The year is 2654. Humans, part of a "Confederation" of planets, have been colonizing space for centuries. Unfortunately, they have recently made the acquaintance of the Lion-like Kilrathi race, who don't want to play nice-nice and "share" their world, their space, or anything else with Humanity. Naturally, war breaks out.
When a large fleet of Confederation ships and the asteroid-base they have been working out of are attacked and destroyed, it is up to the "two best" fighter pilots, their mentor/advisor, and their new wing commander to get a message back from the Vegan sector to warn Earth about an impending Kilrathi attack.
The fighter pilots, Christopher "Maverick" Blair, played by Freddie Prinze, Jr. (who is probably better known as Ray from "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and its sequel) and Todd "Maniac" Marshall, played by Freddie's real- life best friend Matthew Lillard (better known as Stuart from "Scream") must save the day and the Confederation. They are a well-matched pair. Blair is genetically gifted with an innate, almost psychic ability for space navigation, which is extremely important when it comes to navigating fighter craft through quasars and pulsars. Marshall, on the other hand, is the quintessential fighter jock who enjoys flirting with danger and defying authority, which frequently gives him the upper hand when dogfighting (so to speak) the Kilrathi attack craft.
Along the way, Blair falls in love with his wing commander, Jeannette "Angel" Deveraux (played by Saffron Burrows, who co-starred in "Circle of Friends"), while his best buddy Marshall falls in love with another fighter pilot, Rosie Forbes (played by Ginny Holder).
Although the dialogue wasn't exactly Academy Award material, the characters were almost believable and the alien Kilrathi race (once we finally see more than just the outside of their ships or a vague glimpse of a felinoid face behind battle armor) are very well done. The movie has a PG-13 rating, primarily because of some mildly-foul language and video game-like violence. If you like space battles, two cute guys, two cute gals, and/or David Warner (who plays a Confederate high-muckety-muck), you'll probably enjoy this movie.
My rating (on a scale of 0 to 4 stars): 2-1/2.