I like the flick. I was sick at home last week and watched it for the first time in three years. Just hearing the music and watching the opening credits takes me back to being a 14-year-old Wing Commander fan.
The movie is by no means perfect. It has its painful moments (any interaction between Blair/Angel and Maniac/Forbes is particularly cringe-worthy; and Hunter's ultra-dickishness in the rec room scene bugs me), but also some pretty cool parts (the battles, the score, the set design and costumes--even if they deviate a whole bunch from the games--and David Warner). The rough editing detracts from it for sure, so we have scenes that just feel out of order, bad ADR lines, disappearing characters (bye, Sansky, nice knowing you), and sequences that feel far shorter than they should (wow, Blair found that NAVCOM quick), and a misspelled name that clearly should not have been overlooked. I really would like to see the movie the way it was intended to be made and I wonder if I ever will.
Per the usual criticisms: 1.) sound in space. Who cares? Zod and Ursa talk to each other on the moon in Superman II and no once slams that movie for it, but it seems to be one of the unforgivable sins in Wing Commander. Yeah, yeah, superhero movies are generally more fantastical than something like WC, but my point stands. Besides, it's never stated that they're scared of being heard by the Kilrathi. If that's the way it's widely interpreted, then maybe Chris Roberts could've filmed the scene differently, but hey, anyone would be tense if being hunted by alien demon-cats, and Paladin was right to tell them to shut the hell up. 2.) fighter dips. It's a brief stylistic flourish. The whole movie does not hinge upon the fact that the Rapiers dip while leaving the flight deck, so I don't understand why it should ruin the movie for anyone.
My two cents. Also, this is my first post in over five years. Egad.