After he beats the record on an arcade game, Alex (Lance Guest) is whisked off-planet by a mysterious stranger (Robert Preston).
It turns out the game was a test designed to recruit the best planets from around the galaxy.
And now Alex is an unwilling participant in a war he has unintentionally trained for…
I wonder if I would have loved this movie as a kid.
I did not have a game system growing up - I relied on infrequent visits to arcades, or a friend who might have a Nintendo/XBox (depending on the decade).
The log-line for this movie is great. It is a wonder that no one has been able to crack a remake, because this movie is the perfect example of an idea that can be remade.
Watching would-be blockbusters is fascinating. It is like taking an ice core sample to analyse the atmospherics of an earlier age - in this particular film’s case, the Hollywood film landscape of the early eighties.
It was a space dominated by the work of two bearded men, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.
From 1980 - 1983 the US box office had a number one movie from either Spielberg or Lucas. They were the kings of entertainment, and The Last Starfighter feels like it has been incubated in their collective slipstream.
Watching this movie after Dial of Destiny made it even more interesting.
Like that movie, it does not fully capture the flavour of what it is following.
But I found it way more watchable (and shorter).
That concept is so engaging, it kept me watching.
The movie has problems: Lead player Lance Guest (Alex) is a bit of a blank. He spends most of the movie wanting to go home.
Apart from that motivation, there is not a lot to either the character or the performance.
For most of the movie, he just comes off as slightly irritated.
While the set up does seem to come from the Spielberg playbook (our hero lives in a trailer park and dreams of moving away), there is no Spielberg-style sense of wonder.
And that becomes a problem once Alex is picked up/kidnaped by alien agent/con artist Centauri (Robert Preston).
The film repeatedly cuts to reaction shots of Guest staring blankly out at the stars, which only make the ageing CG effects look even worse.
While Guest is a misfire, the rest of the cast are solid. Special praise goes to Preston and Dan O’Herlihy, who bring a welcome dose of personality and specificity as Alex's alien allies.
In a neat turn on the mentor role, Preston's Centauri is an intergalactic huckster in the manner of Preston's most famous role, as The Music Man. It is a welcome note of ambiguity in a film that feels like a treatment that stills need to be fleshed out.
In 1984, The Last Starfighter at the bleeding edge of digital effects. Instead of using the then-current technique of motion-controlled models, the filmmakers used 3D computer generated imagery. In that regard, they were ahead of their time.
However that confidence means there is no attempt to cover for the limitations of the form. There is no attempt to use shadow or integrate physical elements to make them feel more tangible.
When the movie cuts back to Earth, it is a relief.
We get a subplot involving a robot replica of Alex who has to keep up appearances back home. He has to contend with an alien 'hit beast' sent by the film’s villains. These scenes provide the only real stakes in the movie.
I thought the trailer park would fall under threat, but that idea is dropped in favour of Alex taking on an entire fleet in a scene that looked like a screensaver from 1995.
Beyond the casting and the effects, the big issue with the movie is that it feels like a protracted first act. We spend too much time with Alex trying to get back home, and he is never given a real reason to stay and fight.
When the movie ends, it feels like the story has just gotten going.
In the end, The Last Starfighter is just like its lead character at the start of the movie - it has the potential for greatness but cannot find lift-off.
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