The Last StarfighterThere is some irony in the fact that I'm watching The Last Starfighter on a video game console, a device originally intended to play games not unlike "Starfighter", the same game which Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) proves himself to be quite the savant at, a talent which seems useless in the grand scheme of things, but proves to be quite the opposite. It is every kid's dream to become fully immersed in the games they love; it is every parent's dream that their kid's hobby (or obsession) will prove to be more than just a waste of time. As the true purpose of the "Starfighter" arcade game is revealed, both of these things prove to be true for Alex.
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Alex's pre-interstellar lifestyle is a rather humdrum one, but not by choice. His mother (Barbara Bosson) juggles work and managing the trailer park, also while taking care of Alex and his younger brother, Louis (Chris Hebert). Alex gets recruited to help around the park, a responsibility which keeps him from hanging out with his questionable friends, but more frustratingly, his loving girlfriend, Maggie (Catherine Mary Stewart). Alex dreams big; but don't we all? We all want to get out from the status quo and move on to something bigger, something which affirms our sense of self-worth and makes life worth living. Alex wants to do big things, only he has no idea just how big his destiny really is...and it isn't going to be contingent on whether he gets approved for a loan for a university, but by taking action. When he finally takes that great step beyond the veil of his atmosphere--or, in actuality, is abducted, so to speak, by an alien--he learns that the fascinating arcade game which has been his source of entertainment back home is actually a sophisticated training program for the Rylan Star League, engineered by an entrepreneur/recruiter named Centauri (Robert Preston) for the actual Starfighters to "defend the frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada." Only, Alex doesn't want to die in the service of an alien galaxy not his own, and so refuses the invitation to join, much to Centauri's dismay. But it is when Centauri chastises him for his apparent cowardice that Alex truly begins to understand what it means to "reach up" and try to achieve something bigger than himself, to be more than a "kid from a trailer park". And that's when he begins to understand the responsibility he has to choose his destiny for himself...and believing that he can do something special.
For a movie which is about arcade games as galactic recruitment tests, of shapechanging "hit-beasts" and beta units from outer space, and dogfights in the vacuum of space being fought with super weapons named "death blossom", one of the most unreal scenes in The Last Starfighter has to be Alex's great triumph when he gets the high score in the Starfighter game. Maybe it is that time has caught up with the mystique of the arcade experience, but the scene--which begins plausibly enough, Alex relieving his frustration by playing the game, and Maggie and Otis (Vernon Washington) observing his prowess--builds to a crescendo when Otis calls for the whole trailer park to come out--a park, mind you, predominated by elderly women who lose their cool if they can't catch their "soaps"--and witness his seemingly ascendant performance on the video game. Everyone is cheering him on, praising his performance--it seems impossible. But this is Alex's dream; not literally--and not to simply have a trailer park praising his skills at a video game--but the recognition and the feeling that he can do something special, that he has a place in the world...even if it turns out to not be in this world. Considering how evolved and technically wondrous video games have become, it should also come as no surprise that The Last Starfighter was one of the earliest films to use computer-generated graphics to such an extent, something which is easily taken for granted today, just as the technological leaps made by today's video game developers and computer programmers would have resembled magic only a few decades past. And yet--another ironic parallel with older video games--the CGI has lost some of its luster as technology has advanced, and the imagery looks dated and unconvincing. But in a way, this too--like classic video games which remain so popular over time--seems to further enhance their nostalgic appeal; just as The Last Starfighter's computer graphics look a little off, so do other sacred cows to video game aficionados, like Final Fantasy VII and Resident Evil. The sense that The Last Starfighter has influenced video games represents a fascinating kind of closed loop, since the movie itself was clearly influenced by the video games of its time; terminology bandied about in the film like "heads-up display" are commonplace in the parlance of video games. (Would it be too much to ask for a lovingly crafted adaptation of The Last Starfighter into a video game with contemporary technology, or would that be too "meta"?)
Recommended for: Fans of perhaps one the most quintessential Eighties sci-fi popcorn munchers, filled with all the beloved tropes--lasers, the alien outfits, space battles--while retaining a kind of pure innocence which avidly avoids being patronizing and is charming; it is also fascinating to see just how far video games have come. And you'll be humming the theme song in your head for days.
For a movie which is about arcade games as galactic recruitment tests, of shapechanging "hit-beasts" and beta units from outer space, and dogfights in the vacuum of space being fought with super weapons named "death blossom", one of the most unreal scenes in The Last Starfighter has to be Alex's great triumph when he gets the high score in the Starfighter game. Maybe it is that time has caught up with the mystique of the arcade experience, but the scene--which begins plausibly enough, Alex relieving his frustration by playing the game, and Maggie and Otis (Vernon Washington) observing his prowess--builds to a crescendo when Otis calls for the whole trailer park to come out--a park, mind you, predominated by elderly women who lose their cool if they can't catch their "soaps"--and witness his seemingly ascendant performance on the video game. Everyone is cheering him on, praising his performance--it seems impossible. But this is Alex's dream; not literally--and not to simply have a trailer park praising his skills at a video game--but the recognition and the feeling that he can do something special, that he has a place in the world...even if it turns out to not be in this world. Considering how evolved and technically wondrous video games have become, it should also come as no surprise that The Last Starfighter was one of the earliest films to use computer-generated graphics to such an extent, something which is easily taken for granted today, just as the technological leaps made by today's video game developers and computer programmers would have resembled magic only a few decades past. And yet--another ironic parallel with older video games--the CGI has lost some of its luster as technology has advanced, and the imagery looks dated and unconvincing. But in a way, this too--like classic video games which remain so popular over time--seems to further enhance their nostalgic appeal; just as The Last Starfighter's computer graphics look a little off, so do other sacred cows to video game aficionados, like Final Fantasy VII and Resident Evil. The sense that The Last Starfighter has influenced video games represents a fascinating kind of closed loop, since the movie itself was clearly influenced by the video games of its time; terminology bandied about in the film like "heads-up display" are commonplace in the parlance of video games. (Would it be too much to ask for a lovingly crafted adaptation of The Last Starfighter into a video game with contemporary technology, or would that be too "meta"?)
Recommended for: Fans of perhaps one the most quintessential Eighties sci-fi popcorn munchers, filled with all the beloved tropes--lasers, the alien outfits, space battles--while retaining a kind of pure innocence which avidly avoids being patronizing and is charming; it is also fascinating to see just how far video games have come. And you'll be humming the theme song in your head for days.