ILM and The Last Starfighter

I recently bought The Last Starfighter on DVD and I had totally forgotten that the ships were all CGI. On the extras bits several ILM personell talk about the influence this film had on their productions.

Has anyone else seen this?

Does anyone else feel (as I do) that this classic desperately need the Lucas SE treatment? The effects are really cool, especially when you consider the year but when I watched it I couldn't help but laugh (a good appreciative laugh) at how fake they look by today's standards. Even TV CGI ships look better than this.

Anyway, if you haven't seen it take a peek (and look for the size of the enormous server they used for these graphics! lol) and let me know what you think.

 

That was the 2nd film after TRON to really push the CG angle in the publicity. I recall being wowed in Computer magazines at stills from the movie.

Loved the movie when I was a kid, but I haven't seen it since it's release. At that time though, the space battles all looked as 'real' to me as anything else I'd seen done with miniatures (Star Wars, Galactica, Buck Rogers etc).

 

Yeah, at the time I really had no idea that they were CGI. I just remember being slightly (but too much) that the space battles didn't last longer. Now I know why!

 

Well at the time it was more or less well publicized that it was done with CG. It was pretty good. Certainly a milestone in movie CG.

And no I don't think it needs an SE treatment. If anything it should stand as a testament, as an historical perspective of the state of the art. Same reson why asy, Harryhausen, Willis O'Brian and George Pal's movie should be left as they are. It;s just a matter of getting into the "mindset" while watching them. Too bad that not much long after the film,the big CG collapse took place.

 

Honestly I'd like to see it released (as Star Wars should be) with the original and then an updated version. Something with an extended battle scene.

 

It definitely doesn't need a Special Edition treatment. The effects were absolutely ground breaking at the time. It should stand as an historical document in CGI effects history, as has been previously mentioned in this thread.

I think The Last Starfighter often gets overlooked, because TRON was a bigger film at the time. It's a shame really, because it's great fun Where else can you see the Old Man from Robocop ( Dan O'Herlihy ), in full alien make up ?!

"Activate Death Blossom !"