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From: APratt.PA@XEROX.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: The Last Starfighter
Message-ID: <2065@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 16-Jul-84 17:53:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.2065
Posted: Mon Jul 16 17:53:56 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Jul-84 04:40:15 EDT
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From:  <APratt.PA@XEROX.ARPA>

I saw The Last Starfighter Saturday, and it was okay, but not great. As
a movie I would give it a five (out of ten) but as a showcase for
computer graphics, I give it an eight!  The reason the scenes on the
trailer look so hokey is that all the space scenes are
computer-generated, with surface shading and all. It's not done with
models like the Star Wars effects are, and it shows: the lines are just
a little too sharp, and there is a curious lack of curved surfaces. But
the effects are good, and some of them, I think, were done in real time
(specifically, I believe the video game was actually used for the
sequences featuring it, and it will look just that way in the arcades).

The computer stuff is credited to Digital Productions in the credits,
with the credit "Supercomputer: CRAY X-MP" near the end. Some of the
computer scenes smacked of Tron, but most of them were of better quality
(more detail, more and better movement). A couple of the
computer-generated displays were breathtaking (to me, anyway, but I'm
easily impressed).

Also, I really like Robert Preston, who plays a character much like his
trademark con-man. (Preston was the Music Man.)

The plot is just what you see on the trailer, without much suspense or,
in fact, acting. The movie also probably has an age limit -- High school
shouldn't be too dim a memory for you. But the computer-generated
effects made it worth $5.00 for me. If I were to see it again, though,
it would have to be a bargain matinee.

				-- Allan Pratt