Who says Origin doesn't update their web site? Almost anyone who can properly define the word 'update'. But that seems to have changed -- the company information section has been changed. Two new executives have been added, both of whom have extensive background in the online gaming industry. Origin's new General Manager is Jack Heistand, Sr. He replaced Neil Young back in April.
Peter Telep posted the following note to alt.games.wing-commander, asking that we review Pilgrim Stars at Amazon & giving us the status of the next book...
If you've had a chance to pick up and read my new WC novel, I'd appreciate a review over at Amazon.com. The next book, Pilgrim Truth, should be out some time next year. HarperCollins hasn't given me a firm date yet.
For those of you out there who have been dying to play music on Mark Hamill's face, Death has found a pair of Wing Commander related WinAmp skins. See the screenshots below. You can grab the Prophecy skin here, and the Mark Hamill skin here.
Sean Tudor over at agwc reports that Wing Commander has made $50,162 (in Australian dollars) since its release on September 16th. This is roughly equivalent to how much Chris Reid spent seeing the movie in the US.
Another Australian movie review can be find here at Greg Roy King's Movie Reviews. Two stars, with the same comments made by every professional reviewer ever.
Brain-Space InvadersWing Commander (PG)
Director: Chris Roberts
Starring: Freddie Prinze Jr, Saffron Burrows, Matthew Lillard, Ginny Holder, Tcheky Karyo, Jurgen Prochnow
Rating: *1/2Starship Bloopers
As anyone who has sat through Mortal Kombet, Super Mario Brothers or even Pac Man : The Movie will readily tell you, films based on video games are about as worthwhile as novels written by supermodels.
Wing Commander is the latest example of this game-over genre, and does precious little to improve it, let alone maintain its lacklustre standards.
It is the year 2564, and Earth is locked in a non-stop battle for space supremacy with the Kilrathi, and unpleasant bunch of warrior aliens with the rather pointless ambition to destroy the universe.
The future of all human life rests with two young pilots, Chris (Freddie Prinze Jr) and Maniac (Matthew Lillard), and their attractive female boss (Saffron Burrows), and a few disposable cohorts who are either much older (Tcheky Karyo and Jurgen Prochnow), or not all that relevant to the plot (Ginny Holder).
The 100 minutes of action coughs and splutters its way towards a predictable end.
A trillion and one Kilrathi perish courtesy of well-aimed Earth artillery, while our side loses only those unlucky enough not to be listed near the top of thefilm's opening credits.
Only a few noticeably numbskull plot flaws truly grab the attention.
Computer technology some 565 years from now doesn't seem to have advanced all that much. Microsoft, Apple and IBM should be worried about their futures.
The deep space within which the heroes of Wing Commander fight is exceptionally noisy, defying the notion that our universe is mostly a sonic vacuum.
The spaceships of tomorrow also suffer from poorly lit interiors.
Does this mean our descendants will have lost the recipe for making light gblubs?
WING COMMANDER (PG)
Underwhelming deep-space battles between Earth and a bunch of alien warriors. Based on a video game, which probably sums up its prospects, really.Rating : * 1/2
General release
The Wing Commander movie was actually released here in Western Australia today. Apparently there was an advertisement on T.V. a couple of days ago, but I didn't see it. There was however an ad in today's paper. I guess the correct way to promote a movie is to advertise it the day it opens?It is only screening at major cinema complexes for two or three sessions a day. My local complex was only screening it at 10:00am and 12:20pm, unfortunately I and most other people were working and kids were at school. I'm sure the cinema staff enjoyed it. I did however see the movie at another complex. It was a small theater, but the atmosphere was really good as a lot of fans of the games were present.
I attended with a friend who hadn't played any of the games and didn't know a lot about it. He did enjoy it though. He especially enjoyed the fact that the confederation used fighters reminiscent of WW2 and used weapons like torpedoes and machine guns. I admit I enjoyed that fact about it too.
I found the movie quite enjoyable, but a little slow in the beginning. It seemed to me that Chris Roberts has done this to set up the story and characters in order to develop a series of movies. I can understand this, but I would have enjoyed a few more battle scenes.
I have been reading reports since the movies release earlier this year about how the special effects were very dark in theater versions, but very bright on VHS, DVD and in theaters in other countries. In the theater I was at the picture was very dark. Obviously the film was being used in Australia was used in U.S. cinemas.
Overall, I really enjoyed the movie, but was disappointed I had to wait so long. It was worth the wait however and will be a worthy addition to my video collection when it come out here. Hopefully we will get to see a sequel eventually.
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