Venezuelan Movie Review

This time our review comes from Locoman, who saw the Movie in Venezuela.

First the story. I didn't play WC1 the first time around (still looking for KS here in Venezuela), so I didn't mind any story contradictions with the game. Basically, as Darcrider said, it's a movie based on the games, not a movie of the games. The story, while having some bland points, was better than some higher budgeted, higher profiled movies around (Universal Soldier 2 and Wild Wild West, for example). There were some parts that showed clearly that something was filmed there and cut. For example, a shot of a door to the side when Blair and Maniac enter the rec room for the first time. The Kilrathi weren't as frightful as I remember them in the games, but that was something even Chris Roberts said.

The fun factor, at least for me, was really high. When the opening music started to sound and the star map appeared, I felt at home. The special FX were great, not dark at all, and I would even dare to say that the space sequences of the movie were better than the ones on The Phantom Menace (that was a little weak on space battles). There where plenty of little details that I couldn't see the first time I saw it on VHS that added to the overall experience, like the Kilrathi destroyer actually splitting in half when it was hitted by Paladin's torpedoes, the sheer number of Kilrathi fighters that attacked Pegasus space station and the way the Snakeir fell appart by the gravity force of Scylla.

Contrary to most WC fans it seems, I liked the ship design in the movie. I even would dare to say that the movie Concordia design was better than the game one, but that's just my opinion.

Unfortunately, to prove again my theory that people doesn't like science fiction here in Venezuela, the movie lasted only one week showing, in one room, one theater. I say that because it's not the first time that happened, the special edition of Star Wars lasted only 1 week each and they never showed the three of them at the same time (much to my dismay, because I wanted to see all three of them in one day). The Phantom Menace, with all its hype, lasted three weeks, and the Star Trek movies never even come to the theaters, only to video, so the fact that the Wing Commander movie even came to theaters here is good. I went to see it twice, and I want to go again... maybe I still have hope if it's released in another theater (a couple of them still have the poster up, but one of them has had the Star Trek Insurrection poster for over a year and a half now and never shown that movie).