derex3592 Posted March 25, 2015 Posted March 25, 2015 (edited) No way! Totally didn't know that. Freaking luv this movie.whyyyy don't I own a copy?? Was it ever released on bluray properly remastered? The Last Starfighter (25th Anniversary Edition) [blu-ray] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0025VLELQ/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_Q8Gevb1DXV6BV https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0025VLELQ/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_Q8Gevb1DXV6BV Edited March 25, 2015 by derex3592 Quote
Keith Posted March 25, 2015 Posted March 25, 2015 Yup, the BD release is solid, but lacks the original trailer, so hold on to the first release DVD too. Quote
areaseven Posted May 17, 2015 Author Posted May 17, 2015 (edited) How The Last Starfighter Became a Cult Classic - And Why a Sequel May Finally Take Flight This is a rather long-ass article, so we'll cut to the chase. The following notes are mentioned, but are not confirmed, as they conflict with each other: - The theatrical and home media distribution rights are with Universal Pictures. - The film was produced by Lorimar Pictures, which was absorbed into Warner Bros. Pictures in 1992; therefore, WB owns international distribution rights. - Universal supposedly has the rights to remake the film. - Writer Jonathan Betuel has the rights to make sequels. - Universal and WB each supposedly have remake and sequel rights. Edited May 17, 2015 by areaseven Quote
Duke Togo Posted May 17, 2015 Posted May 17, 2015 i think we've mentioned it before, but Spielberg and Gary Whitta have tried to get ahold of these rights to no avail. Quote
frothymug Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 hah, the one movie with some of the earliest CGI effects ever existed and not a single person in hollywood can touch it to F it up. Genius, pure genius. This pretty much accurately sums up my feelings on the issue. I just re-watched this movie a couple of days ago and I still get starry-eyed. There better not be a remake, or I will lose my mind. Quote
Gakken85 Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 Need to put this on my list... such a fun Star Wars rip off. I watched it over and over as a kid. Quote
Keith Posted May 19, 2015 Posted May 19, 2015 Need to put this on my list... such a fun Star Wars rip off. I watched it over and over as a kid. Actually, it's not Star Wars-y at all. Quote
Dynaman Posted May 19, 2015 Posted May 19, 2015 Actually, it's not Star Wars-y at all. Darn straight! Star Wars was about a young man that gets taken along to take out an evil empire in a spaceship, er wait... Quote
spanner Posted May 19, 2015 Posted May 19, 2015 one of my all time favorites! Just watched the making of it which I had never seen (or remember seeing) which was great! Hope someone one day makes a modern version of it! I think it would be great! Quote
areaseven Posted May 19, 2015 Author Posted May 19, 2015 one of my all time favorites! Just watched the making of it which I had never seen (or remember seeing) which was great! Hope someone one day makes a modern version of it! I think it would be great! It's perfect as it is. Besides, arcade machines are no longer popular today, so how would Centauri distribute his Starfighter game - through the App Store? Quote
Keith Posted May 19, 2015 Posted May 19, 2015 It's perfect as it is. Besides, arcade machines are no longer popular today, so how would Centauri distribute his Starfighter game - through the App Store? Steam! Darn straight! Star Wars was about a young man that gets taken along to take out an evil empire in a spaceship, er wait... Alex had no special powers, wasn't born into responsability, didn't really have a mentor, and aside from Grwg, didn't have anyone specially looking out for him. Alex used 100% hard work and guts! Quote
Dynaman Posted May 19, 2015 Posted May 19, 2015 Alex had no special powers, wasn't born into responsability, didn't really have a mentor, and aside from Grwg, didn't have anyone specially looking out for him. Cutting it mighty fine there. Quote
JB0 Posted May 19, 2015 Posted May 19, 2015 Luke didn't have a robot body double making out with his girlfriend while he was saving the galaxy. Quote
myk Posted May 19, 2015 Posted May 19, 2015 Honestly, if someone were to make a "modern" version of this classic, I don't see the need to improve or change anything other than the special effects. Naturally, if Hollywood were to decide to go forward with a revisit to this story, they'd probably make Alex a girl, turn the Ko-Dan armada into North Koreans, have lots of lens-flare effects, make it so that the Star League Frontier shot first, etc, etc... Quote
Kelsain Posted May 19, 2015 Posted May 19, 2015 What if, to preserve the gimmicky aspect of the original's CGI, the remake was made exclusively with real models? Honestly, though: I would't want to see a remake at all of Last Starfighter. It's a simple hero's journey, which has been done well and poorly by countless other movies. This one was done pretty well, overall and I love it. However, the standout features of the movie are it's amazing production design and it's use of ground breaking CGI. But now - CGI is not groundbreaking, and I'd hate to see the Gunstar put through the same redesign filter as the USS Enterprise. What the movie also gives us is a well crafted, rich world. Much like Star Wars, what we see on screen hints at a bigger history that could be explored. If a sequel is to be made, I'd want to see something that expanded on what is hinted at, showing us a wider world, much like Empire did. And they'd need to get a design supervisor that recognizes and would continue the clean, functional designs of the original. But it's been 30 years, so an origin story is "necessary" for all the kids who've never seen the original and can't be bothered to rent it and sit through old SFX. Quote
JB0 Posted May 19, 2015 Posted May 19, 2015 I'd argue that with it being thirty years, an origin story is bypassable. Any attempts at doing more with the setting could be presented as a standalone story. Only "Last Starfighter, The" fans would need to know it WAS a sequel. Like Tron: Legacy, only less stupid. Or Jurassic World, for that matter. Not that they WOULD do that, but... they COULD do that. Quote
Kelsain Posted May 19, 2015 Posted May 19, 2015 Yeah, thus the quotes on necessary. You COULD do a good story in an existing world that way. Perhaps even enticing new audiences to go back and see the original and prompting BluRay sales. But it's not likely... The fact hat the writer of the original is the one holding the rights is the only thing that gives me hope about this. Quote
Gakken85 Posted May 19, 2015 Posted May 19, 2015 (edited) I think you're reading too much into what made Star Wars, Star Wars.... It was a guy in a star fighter shooting people... that was close enough to Star Wars for kids, and that's how ripoffs work. You can't do a low budget rip-off and include droids and aliens on the scale Lucas did, just hit the high notes and run with it. When I was a kid and saw it on HBO it was close enough to get me interested. A New Hope is about Luke coming of age, and saving the day. That's what the Last Star Fighter is about too - the details don't matter. Edited May 19, 2015 by Gakken85 Quote
technoblue Posted May 19, 2015 Posted May 19, 2015 A New Hope is about Luke coming of age, and saving the day. That's what the Last Star Fighter is about too - the details don't matter. As Kelsain noted, TLS and SW are similar in that they are expressions of the Hero's Journey. Gakken's definition is highlighting that point, but I don't agree with the last part. The Hero's Journey has been told a number of different times and in a number of different ways: as far back as the Iliad to as recent as Bleach. It's due to the fact that creative, talented people find new ways to change the details that we get new heroes and new journeys. In other words, the core writing trope is just a template. It's what a person does with that template that matters. Given the current topic, I think both stories earned their place, and I appreciate the differences. On a related note, it's a shame that arcade consoles are all but extinct, unless you are into MAME. Quote
F-ZeroOne Posted May 19, 2015 Posted May 19, 2015 There is actually a property that would cover similar ground but without the rights issues (as far as I know) - Terry Pratchetts "Only You Can Save Mankind". Quote
Thom Posted May 19, 2015 Posted May 19, 2015 You know, someone with a home computer and a little down time could redo all the CGI at near or at movie quality. That's all I'd need. New special effects. Keep the movie, update the effects and we're golden! Quote
Dobber Posted May 19, 2015 Posted May 19, 2015 You know, someone with a home computer and a little down time could redo all the CGI at near or at movie quality. That's all I'd need. New special effects. Keep the movie, update the effects and we're golden! Yup, keep the designs just redo the shots so they look a bit better...like Starfighter command and the asteroid chase in particular. Chris Quote
JB0 Posted May 20, 2015 Posted May 20, 2015 (edited) I think you're reading too much into what made Star Wars, Star Wars.... It was a guy in a star fighter shooting people... that was close enough to Star Wars for kids, and that's how ripoffs work. You can't do a low budget rip-off and include droids and aliens on the scale Lucas did, just hit the high notes and run with it. When I was a kid and saw it on HBO it was close enough to get me interested. And that was actually a problem they had in production. When the test screening feedback showed audiences were just viewing it as Star Wars with computer-drawn X-Wings, they actually went back and filmed several more scenes with Beta Unit to try and give the movie it's own unique personality, so it wouldn't just be remembered as "Star Wars Lite" Certainly, they're both similar, but I think I'd be hard-pressed to dub Last Starfighter a Star Wars ripoff, except in the sense that it was a science-fiction movie released after 1979. Most of what it "borrows from Star Wars" are cliches at least as old as human civilization. ... And the Gunstar is just SO much cooler than an X-Wing. Edited May 20, 2015 by JB0 Quote
ErikElvis Posted May 20, 2015 Posted May 20, 2015 Ok I just re watched this and I have to say the space effects are pretty bad. Movie is enjoyable. And Maggie or whatever her name was is super cute but then I was bummed out that this was 30 years ago and she's prob 50+. Quote
JB0 Posted May 20, 2015 Posted May 20, 2015 Ok I just re watched this and I have to say the space effects are pretty bad.The better CG shots hold up fairly well, I think, but a lot of them were rendered at lower detail levels for time constraints. It's kind of amazing that a TOY can render better graphics faster than a supercomputer could in the day. (AND hold an entire frame in RAM. The machines they were using actually had to print directly to film as they rendered because they couldn't hold an entire frame for display.) Though... we cheat nowadays. Texture mapping and bump mapping and all that jazz. There's a lot of ways to draw detail that isn't actually on your models. The Last Starfighter renderer was of the "build the detail into the models, and pour all your power into pushing more polygons" school of render design. Quote
Kelsain Posted May 20, 2015 Posted May 20, 2015 And the Gunstar is just SO much cooler than an X-Wing. Maggie was cuter than Leia. Quote
Dynaman Posted May 20, 2015 Posted May 20, 2015 Gene Siskell has the best quick review of this movie I have ever seen. "a Star Wars rip-off, but the best one" Quote
frothymug Posted May 20, 2015 Posted May 20, 2015 Ok I just re watched this and I have to say the space effects are pretty bad. Movie is enjoyable. And Maggie or whatever her name was is super cute but then I was bummed out that this was 30 years ago and she's prob 50+. Did you watch the 25th anniversary Blu-ray? They cleaned up the CGI quite a bit. It still looks dated, but I think there is a marked improvement over the original film. Quote
myk Posted May 21, 2015 Posted May 21, 2015 Maggie was cuter than Leia. TRUTH. However Han Solo and Obi Wan were cooler companions than Centauri and the lizard dude.... Quote
M'Kyuun Posted May 21, 2015 Posted May 21, 2015 Ok I just re watched this and I have to say the space effects are pretty bad. Movie is enjoyable. And Maggie or whatever her name was is super cute but then I was bummed out that this was 30 years ago and she's prob 50+. She's 56, but has maintained her looks pretty well. And I have to agree that the Gunstar is a cooler ship than the X-Wing. Quote
JB0 Posted May 21, 2015 Posted May 21, 2015 Did you watch the 25th anniversary Blu-ray? They cleaned up the CGI quite a bit. It still looks dated, but I think there is a marked improvement over the original film.You sure? I was unde the impression that release was just a remaster, not an edit. And owning the previous DVD, I know it was a desperately NEEDED remaster, but it still IS the original. Quote
Chronocidal Posted May 21, 2015 Posted May 21, 2015 I picked up both editions, so I could take a quick comparison of the two over the holiday weekend. Quote
M'Kyuun Posted May 21, 2015 Posted May 21, 2015 You guys got my nostalgia going, so I watched a short vid of the Gunstar in action. For the time, the CG was really impressive, but I think a practical model would have stood the test of time better. The scene I watched had them fighting another ship through caves in an asteroid, and the dated CG cave really spoils the realism. The ships look decent, but today's CG has me spoiled and it just looks like old CG to me. It wouldn't bother me if they George Lucas'ed the CG scenes to make them more believable, and put the original scenes on the disc as extras for side by side comparison. Quote
JB0 Posted May 21, 2015 Posted May 21, 2015 I think the old CG still works for the most part, albeit not necessarily in the original intent. I think it feels kind of right that a movie about a kid who became a hero by being good at arcade games has effects that look like they were lifted from a video game(insanely-high resolution aside, it was rendered at 3000x5000 in 36-bit color. You can't do that on your TV, even if it's a UHD display. And BluRay can't deliver it if you could.) The bigger problem to me is the lower-detail shots really stick out. Of particular note is a few clips where a laser bolt is traveling mostly perpendicular to the screen. Once you can see it mostly end-on, the * shape of the actual model used for the bolt becomes visible and it ceases to look like a cylindrical beam. If it was possible to get the old data and re-render everything at max detail, I'd love to see that. It'd be a nice balance of faithful and upgraded. But then, I doubt the data files are still available. And even if they are, you'd need a renderer that actually understands them. Quote
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