This simple idea could have given rise to two more films. The film plays around with the familiar sci-fi plot device of it being hard to locate the homeworld of their enemy, which would be true given our known of the galaxy and just how many bloody stars there are. If we strip away the layers of shit that is the 1999 movie storyline we can see that there was a nugget of promise in the very basic concept and story of the WC movie: the bad space kittes have gotten their hands on the location of Terra and are screaming to end the human race, and the USS, the Tiger's Claw is the only starship in range. This film could have been our Battle of Britain. When I look back at what could have been with the WC feature film, I see the promise of another great military sci-fi cinema franchise that could have been a simple story of soldiers at war in deep space against an alien enemy that sought to dominate space and end any competition. I can still recall many happy memories of late nights playing WC during my Freshman year in High School, and upgrading my HP computer with audio and video cards to run the next installment of WC. While in the 1990's, these types of games reached an apex in popularity mainly due to technological advancement. Computer space combat simulator games have been around since 1962's " Spacewar!", and continued to be developed throughout today. One area were computers shined was in the flight simulator. With their power and modular nature, computer games allowed for a different experience than the console gaming systems. Some gamers, like me, had tired of the side-scroller shit that polluted the early 90's console games, and looked towards the grey box in their office: the home computer. While ATARI, Sega, and Nintendo battled it out, there was one more option in the household, the computer. The Promise and Historical Context of Wing CommanderÄuring the 1990's, there were three home video game consoles jousting for the soul, loyalty, and the cash of the gamer. So, here we go, one of the worst crimes in military sci-fi history: Wing Commander the movie. This blogpost was getting moldy in my draft pile, until I started obsessively watching The Spoony Experiment and his review made me pull this one out. Everytime, I talk to someone about this movie, their face displays the reaction I imagine to finding fresh dog shit on their suede shoes. While the Wing Commander video game series, of the most part, were some of the best games of the 1990's, this movie has been called one of the worst sci-fi films of all time. Especially considering that Wing Commander full motion titles were considered the best of that gaming format. Sadly, this film that could have also been the best video game-to-film ever was transformed into shit. After all, Wing Commander was one of the most successful and beloved computer video games of the 1990's, and it seemed that a translation to film should have been easy. Not only could this have given us fans of military sci-fi a new franchise to invest in, but also, finally allowing for a successful video-game-to-movie property. In 1999, 20th Century Fox would release a picture that could have been a great military science fiction film that mixed elements of Star Wars and Space: Above and Beyond and to a small degree, Enemy Mine and rolled them all into a space fighter sci-fi war movie.
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