The Last Starfighter
HD DVD Title: The Last Starfighter Rated: PG Screen format: 1080P, 2.35:1 VC-1 Encoded HD Studio: Universal First theatrical release: July 13, 1984 Previously released on DVD/BluRay: Widescreen DVD, June 8, 1999 Director: Nick Castle Starring: Lance Guest, Dan O’Herlihy, Catherine Mary Stewart and Robert Preston Sound Formats: English Dolby Digital True HD 5.1, Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 Length: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes Subtitles: English & French |
Plot: 3/5
Despite being originally marketed as a showcase for the coming age of computer graphics effects, The Last Starfighter has at its core a charming coming of age story that revolves around the life of Alex (Guest), a teenager frustrated with his lot in life and dreaming of leaving his trailer park home and making a name for himself in the greater world. While Alex is fortunate enough to have a girlfriend who shares his dream, Maggie (Stewart) is too scared to act on them. Alex discovers that he has a flair for the new videogame that accidentally shows up in his Podunk town, and in fact beats the world record on the Starfighter machine. Doing so sends an interstellar alert to a shady recruiter, Centauri (Preston) who essentially kidnaps Alex and replaces him with a “beta unit” doppelganger that takes his place on earth, albeit a little unconvincingly.
Alex learns that the peaceful, intelligent races of the universe are under attack by Xur (Robert Snow) and that Starfighters are being paired up with navigators to form a defense. Alex is paired with Grig (O’Herlihy) a lizard like alien with an usual sense of humor. While Alex is not convinced that he is born to be a warrior, fate steps in and all of the other Starfighters are lost, leaving the universe in Alex’s hands. Alex will have to save the day by embracing his talents and grabbing hold of destiny to become The Last Starfighter, and once that is done, get things back on Earth settled as well!
Sound Quality: 4/5
I was pleasantly surprised by both the quality of the orchestral sound track and in the depth of the sound field produced. I can’t imagine that I saw this film theatrically with anything more than a stereo mix, and truly enjoyed Craig Safan’s epic, rousing and toe tapping score perhaps more than I enjoyed rewatching the film itself. It is spectacularly captured in Dolby True HD 5.1, giving those clamoring for such transfers something to cheer about. It’s also available in a DDPlus 5.1 track as well, so if you care to do your own comparison of the two this is good material to do so on. Safan started with a relatively simple theme and, by using tricks such as slowing it down or speeding it up, created consistent but interesting variations for the love theme, main title march, and the rest of the tracks.
From a technical perspective, there aren’t a whole lot of cross speaker ‘gee whiz’ effects to be found, but the whole room felt alive with this mix. It has a nicely enveloping effect that subtly brings the viewer into the center of the action without overwhelming them with it. Bass is particularly noteworthy in the score, as timpani and other drum elements are felt nicely as are the stringed basses. Bass is a bit weaker in the explosions and space scenes however, but not noticeably so unless you are really looking for it. Overall for a 1984 vintage film I was impressed and found a lot to like.
Visual Quality: 4/5
While the graphics technology used in this film pales compared to what is available for under $500 and renderable on a stock PC today, for its time it was an almost unthinkable achievement. Until that time digital effects had essentially only been used to display computer screen graphical elements, though Tron had upped the game considerably in 1982 by introducing a world of 3D game elements come to life. Using a computer to render three dimensional, believable, real world photorealistic elements had never been attempted on this scale. While the original planned elements had to be scaled down to meet deadlines, TLS astounded audiences with its imagery and once again set the bar for what was achievable. Also note that while the technology behind the graphics has been obsoleted a dozen times over the art direction and thought that went into the graphical elements are as valid and striking as ever. Just giving a kid a copy of 3D studio wont allow them to match the solid engineering that was behind the graphics.
Outside of the 3D elements of TLS, it is a mostly pedestrian Sci-Fi story filmed in and around a rural and un-remarkable trailer park and on sound stages made to look like sparse and starkly decorated military hangars. That said, it looks great for its age, and this transfer fully captures the qualities of the original film stock, looking a lot better than I remember it looking when I first saw it as a teenager. Detail is not remarkable either, but it is a fairly sharp and colorful film, and I never noted any edge enhancement or other artifacts, and there was zero evidence of any film stock damage in the form of pops or scratches, it was quite clean. Closeups tend to be light on skin detail on most players, but Centauri gets a few shots that allow his very expressive facial mannerisms to augment his machine gun delivery with style. Again viewers shouldn’t expect to be blown away, as the original film focused more on other aspects than the overall look but this transfer certainly is the best I’ve ever seen this film look.
Extra Features: 2/5
The three features on the disk are all holdovers from the 1999 DVD, theres a theatrical trailer, a feature length commentary and a 20 minute long “making of” titled Bridging the Frontier that is hosted by Guest and focuses mostly on the digital effects creation. This featurette is highly interesting for effects geeks like me, but it’s something I’ve already seen before and hence wasn’t any kind of added value. Also there ARE some extras on the original DVD that weren’t ported over, including things like production photos. Chalk this one up in the ‘disappointing’ column.
Overall: 3/5 (not an average)
Overall I’m left with mixed feelings about this film. We’ve come a long way audio-visually in the 23 years since its first release, but there is no denying its impressive accomplishments for its era. Nor is there denying the heart of the story that exists regardless of the visual effects, tho I cannot say that it quite lives up to the pedestal I had put it up on when I was 14. I did get a kick out of seeing Preston as Centauri tho, having seen The Music Man and knowing the connections between the two films and how the role was changed to suit his strengths.
In the end, this disk excellently captures or exceeds the presentation elements that I am so familiar with, but I have to admit slight disappointment in the half empty batch of extras that were shoveled over from the DVD. It's always difficult to separate nostalgia when evaluating films but it is clear that Starfighter has a lot of strenths that outlived its moment in the sun for technical aspects. This disk captures it, warts and all, as good as can reasonably be expected.
Or just tough to please. 
Regardless this is a cheezy film that I must own in HD. Nice review. 
