The Last Starfighter

Just finished Ernie Clines new book "Armada", which definietly borrows some influence from this movie. Its been a while since i've seen it so I decided to watch it. Now, I've seen it a thousand times, as it seemed like it played on TBS every weekend growing up. I must confess, I was just as entertained as always. Its cheesy, but every 80's movie is cheesy.

What Works:
- The concept. Tell me you've never dreamed a video game was real while playing it. Its such a cool concept. Wargames made it super serious, TLS made it fun and awesome.
- The score. Had to look it up, but the composer is a guy named Craig Safan whose only other major work is Remo Williams. If you've seen this movie once, you remember the opening score and theme.
- The effects. Yes its dated, but the movie is freaking 30 years old. The computer generated space fight scenes are great, and pretty action packed for its time. Still looks more realistic than most of the crap Lucas put back into Star Wars.
- The Space Ships. The Gunstar is in my top 5 all time favorite Sci-Fi vehicles. Its also probably one of the most realistically practical space combat vessels. Turret based weapons make so much more physics sense in space. That Star Car is cool, the enemy ships and command ship are great.

Whats not so great:
- The bad guys. Really the whole conflict. It appears the only reason the Kodan allow Zur to be in charge is just because hes Rylan and has a spy that can disable the Starfighter base. I mean, why not just make him your bitch? And i know they make Alex out to be the best, but him and Greig single handedly defeat the armada. Image if the whole fleet of Gunstars would've been available? It would've been a pretty epic arse whooping.
- 1984 Tech limitations. I feel like they had to wrap up the conflict pretty quickly because the render on the climactic battle probably took 6 months on '84 graphic design tech. I mean, its not like you're going to get the opportunity to do a lot of reshoots.

Overall its a fun movie that holds up really well for its age. The kids can watch it and you'll have fun explaining to them that it took a computer the size of your house months to render the graphics. It also has one of my all time favorite "drops mic" death scenes.