“Well, what would you aim for if you had the biggest gun in the universe?”

Justin’s rating: Crazy to think that McDowell was filming this and Star Trek Generations at the same time.

Justin’s review: While it is a fact that, to date, we have only had one Wing Commander movie (the Academy Award-winning epic starring Freddy Prinze Jr.), it’s not true that the 1999 movie was the first time that this scifi franchise was filmed. In fact, what would you say if I told you that there was a full-length Wing Commander movie made five years before starring Luke Skywalker, Gimli, and Biff Tannen?

To explain that, we have to revisit one of the fascinatingly weird trends of ’90s PC gaming, which was the brief rise (and faster fall) of FMV — full motion video. With the technology finally (if barely) able to handle it, developers began filming real-life actors and then digitally inserting them into their titles. The product was absolutely seamless, and by that I mean that every human looked like they were in a different universe than whatever was happening in the actual game. Because they were, and the cut-and-paste function was horrible.

In any case, during this FMV craze, game studio Origin threw something like $4 million at elevating its popular Wing Commander series into something far more grand. Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, John Rhys-Davies, Tom Wilson, and Tim Curry were all hired to create a video game movie while filming entirely against a green screen.

The end result, Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger, was a substantial hit, and this whole cast was rehired to make Wing Commander IV in 1996. Anyway, fans took all of the footage and some of the in-game action and spliced together a non-interactive unofficial movie of the third game, which is what I sat through out of sheer curiosity.

It’s now 30 years into the Terran-Kilrathi war, and humanity is six months away from losing. Maverick (Hamill) continues to earn the distrust of his commander Admiral Tolwyn (McDowell) while missing his sweetie, the POW Angel. Maverick is reassigned to an old carrier, the Victory, alongside some of his long-running pals: Paladin (Rhys-Davies), Maniac (Wilson), and Hobbes (an overgrown cat).

Everyone — including the ship — is worn and tired from the war, Earth may even be evacuated, but there’s no choice but to persevere. Maverick has to figure out his new wingmen, including what baggage they’re hauling around that needs sorting out. Some of the crew gets along famously, while others enjoy sniping at each other any available opportunity. Between this bonding and drama are the Battlestar Galactica-like dogfights of the game.

The green screen sets are fine for the time and feel like an early version of what George Lucas did on a much great greater scale for the Star Wars prequels. However, these virtual sets mean that the actors couldn’t move around much, so almost every scene is a whole lot of dialogue between two (or more) people. That puts a heavy emphasis on characterization, which Wing Commander III handles just fine if a little stereotypically. I also was pretty impressed with Hobbes’ animatronics or puppetry, which is quite expressive for the time.

What begins as a relatively tame space opera featuring a used-up carrier gets a lot more interesting when a daring plan to strike against the Kilrathi homeworld is put into action. Turns out that Confed (the humans) have their own Death Star-like weapon and aren’t afraid to use it — but the Kilrathi have a surprise or two of their own waiting as well.

Even though this was made to be an interactive movie with Hollywood-like production values, Wing Commander III doesn’t feel like a traditional film — or even a cohesive one. Most of the scenes are one-on-ones between Maverick and his flight crew, plodding through whatever backstory or trauma they have. It’s nice, but those scenes slowed down the main storyline (which is, to be fair, kind of basic).

The main draw here is, of course, the famous actors who fill up this project’s roster. I have no complaints about the acting here, especially Hamill, who is a quieter leader who’s not without a few pointed barbs when necessary.

Wing Commander 3 and 4 were so beloved by fans that there was some serious hand-wringing when Mark Hamill and the rest weren’t invited by director Chris Roberts to make the 1999 film. Perhaps it wouldn’t have changed much in the end, but it’s an interesting “what if?” scenario to consider.

Intermission!

• Disintegration looks totally rad
• “Women like the smell of success.”
• “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as… frightened as you.”
• “Stop banging your chest, you’re going to bruise it.”
• Bio-missiles are an interesting terror weapon
• “My my grandma, what big guns you have.”
• “Everybody here’s heard of the Maniac. Everybody.”
• Dang, you gutted her
• “I have every reason to suspect that you have a leaky ship, captain.”