Greetings, Starfighter!
Alex is a bit of a loser. He has grown up in a trailer park and seems to be going nowhere fast. His mom depends on him to keep up the trailer park work and his girlfriend is trying to help him coup with the worthlessness he is feeling. His only true getaway is playing the lone arcade game at the top of the trailer park hill; that game is called Starfighter. After having a rotten day of missing what could have been a long make-out session with his girlfriend, named Maggie, he takes his frustrations out on the game. As luck would have it, he achieves the highest score in the game, which puts a smile on his gloomy face. Thinking nothing more of it, he wanders off into the trailer park night. His night isn’t over, a man named Centauri approaches him and takes him on a trip of a lifetime. Soon Alex exchanges his trailer park world for the world of the Star League and a chance to actually become a Starfighter.
Let’s start the review out this way; you’re going to get two different versions. The first version of the review is strictly the movie. The second version of the review is focusing on the groundwork the movie established for future movies. Let’s begin, Starfighters!
The Last Starfighter was a wonderful reflection of where a 1984 kid’s mind was. The 80s were a difficult time, regardless of what you hear, but the two true things that everyone had going for them was movies and video games. The movie industry was just hitting its peak and the video game industry was hot on its trail. The fact that someone could play an arcade game then become transported into a real-life situation that asked for their video games skills was beyond epic! Seeing this sort of scenario in a movie was entertainment at its finest. This movie defined what it meant to be a kid in 1984 and what hopes and visions kids fell asleep to at night. Clearly it meant a lot more to those who remember seeing it in the theater, but for those late bloomers in the 80s it still worked.
With all of that said, watching this movie in action was a bit painful. I respect the hell out of it, but it certainly has aged a bit. The dialogue was campy, the story was shallow and the entire premise simply is laughable. There are certainly more serious films with deeper meaning out there in the world of Hollywood, it would seem that The Last Starfighter is doomed to stay frozen in the mid 80s and only appreciated then. So, on that note the best parts about the film come from Robert Preston (Centauri), Dan O’Herlihy (Grig) and Lance Guest (Alex). Guest is great as a lead character; he simply outshines all the other characters on the screen (outside of O’Herlihy and Preston) as he should because he’s the hero and main focus. His dilemma of feeling stuck is believable and his sincere desire to leave his current predicament is nothing short of genuine. Alex isn’t whinny, he isn’t needy, he is just someone striving to better with their life; Guest is a perfect fit for this character. As for the other two, Robert Preston (the Music Man) is a fast-talking salesman who gives his above and beyond performance for a role that didn’t necessarily call for it. In some respects Preston was above this movie, but he certainly didn’t let it show. He gave a beautiful performance as the fast-talking alien who basically swindles the Star League with the mere presence of Alex. Preston was fun to watch as Centauri and it’s a shame that he didn’t get to see this blu-ray. Finally, the late Dan O’Herlihy plays one of the more humorous roles as Grig the co-pilot to Alex. If you’re not familiar with O’Herlihy’s work you need only look at his riveting role in Robocop as The Old Man. Much like Preston, O’Herlihy took his role as Grig incredibly serious and seemed to enjoy a low-key movie that allowed him to stretch his legs a bit. Certainly different from previous roles, but he seemed to be happy.
Anyway, the film is a 1984 film and it worked best in 1984. It was certainly enjoyable to watch again, but I understand that it has aged a bit. Still, enjoy it if you enjoyed it before; it still has the charm and magic that it held when it first hit the theaters.
Now the second have to this review I would like to talk about what this film did for the industry. As you’ll find out in the featurettes, this film changed the landscape of special effects and computer effects. It was the first film to combine them into a feature film; that’s right, the first film. When you think of special effects and what ILM does and how long it takes them to do what they do in this day and age, it will astonish you that The Last Starfighter could do this in 1984. All the special effects, sans the make-up on the actors, is strictly done through a computer. When you see ships, space, astroids, even the ship landing in the trailer park, it’s all done through one giant computer. Nick Castle and Universal took a chance on adding special effects this way to the film. This was a giant chance that could have killed the entire film. Thankfully, this film proved that you could integrate major portions of the film with detailed graphics (TRON integrated computer graphics into the film, but not this many) and come out looking like gold. For 1984 these special effects were huge! They were new, detailed and beautiful for that time period. It’s going to be certainly difficult to appreciate an achievement like this in comparison to what the industry is doing now in 2009, but knowing that this is truly where it all started is something special.
25 years and it looks pretty
The strange thing about this film is that the fashions and vehicles (that people consider to be cool) have all come around again. When you see the clothes and overall style of the characters you’ll be right at home; the style is the same in 2009! Frightening, I know, but the reason I bring this up is because the movie looks gorgeous in Blu-ray. With these little elements in the film you are drawn into it more and you forget that this was made in 1984 (until you see the Star Wars sheets — then you become insanely jealous). The visuals have been cleaned up for this 25th anniversary and you’ll be glad they were. As for the audio, you’ll be happy with the sound effects and music.
For features, here’s what you’re looking at:
– Heroes of the Screen
– Crossing the frontier: Making of The Last Starfighter
– Image Gallery
– Feature Commentary
– BD-Live
The first two featurettes, the first is the newest, are damn good. They do slightly repeat themselves in some areas because you get pretty much the same interviewees, but that doesn’t make them any less insightful. They are fun to watch and provide a ton of detail about what went into making this film. You’ll get information on the actors, the special effects and what everyone thought during the process; truly excellent stuff.