Wing Commander (1999): Almost a Cult Classic

Some films misread the assignment. Some ignore it entirely. Wing Commander had the assignment written on the box — beloved franchise, built-in audience, a universe already mapped across a decade of games and books — and it still turned in someone else's homework.

The result is a film that has humanity on the brink, a war-winning MacGuffin in enemy hands, a half-breed outsider nobody trusts, and a ticking clock counting down to Earth's destruction. It sounds like everything you'd want.

It plays like someone describing a great film rather than making one.