Review of Starman (1984) by Kai82 — 17 Sep 2022

A hidden science fiction gem and nearly forgotten John Carpenter movie. The unique ideas and story won me over. The story starts with the Voyager 2 probe being discovered by an alien civilization. They were able to understand the message from the gold disk and send a vessel to establish (first) contact with humanity.

Instead of a warm welcome like promised on the gold disk the vessel is shot down and crashes in a rural area in Wisconsin. The sole survivor alien which has the form of a small ball of energy reaches the home of the widow Jenny Hayden who lost her husband a short time before.

To better survive he scans the surroundings and uses a hair lock of her husband to create a body for himself. Here I stop to avoid spoilers. The ideas are unique and I like the adventure or better said odyssey of the characters.

The story together with the characters / actors create an experience that impressed me and that I deeply enjoyed. I was always invested and cared for the characters which is the hallmark of a good movie and writing.

To be fair I can see that this movie is not for everyone which is not the equivalent of garbage this statement has become in modern days. Some people want more science fiction than character driven stories.

The cast fully delivers and I praise Jeff Bridges as Starman and Karen Allen as Jenny Hayden. Both have a great chemistry and improve the movie. The side characters are well chosen too. Richard Jaeckel is great as George Fox, Charles Smith won me over as Mark Shermin and I see no misstep in the other roles.

I have to praise also the team behind the screen with director John Carpenter and all the others. The special effects were also top notch for the time period and I did not know until recently that ILM was responsible (Should be a no brainer with good effects in movies back then ;-).

Sadly it was a failure at the box office making barely more than the production cost and is almost forgotten. It spawned however a TV series that I watched. Overall this is a hidden gem and recommendation if you want to see something unique in science fiction.