The Last Starfighter (1984)

Very well executed

Such a frustrating disappointment

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

For every kid who dreamed of a far off adventure and an endless supply of quarters. A fun family-friendly popcorn flick.

Just watched this with my 12 yr old daughter and she loved it. I was a junior in HS when I first saw it. Loved it then, still enjoyed in 2017. The characters are funny, and enjoyable. This movie, unlike others I saw back in my youth that I thought would be fun to watch again, did retained it's sense of adventure, humor and seriousness for me. I never noticed the early CGI when I was young, and very much noticed it now. That didn't deter from the story or enjoyment of the movie; kinda reminded me of TRON CGI. If you're into sharing movies of your youth with the kiddos, put this one on your list!

This was one of the first movies I saw in a theater, 1985, the year after its release. And I tell you, this movie wasn't a big deal then; it was considered a well made but derivative B movie, and the CGI effects were almost never mentioned in reviews or articles. I have checked it now in newspaper archives online, so I know I remember it right.The ironic thing is that "Young Sherlock Holmes" (1985) was released this same year; I saw it soon after "The Last Starfighter". The Sherlock Holmes movie was hailed for its alleged groundbreaking CGI effect: a very short sequence where a knight of stained glass attack a priest. This effect lasted perhaps 20 seconds..."The Last Starfighter" is full of CGI sequences, and either me or my friends in the theater recognized them as computer images, and absolutely not as "cheap video game graphics" as some reviewers here describe it. And no journalist or reviewer saw it that way either, back then. But when I watch this movie on DVD today, many sequences really look distinctly artificial with unnatural sharp edges and light, much like computer graphics, which give them a style that cut them out from the rest of the movie. My theory is that the celluloid copies that we were watching in the theaters smothered this down and gave these sequences a much more natural look; and that the movie makers originally counted on this when they incorporated the CGI scenes with the rest of the movie.The movie is well made, with a rather original story and good performances by the actors. Not a very great movie, though, but it is entertaining and without doubt movie history.

The film has a great script by Jonathan R. Betuel and it is nicely directed by Nick Castle, otherwise best known for playing Michael Myers in "Halloween" (1978). Along with "Tron", it is remembered for its groundbreaking early use of CGI and the special effects, state of the art for the time, hold up surprisingly well. Although the film has a comparatively serious plot, there is a great undercurrent of humour throughout the film.Lance Guest is a very engaging male lead as both Alex Rogan and his robot duplicate Beta Alex while Catherine Mary Stewart is likewise very good as his girlfriend Maggie Gordon. It's a shame that neither of them had any other big successes as they're both likable and talented actors. In his final film, Robert Preston is great as the interplanetary con man Centauri. However, in spite of his relatively limited screen time, the show is stolen by my fellow University College Dublin alumnus Dan O'Herlihy as Alex's alien navigator. His great voice and Irish accent were as recognisable as his face was unrecognisable and he gets many of the best lines in the second half of the film. His papers in the UCD Archives, where I seem to spend most of my working life these days, so I really must have a look at them one of these days to see if there is any Hollywood gossip! I think that part of the reason that the film works as well as it does is that the actors generally play it straight in both the dramatic and the comedic scenes rather than going over the top in the latter. There are several hints in the film that a sequel was planned but it never materalised, unfortunately.