Wing Commander (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Wing Commander |
| Original title | Wing Commander |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1999 |
| length | 100 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard Donner |
| script |
Chris Roberts , Kevin Droney |
| production |
Lauren Shuler Donner , Richard Donner Todd Moyer |
| music |
David Arnold , Kevin Kiner |
| camera | Thierry Arbogast |
| cut | Peter Davies |
| occupation | |
| |
Wing Commander is an American science fiction film from 1999 . It is based on the computer game series of the same name . Directed by Richard Donner and written by Kevin Droney and Chris Roberts , who also developed the game series.
action
In the year 2654 mankind has been at war for a long time with the Kilrathi, an alien and very aggressive race with whom it is impossible to establish diplomatic relations.
The Kilrathi manage to deliver a decisive blow against the humans by destroying one of the most important outposts, the Pegasus station, and thereby capturing a NavCom AI . With this navigation computer you have the exact jump coordinates to the Sol system and could thus decide the war for yourself.
Admiral Tolwyn is aware of this threat, but it takes his fleet 42 hours to get to Earth , while the Kilrathi only take 40 hours, which gives them ample time to destroy Earth. In order to get information about what exactly the Kilrathi are planning, the carrier TCS Tiger Claw, located in the Vega sector, is supposed to go on a reconnaissance mission and try to slow down the Kilrathi. However, since the porter cannot be contacted directly, the Diligent, a transporter on the way to the Tiger Claw, is to transmit this order. On board the Diligent are Christopher Blair and Todd Marshall, two pilots who were transferred to the Tiger Claw as replacements.
To get to the Vega Sector faster, the Diligent's captain James Taggart wants to take a shortcut straight through a gravity hole known as a Scylla . But Todd Marshall makes a mistake as he increases the speed of the Diligent, which ruins the calculations of the jump. When the navigation computer also fails, the Diligent's fate has actually already been decided, but Blair manages to do the calculations manually and makes the jump.
Taggart realizes that Blair has a gift that only pilgrims used to have. Pilgrims were the first people to explore space at the time, but lost their humanity in the vastness of the universe and even believed that they were superior to normal people, which ultimately ended in the so-called pilgrims' war. Since then, the pilgrims, who were almost completely wiped out, have been hated by the people. Blair is the son of a pilgrim and inherited their math skills.
On board the Tiger Claw, Marshall quickly befriends the pilot Rosie Forbes, while Blair is avoided as a pilgrim by the crew. With Taggart's help, the Tiger Claw can jump faster to the Odysseus Corridor, where the Kilrathi fleet is said to be.
Blair and the female Wing Commander of the Tiger Claw, Devereaux, also known by the callsign Angel, go on a reconnaissance mission and find a Kilrathi communications ship in an asteroid field . However, they are discovered and have to flee.
Thereupon the captain of the Tiger Claw, Captain Jason Sansky, gives the order to attack the ship with an entire squadron.
Taggart, who accompanies the mission as a civilian observer, considers this a trap, turns out to be a commodore of the intelligence service and thus gives the order, as the mission's highest-ranking officer, to return to the Tiger Claw immediately. Taggart was right because the porter is under heavy fire. But with the return of the squadron it is possible to destroy the Kilrathi ships.
However, Marshall and Forbes refuse the order to land on the Tiger Claw after the attack and want to prove to each other who the better pilot is, whereupon Forbes Fighter is badly damaged and the ejection seat no longer works either. The emergency landing fails and Forbes dies. Angel, who was a good friend of Forbes, is furious and wants to shoot Marshall for failing to order , but Blair prevents this.
Since the Tiger Claw is badly damaged, it ends up in an asteroid crater on a moon . However, a Kilrathi cruiser bombs each crater, damaging the Tiger Claw. Eventually, a hatch opens, almost blowing Blair into space. However, his friend Marshall manages to save him.
After surviving the bombing, the communication ship can be found on the sensors. Taggart gives the order to capture the ship. The Diligent hides in an asteroid field and surprises the Kilrathi. A firefight breaks out on board the ship, but the boarding party can decide for itself. Blair, much to his surprise, discovers the NavCom AI at the Pegasus base. Now the humans have the exact jump coordinates of the Kilrathi fleet. However, it cannot be transmitted because the Tiger Claw's communication probe cannot be started. Taggart orders Blair to bring the coordinates to the Sol system himself. However, Blair has no faith in his abilities, whereupon Taggart reveals himself as a pilgrim, which finally gives him the necessary self-confidence and he finally sets off with Angel.
However, both discover a camouflaged torpedo that flies directly towards the Tiger Claw and that can only be stopped by a hunter. Angel succeeds in destroying the torpedo, but her fighter is hit by the shock wave and she has to save herself with the ejection seat. Blair wants to bring Angel back to the Tiger Claw, but she refuses and orders him to make his way to Earth.
Blair manages to jump to Earth, but a Kilrathi destroyer followed him. On the sensors, Blair discovers the gravitational hole Skylla , through which he jumped once with the Diligent. He lures the destroyer in there and turns his hunter off at the very last second. Since the destroyer has a much larger mass than the hunter, it will eventually be drawn in and destroyed.
Admiral Tolwyn's fleet, which now has the coordinates, can destroy any Kilrathi ship, as they cannot activate shields and weapons immediately after the jump and are therefore completely defenseless.
Blair learns from Tolwyn that Taggart has gone to find Angel and returns to the Tiger Claw. Once there, he sees that Taggart was successful and found the slightly injured Angel. The war is not won, but the Kilrathi suffered a severe blow. Blair escorts Angel to the infirmary, and the mission is completed successfully.
History of origin
Chris Roberts , the creator of the Wing Commander series, separated from the developer company Origin Systems in 1996 and founded his own company Digital Anvil , which was to produce the film in addition to other game developments. In 1997 he acquired the film rights from the Origin parent company Electronic Arts to film his own game. Parts III and IV of the series already featured professionally shot real film sequences in which well-known actors such as Mark Hamill , John Rhys-Davies and Thomas F. Wilson participated.
Former British military aircraft of the English Electric Lightning type were used for the fighter pilots , which were heavily modified so that actually only the pilot's cockpit was left. None of the flying objects in the film is similar in design to the ships and fighters in the game. It was based on battleships from the Second World War . They fire torpedoes that even have a similar acoustic sound when they are fired. The design of the Kilrathi and their culture was completely changed. Among other things, the Kilrathi in the game resemble big cats like lions or tigers , in the film they resemble reptile-like, common domestic cats . Among other things, the Kilrathi are shown in the game as intelligent strategists, while in the film they appear as stupid spaceship pilots. Digital Anvil also supplied the special effects for the film, which were created using Maya software .
Director Chris Roberts has a cameo . He is the pilot of the rescue ship that Blair's hunter is towing at the end of the film. Also, Mark Hamill , who from Wing Commander 3 took over the role of Christopher Blair in the cutscenes of the game happens in this movie. In the original it speaks the voice of the ship's computer Merlin, but is only indicated with a "?" In the credits.
The trailer for Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace ran in the opening act for Wing Commander . Some moviegoers only bought a movie ticket to see this trailer and then leave the cinema.
reception
Wing Commander was launched in the United States on March 12, 1999 and was released in German cinemas on December 23, 1999. With an estimated budget of $ 30 million, he only grossed $ 11,578,059 in the US and can therefore be described as a commercial flop. Due to the worldwide marketing of the film rights as well as the DVD publication and the sale of the television rights and merchandising products (including toy figures and spaceships) but even after some time the film never broke even.
Despite the cast, who also came up with familiar faces for supporting roles (including Jürgen Prochnow , Tchéky Karyo ), and one of the best European cameramen Thierry Arbogast , the film was panned by the critics. The biggest criticisms were the plot and the poor acting performances of Freddie Prinze junior and Matthew Lillard . Wing Commander was also very poorly received by the fans of the game series , as they thought he had little to do with the game and especially the Kilrathi were barely visible in the picture.
Meanwhile, Chris Roberts has also co-produced commercially successful films such as the remake The Punisher as well as Lord of War and Lucky Number Slevin . There are rumors that he would like to produce a new Wing Commander film or even a television series that will not follow the first film adaptation, but rather relate more to the plot of the games.
Differences Between Film and Game
- James "Paladin" Taggart is a Commodore in the movie. In the game, in the first part, on which the film is based, he is a major and fighter pilot.
- In the film, Angel's last name is Deveraux, which can also be read on her helmet. In the game, her name is spelled Devereaux.
- Angel had a strong French accent in the game, which can be clearly seen in the subtitles in the original version as well as in the speech packs of the sequel and in the cutscenes of the third part. The accent is completely absent in the film. Same goes for Paladin and his original Scottish accent.
- Angel is the Wing Commander of the "Tiger Claw" in the film. In the game, the name of the bearer is "TCS Tiger's Claw" and the Commander is a man named Peter Halcyon. Angel is an active fighter pilot who flies regularly with Maverick and the others.
- In the film, the protagonist Christopher "Maverick" Blair is the son of a pilgrim and does not come from Earth. Commodore Taggart also reveals in the course of the plot that he is descended from the pilgrims. In the game, Blair is from Earth and the Pilgrims do not exist in the series.
- The pilots of the Tiger Claw in the film consist of Maverick, Maniac and Angel from Rosie "Sister Sassy" Forbes, Ian "Hunter" St. John, Adam "Bishop" Polanski and Joseph "Knight" Khumalo. Sister Sassy and Bishop do not exist in the series, while Mariko "Spirit" Tanaka and Michael "Iceman" Casey are pilots.
Reviews
“Action and science fiction film based on a computer game that comes across as a tiring spectacle. An unimaginatively designed quote revue with little imagination and little technical talent, which is exhausted in any fight scenes. "
"Space junk in a tasteless production design."
“Usually the movie game is junk. Here the tables turn. The result is a stupid film about a very attractive computer game that can also appeal to adult PC users. "
" After Double Dragon , Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter, Wing Commander is once again providing us with proof that the growing together of the media, which has been proclaimed everywhere, is not far off."
“Chris Roberts filmed his own computer game cheaply in Luxembourg. Conclusion: As a game on the PC, it is more fun! "
literature
- Peter Telep : Wing Commander. The novel for the film (Original title: Wing Commander ). German by Jürgen Heinzerling . Bastei-Verlag Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1999, ISBN 3-404-23218-6 .
Web links
- Wing Commander in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Wing Commander at Metacritic (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Wing Commander. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 6, 2015 .
- ↑ Origin Systems : Electronic Arts' ORIGIN Systems Grants Option For Feature Film of its Best-Selling Computer Game Wing Commander to Digital Anvil. ( English ) In: Press release . The Free Library. November 10, 1997. Retrieved May 6, 2012.
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0131646/trivia
- ↑ Alias : Digital Anvil Using Alias / Wavefront's Maya to Create Entire Wing Commander Movie Universe. ( English ) In: Press release . The Free Library. October 19, 1998. Retrieved May 6, 2012.
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0131646/business
- ↑ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=wingcommander.htm
- ↑ Cinema.de: film review
| Main series |
Wing Commander • II • III • IV • Prophecy ( Secret Ops ) |
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| Offshoot |
Wing Commander Academy • Super Wing Commander • Wing Commander Armada • Wing Commander Arena |
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| Privateer | ||
| Film adaptations | ||
| Others |
