explosions, so I can’t help but like it.
Where else do you get to see space pilots rip their flight masks off like they’re badass TOPGUN students and use the word “quasar” like it’s going out of style?
Watch your movies. Wear your movies.
(Affiliate links help support the site. Any commissions may also be used buy used Wing Commander toys from eBay).
