The Last Starfighter (1984) ***

"Greetings, Starfighter! You have been recruited by TheDanmanCan to read his review of the 1984 film The Last Starfighter. Get ready. Prepare for blast-off!"

For his sophomore film as director, Nick Castle—most famously known as playing The Shape in John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) (review), as well as its 2018 sequel (review)—dove into a space opera about a teenager, Alex Rogan (Lance Guest), who is recruited to fight in an intergalactic war, based on his arcade game skills. Guest does a great job of conveying all the right emotions for character—awe, skepticism, frustration, and charm.

While there is no denying that TLS was influenced by and is similar to Star Wars, the film stands apart by pulling its hero from a trailer park on Earth rather than a galaxy far, far away. Alex still has aspirations the same way that Luke Skywalker does but there is a more "down-home" quality to this story. Another major differentiator is the extensive use of CGI in TLS (one of the earliest films to do so and one of the first to use CGI to represent "real-life" objects). 

Though said CGI feels very dated, it was revolutionary for its time and this should always be kept in mind when viewing the film now. I'm no great fan of heavy use of CGI in film but here I think it works (even in its still-primitive state) because it compliments the look of the Starfighter arcade game used by the alien Centauri (an impossibly charismatic Robert Preston in his final theatrical film role) to recruit Alex to join the Star League. Some of the makeup work and production design is quite good but there are definitely scenes that come off as perhaps unintentionally campy, whether due to limitations in those departments or due to performances and/or direction. That's part of the fun though.

Dan O'Herlihy memorably plays the reptilian pilot Grig (which always amuses me because I completely forget that it's him every time with all that makeup on), who trains Alex. It's also funny to think of the then 64-year-old actor (!)—now more well-known for having played delicious villains in RoboCop (1987) (review) and Halloween III: Season Of The Witch (1982) (review)–as such a goofy but lovable character. Craig Safan provides a grandiose score that propels the action and really sells the romantic aspects. Admittedly, his score bears more than a passing resemblance to John Williams' for the Star Wars films but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable.

All in all, while I don't consider TLS a classic of any sort, it is simply an entertaining and very rewatchable sci-fi flick with a lot of heart. Any cynicism that Alex (or the viewer) has is washed away by his attainment of reaching his dreams. And unlike other films of the era, there's no jingoism here—Alex finds a sense of purpose and a use for his talent that just so happens to be the key to saving more than just his country or planet.

"Hurry now! It's time to jump back into your Gunstar spacecraft to prepare for battle. And don't let this review fall into the hands of Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada. The fate of the universe rests in your hands!"