The Last Starfighter

TheLastStarfighter500
Originally uploaded by jessewillis

I actually watched this movie in April but just realized that I did not review it. I felt the need to correct that now.

Alex Rogan is wants out of his life, he wants to be away at college and gone from the trailer park he helps his mother maintain. His one escape is a video game called Starfighter. On a particularly trying day Alex beats the game and gets his highest score; that night Centauri appears and takes Alex into space where they rendezvous with an alien battle fleet that is working on protecting the galaxy and through the video game Alex is the new recruit. Alex must decide if he wants the prestigious position as a starfighter or if he should go home to his family and mundane life.

Probably the first thing that leaps out to me about The Last Starfighter is that it is very much a product of 1980’s cinema. Not only is it dated, but it smacks of Star Wars, Superman, and Back to the Future. Like Luke Skywalker, Alex wants a life far away from home and the main space ship itself looks straight out of the George Lucas handbook of alien crafts. Like Superman you have the protagonist that wants an exciting life and discovers a set of “powers” he wasn’t aware of, the main credits of the film also look shockingly similar to the Richard Donner credits. Finally, from the sense of humor, Centuri’s car, etc. all smack of Back to the Future. None of this makes The Last Starfighter a bad movie, but it is unsettling for a little while if you are familiar with the other films.

There have been rumors floating around that the studio wants to remake The Last Starfighter and I have to say it is one remake I would probably be a fan of. While this is a good movie, technology has improved so much that taking another pass at the film and updating it to look less pre-CGI and 1980’s would be a great thing.

I remember liking this movie as a child and I have to say that I still like it today.

Director:Nick Castle
Writer: Jonathan R. Betuel
Alex Rogan: Lance Guest
Maggie: Catherine Mary Stewart
Centauri: Robert Preston

Centauri: The amusing thing about this, it's all a big mistake. That particular Starfighter game was supposed to be delivered to Vegas, not some fleaspeck trailer park in the middle of tumbleweeds and tarantulas. So it must be fate, destiny, blind chance, luck even, that brings us together. And as the poet said, the rest is history.

Star Wars: A New Hope

Everyone's Favorite
Originally uploaded by Kiel Bryant

The whim came over me yesterday to watch Star Wars, not just any Star Wars but the version of A New Hope from my childhood – you know the one where the blur at the bottom of Luke’s landspeeder was created by putting vaseline on the camera lens. As much as I appreciate Lucas’s desire to “complete” the things he did in the original trilogy, I must say that I don’t think they needed it. The original Star Wars movies have always been perfect in my opinion and to this day the special effect completely hold up with things being produced by effects studios that have almost 30 years on Lucas and his garage effects.

The first and foremost thing that is right with the original edition – Han shoots first! I’m sorry, Greedo doesn’t shoot at Han who then fires back, or they both shoot at the same time – Han is the badass that knows he has to shoot first or die first, and that is the PERFECT set up for his character versus the rest of the more sheltered main characters in the film. Luke is naive, Leia is powerless and Han gets the job done.

I must also say that the prequels must be ignored to truly enjoy the original trilogy. If you actually think about metichlorines, whiny little Anakin, the old republic, or the way Revenge of the Sith ended, you will sit puzzling at how nothing actually fits together. And I’m sorry, the force is so much cooler when you don’t know it’s little organisms in your blood and body that control it. I could have lived without that knowledge – all I needed to know was that it “surrounds us” and I was cool.

Star Wars is the corner stone of the entire franchise, and I have to say that in the filmography of George Lucas it is his best directorial effort. One major element of this is the cast he chose; Lucas put a great deal of emphasis on casting, and wanting to make sure that his main characters had chemistry – he actually did group auditions for the three leads and I have to say that paid off.

Director & Writer: George Lucas
Luke Skywaler: Mark Hamill
Han Solo: Harrison Ford
Princess Leia: Carrie Fisher
Obi-Wan: Alec Guinness
Darth Vader: James Earl Jones

Obi-Wan: Your father's light saber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster; an elegant weapon for a more civilized age. For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times...before the Empire.