Review of The Last Starfighter (1984) by Glenn S — 01 May 2010

Classic '80s sci-fi space shooter. It has all the nostalgia, charm, and yes, cheesiness of the films from that decade. This movie was no doubt influenced by the early Star Wars films, but regarding the special effects, Starfighter took a totally different approach. Instead of using practical models, the filmmakers relied totally on CGI for all the space battle sequences. Computer animation was still pretty new in 1984, and this was no doubt one of the first films to use it so extensively. The Last Starfighter was also probably the first movie to feature a video game which was, of course, later released on the Atari. So-- the Atari game was based on a movie about a video game that was based on a real-life space battle which was... well, you get the point.

P.S. Wil Wheaton actually had a bit part in this movie, and 3 years later he got recruited to the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Coincidence??