SoulSkorpion
Spaceman
To avoid all confusion, I'll make clear the purpose of this post right here at the top: I thought the Wing Commander movie was an absolute travesty, but from what I understand many WC fans disagree. Basically, I'd like to know why. I'm honestly not looking for a flamewar, although some of this post might look like flamebait. If I'm wrong about any of the points I raise, please tell me. That's why I'm posting them .
A bit of background: my dad bought Wing Commander II when I was a little kid, and even before I played it I loved it. I've also played Armada and the two Privateer games. Finally, I've just recently (in the last three days) played through and finished WC2 and the two special ops campaigns, after finding them on an abandonware site and getting them running again. You see, my copy is on 5 1/4in floppies and I no longer have a drive that can read them.
So, basically: I have not played the first game, or the last three. If there's something I missed because of that, there you go. Oh, and it's been a while since I saw the movie so if I'm sketchy on a few details don't hesitate to point that out.
Anyway, on to the movie.
1: This business about the pilots pretending that dead comerades never existed. Double-ewe Tee Eff? That's just juvenile, and not even remotely related to the series. Shadow, Spirit and Downtown sure as hell didn't cease to exist when they got killed in WC2. Full funerals with gun salutes doesn't look like pretending people never existed to me. I found it to be a very stupid and meaningless aspect of the movie's plot, especially because it has nothing to do with the WC universe! Did the pilots of the Tiger's Claw behave like this, or something?
2: Blair being able to calculate jump coordinates in his head, and possessing some kind of special powers (or some such thing). I've seen enough other references to this to wonder whether it's something from WC3 or 4 that I haven't seen yet (like I said, I've only played WC2). At the time, I thought this was a bit silly.
3: I would bring up the Rapiers, but the FAQ already covered that. At the time I though this was a bit silly, too
4: I realise the Kilrathi are probably made out of plastic, but they aren't meant to look like it. God, they were awful. I notice that the FAQ said that the ones in the earlier games didn't match CR's vision of what they should look like; were they honestly supposed to look like deformed lumps of pewter? What was wrong with them looking feline? Thrakath nar Kirkana and Ralgha nar Khallas in WC2 looked majestic and fearsome. The ones in the movie just looked like your average, run of the mill, slimy aliens. Please tell me that's not really what they're meant to look like?
5: I've probably completely misunderstood, but wasn't the whole big mission in the movie simply the equivalent of blowing up a Fralthra? One capital ship? Not Kilrathi sector command, or anything, but just some random capital ship? I've got a feeling I'm very off on this point.
6: It was a bit insipid in itself, but I can hardly comment on that fairly
So tell me: what were the movie's redeeming qualities, and on what points have I got it completely wrong?
-SoulSkorpion
A bit of background: my dad bought Wing Commander II when I was a little kid, and even before I played it I loved it. I've also played Armada and the two Privateer games. Finally, I've just recently (in the last three days) played through and finished WC2 and the two special ops campaigns, after finding them on an abandonware site and getting them running again. You see, my copy is on 5 1/4in floppies and I no longer have a drive that can read them.
So, basically: I have not played the first game, or the last three. If there's something I missed because of that, there you go. Oh, and it's been a while since I saw the movie so if I'm sketchy on a few details don't hesitate to point that out.
Anyway, on to the movie.
1: This business about the pilots pretending that dead comerades never existed. Double-ewe Tee Eff? That's just juvenile, and not even remotely related to the series. Shadow, Spirit and Downtown sure as hell didn't cease to exist when they got killed in WC2. Full funerals with gun salutes doesn't look like pretending people never existed to me. I found it to be a very stupid and meaningless aspect of the movie's plot, especially because it has nothing to do with the WC universe! Did the pilots of the Tiger's Claw behave like this, or something?
2: Blair being able to calculate jump coordinates in his head, and possessing some kind of special powers (or some such thing). I've seen enough other references to this to wonder whether it's something from WC3 or 4 that I haven't seen yet (like I said, I've only played WC2). At the time, I thought this was a bit silly.
3: I would bring up the Rapiers, but the FAQ already covered that. At the time I though this was a bit silly, too
4: I realise the Kilrathi are probably made out of plastic, but they aren't meant to look like it. God, they were awful. I notice that the FAQ said that the ones in the earlier games didn't match CR's vision of what they should look like; were they honestly supposed to look like deformed lumps of pewter? What was wrong with them looking feline? Thrakath nar Kirkana and Ralgha nar Khallas in WC2 looked majestic and fearsome. The ones in the movie just looked like your average, run of the mill, slimy aliens. Please tell me that's not really what they're meant to look like?
5: I've probably completely misunderstood, but wasn't the whole big mission in the movie simply the equivalent of blowing up a Fralthra? One capital ship? Not Kilrathi sector command, or anything, but just some random capital ship? I've got a feeling I'm very off on this point.
6: It was a bit insipid in itself, but I can hardly comment on that fairly
So tell me: what were the movie's redeeming qualities, and on what points have I got it completely wrong?
-SoulSkorpion