The Last Starfighter came out in 1984 and aimed at the arcade generation and burgeoning home computer market like the film Wargames a year earlier.

It is really a cheesy B movie enlivened by Robert Preston as Centauri who recruits arcade whizz kid Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) to fight space battles for real. The arcade game, The Last Starfighter is a test, if you break the records a representative comes for you to become a real intergalactic fighter pilot.

Although reluctant at first, Rogan is saving the galaxy fighting the Ko-dan forces. A double of Rogan, who is a robot has taken his place at the trailer park hanging out with his girlfriend and trying to pass off as human.

There are some nice special effects for its time including CGI in the climactic space battle. However it is too often let down by a slow moving story which is just padding even at the end of the movie which I suspect is a set up to a sequel that never materialised.

Some of the visual effects now look dated and you can tell the trailer park is really a film studio. However the film is just too corny and all you end up remembering is Preston's extravagant flim flam man character.

Although any number of young people I know are addicted to those video games they do apparently serve a purpose. For some years now our military has sought to attract recruits who enjoy those games and possess those skills on the games. A lot of our weaponry with computer guidance targeting are tailor made for those who are skilled at video games. The Last Starfighter literally ratchets that concept exponentially up right into the universe.

Lance Guest is such a kid who lives in some trailer park with mother Barbara Bosson and brother Chris Hebert. He's set a record on a video game that brings him to the attention of an alien played by Robert Preston who set the game up. He's in the market for pilots all over the universe to face an alien enemy. The weaponry that Guest would face is very graphically described in the game itself.

It takes a while but Lance Guest recognized his destiny soon enough even though he's one reluctant computer warrior. He and Dan O'Herlihy face off against a video game like battle against a fleet only this one's for real.

Preston and O'Herlihy play a fine pair of aliens and this was Preston's farewell big screen appearance although he did two more made for TV films.

Some nice computer graphics and fine performances by the ensemble cast characterize The Last Starfighter. So parents don't discourage your kid's time on computer games, they could be in training to save earth itself from invasion.

Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) lives in a trailer park with his mother Jane and little brother Louis. They manage the park. He's great at the video arcade game Starfighter and he beats the record. He has big dreams to go somewhere else. His girlfriend Maggie Gordon (Catherine Mary Stewart) is scared to leave her granny. His college loan gets turned down. Centauri (Robert Preston) is the inventor of Starfighter and arrives with a futuristic car. Centauri takes him to outer space while leaving behind Beta which takes on Alex's form. Centauri is recruiting for Starfighters but Earth is not really a member of the Star League. Xur has betrayed his people to lead the Ko-Dan warships past the Frontier. He wants to take over Rylan from his father and destroy the Star League. Alex refuses to fight and returns home. He is attacked by an alien bounty hunter and Centauri is mortally wounded. He returns to find the base heavily damaged and navigator Grig with the last Gunstar. Without any training and only one ship, the last Starfighter Alex must destroy an armada and rescue the galaxy.

This is fun sci-fi action adventure with some of the earliest CGI. It's blocky and ancient but workable nevertheless. The story is just great. It taps into every child's dream of living their video games for real. It is a really fun timeless story that would work great as a remake with modern CG.