Roberts Replies!

Grabbed this from Dan's Wing Commander Movie Site -- as the title implies the guy who created the universe (well, a universe) replied to the below movie review by Sean. Chris Roberts posted an ultra-cool response to the negative comments about the WC Movie. Check it out below...

We had a screening this weekend in Westwood in LA.

It went a lot better than this post seems to indicate - Over 80% people rated the film good or above.

A couple of issues. The style and look of the film is deliberate. It is meant to be WWII submarines / fighters / battleships. If someone doesn't dig it or respond to something that stylistic I'm kind of powerless - Personally I like it, but I'm sure some people will hate it. But I must say that if you saw the trailer or any of the set photos you will have seen the sets and lighting / look of the film -- I know a lot of people dig it. Some obviously will not. That's life.

As for the Kilrathi, I do agree that they are disappointing in the film -- They are the area I'm least happy with -- I've never managed to get them to be as cool as they seemed in the first two games before moving to live action. I felt like they were overgrown puppets in the last two games I did (with live action). We tried in the film to make them "scarier" and more alien like, but made the mistake of building them up to be 8 foot tall (which isn't the natural size of a performer) Consequently they didn't move so well (especially in the tight Kilrathi sets). This being a fairly low budget sci-fi film prevented me from doing what usually happens in this case, which is going back and re-shooting the Kilrathi scenes with re-designed creatures or replacing them with CGI. The only option was to reduce their screen time.

I have to disagree over the character development (I am of course biased), as I do feel like this is a strength of this film - It's more than just space ships blowing up, you actually get to know the characters, like them, become involved and so ultimately care about what happens to them and the Tiger Claw. That was a goal of mine when I started on this project, I think it is in the film (I'm too close to be truly objective) and ultimately it is somewhat disheartening that "Sean" didn't think so. I've also heard people that really like the characters and people. Oh well. That's what opinions are for. Hopefully "Sean" is in the minority.

I'm glad that "Sean" liked the CGI, as DA and myself are extremely proud of the work we did for little money on a very tight schedule. I feel like it stands up to the best CGI space stuff out there.

As for my directing -- Go easy it is my first film :-) My next will be better (WC was not the first game I designed) I still feel like I was the best person for the job, and the one that would bring the spirit of the games across the best. The real problem with making something like WC for the big screen is that it will always get compared to Star Wars, Star Trek or other big budget affairs like Starship Troopers. It is tough competing with films that cost four times as much (which means more time to shoot, do reshoots, do the effects etc.) It's kind of like other people competing with WC on the game front, but they only have 500,000 dollars to make the game vs. my 4-12 million. I think that WC actually stands up pretty well given the budget disparity.

Anyway, it would interesting to see if anyone else who saw the film has posted anything, as I ran into quite a few WC players that really dug the movie.

-Chris