Author Topic: The last star-fighter  (Read 2970 times)

garhkal

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The last star-fighter
« on: 24 January 2020, 14:52:32 »
Did a recent re-watch of this good 1980s sci-fi film, and was wondering. As per several sites back last year, they ARE looking at either remaking it, or doing a follow up sequel like film. IF they do...
Would you be ok with them bringing the same actors back to reprise their role?
If not and they went with newer folk, who would you like to see in the key roles?
Would you prefer it be as CGI'ed as the original was, or go with more stop motion/miniature like effects for the ships?

Now, i know some of the actors, are dead, so can't come back..  BUT that doesn't mean others couldn't.
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worktroll

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #1 on: 24 January 2020, 15:03:28 »
Re-using actors is like using chili - either the dish takes strong benefit from it and it's central, or just a dash. Not sure how well that would work here.

And I'd still say CGI for the ships, and practical for the sets.
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I am Belch II

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #2 on: 24 January 2020, 15:45:35 »
I read that they are doing a sequel to the Last Starfighter movie....

Please don't the original was great don't destroy it.
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jimdigris

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #3 on: 24 January 2020, 16:07:20 »
I read that they are doing a sequel to the Last Starfighter movie....

Please don't the original was great don't destroy it.
Of course, they'll bring in J.J. Abrams to do it. :yikes:

monbvol

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #4 on: 24 January 2020, 17:33:02 »
Considering I've seen a trailer for Fantasy Island I'm honestly surprised I haven't seen another go at the Last Star Fighter yet.

ANS Kamas P81

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #5 on: 24 January 2020, 21:23:33 »
You'd be hard-pressed to top Dan O'Herlihy's Grig and Robert Preston's Centauri.  You really need a fast-talking door-to-door salesman for Centauri's role, and Grig...face it, you need a REALLY good actor to emote through the mask like he did.

Besides, who plays coinops anymore?

In all honesty I would like to see it - I thought, overall, the "war" was pretty short and one-sided, but it worked for the story.  And the Gunstar is an absolute classic of design and arguably one of the most believable/realistic SF ships out there.  I really hope they keep her aesthetic and design.

Castwise...oh, let's see.  Your lead's gonna have to be someone young, post-highschool pre-college, couldn't say anything from that pool.  I will say pick an actress for the lead simply because I'm an anime fan and cute girls in spaceships is awesome.  For Centauri, how about John deLancie?  He'd really play up the put-upon parts of the role, and I think he can be quite convincing about doing something if he really wants.  Not like he's a stranger to the big screen either.  Grig...could go lots of ways, but you need someone good at emoting through heavy makeup.  Ian McDiarmid?  It'd be fun to see him as a good guy for once.
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Firesprocket

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #6 on: 24 January 2020, 22:37:54 »
Did a recent re-watch of this good 1980s sci-fi film, and was wondering. As per several sites back last year, they ARE looking at either remaking it, or doing a follow up sequel like film. IF they do...
Would you be ok with them bringing the same actors back to reprise their role?
If not and they went with newer folk, who would you like to see in the key roles?
Would you prefer it be as CGI'ed as the original was, or go with more stop motion/miniature like effects for the ships?

Now, i know some of the actors, are dead, so can't come back..  BUT that doesn't mean others couldn't.
If they set up the sequel several years or a generation or two later I'd be interested, but I'd only be interested Lance Guest in being more in a mentor/commander role.  Can't say I have any actors in mind for new roles, but you definitely have to go CGI with the space ships and battles.  That was one of the most awesome things about the film when it was released.

pheonixstorm

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #7 on: 24 January 2020, 23:51:15 »
Alex, what the hell's going on?

Extra tidbit some may not know, FASA did a game based on the movie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Starfighter:_Tunnel_Chase

garhkal

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #8 on: 25 January 2020, 02:14:22 »

Besides, who plays coinops anymore?

True, its hard to find arcades anymore..

In all honesty I would like to see it - I thought, overall, the "war" was pretty short and one-sided, but it worked for the story.  And the Gunstar is an absolute classic of design and arguably one of the most believable/realistic SF ships out there.  I really hope they keep her aesthetic and design.

I was thinking, they could, for a sequel, have them go OUT of the protected sphere to strike BACK at the Kodan-armada..
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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #9 on: 25 January 2020, 03:27:03 »
Please, no sequel as it will completely suck like Indiana Jones 4 did. Why? It has been waaaaaaaaaaaaay too long since the original Last Starfighter. That and the critics will tear it apart when they will eventually compare the sequel to Star Wars or Star Trek...

The Tron remake didn't do well either because it has been waaaaay too long since the original, as another example...

No sequel for me.

Matti

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #10 on: 25 January 2020, 10:27:42 »
Besides, who plays coinops anymore?
At least Japanese. Maybe Koreans too.

[edit]
And at least one American
« Last Edit: 25 January 2020, 10:30:07 by Matti »
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elf25s

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #11 on: 25 January 2020, 17:50:52 »
True, its hard to find arcades anymore..

I was thinking, they could, for a sequel, have them go OUT of the protected sphere to strike BACK at the Kodan-armada..
if you are in  NJ area close to NYc there are at lest 3 locations that do have retro arcades
 2 locations for yestrarcades one location in hawthorne NJ billys midway and one in asbury nj name eludes me atm stone throw from stone poney

i also recall there was a fan made game for pc that had last starfighter i have a link some where

as for the sequel that had been bouncing around for about last 20 years...
you sure cannot out run death...but sure as hell you can make that bastard work for it!

SulliMike23

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #12 on: 25 January 2020, 19:46:36 »
I love the original and I would rather have a sequel than a remake. If they went and redid the CGI effects to make it more realistic, that's fine, but that's as far as I'll stretch it.

Von Jankmon

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #13 on: 25 January 2020, 20:35:05 »
Well someone has got to actually defend the Star League.
We keep messing it up with out coups, clans and succession wars.
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idea weenie

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #14 on: 26 January 2020, 01:30:23 »
Instead of an arcade game, how about an app on the Apple store or GooglePlay store?  Or a downloadable game (Steam?) that is being offered as a pre-release using an existing free space-combat engine to test the virtual intelligence running the enemy units?

So people download the game and give it a try.  Several people complain about the clunky graphics, but all recognize that the enemy units are smart, aggressive, and actually develop tactics/strategies as the player plays the game.  Some people try to reverse-engineer the game to figure out the enemy intelligence engines, but the coding is very good and very well scrambled to make reverse-engineering almost impossible.

And some kids around the globe seem to be doing particularly well in this game.

Cue them getting picked up (the car has a bumper sticker with the 'game' symbol on it), and taken off-world.  Arriving at the base, they see the symbol again, in a place of pride.  The earthlings look at each other and realize the game might not be just a game.

Von Jankmon

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #15 on: 26 January 2020, 07:35:50 »
The plot to Last Starfighter is far easier to justify now, and a mass covert screening of people with extreme reflexes is certainly feasible.  It doesn't even require advanced technology or infrastructure of any kind.  Centauri could turn up on earth Kickstart a small video game company do the coding using our tech, link it up 100% with earth tech and monitor the 'ladder' of hi-scores globally in the same way other tech companies do.  Then if he offers tournament prizes by digging some of that base metal humans call gold from the bottom of the Pacific, banking it and offering $5k to the first to beat the game he will get his Excalibur test candidates quickly.
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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #16 on: 26 January 2020, 12:11:05 »
"Would you like to develop an app?"   ;D

Sorry, couldn't help myself. ..
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Daryk

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #17 on: 26 January 2020, 13:26:10 »
With e-sports as big as they are now, I think a $5k purse would be a bit too small...

garhkal

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #18 on: 26 January 2020, 15:29:36 »
BUt would a sequel even need to go the route of "lets make a game"?? 
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CrossfirePilot

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #19 on: 26 January 2020, 20:28:55 »
I remember that I wanted to see that movie sooo badly, but at the time none of the small movie theaters nearby showed it that summer, it took years before I was able to see it and at the time it seemed that the FX were already dated (similar to the CGI of Firefox).  I thought it was a tidy space opera.  A remake I think would be horribly lacking, but I don't know where a sequel would go. 

Bedwyr

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #20 on: 27 January 2020, 00:49:11 »
Robert Preston's Centauri.

Man, I watched the movie again recently and I could help but giggle every time he came on screen. I kept expecting him to go "Trouble, oh we got trouble, Right here in River City. With a capital "T". That rhymes with "P" and that stands for Pool."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2ySBtVLCYA

The movie itself is a great specimen of 'so bad it's good'.

« Last Edit: 27 January 2020, 00:55:00 by Bedwyr »
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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #21 on: 27 January 2020, 06:39:07 »
I watched the original movie with my cousins at the cinema. It had some moments but overall I thought it was meh. The SFX seemed inferior to Star Wars, the main bad guy wasn't intimidating (we thought he looked like Ronald McDonald), and he got away in the end.

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #22 on: 27 January 2020, 14:31:48 »
True, its hard to find arcades anymore..
Well come up to Maine in the summertime we have Palace Playland, York's Wild Kingdom and Round1in southern Maine and in New Hampshire Fun Spot
So finding an arcade isn't hard...
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CrossfirePilot

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #23 on: 27 January 2020, 15:50:18 »
True, its hard to find arcades anymore..


My friends dad owned one of the largest chains of arcades in the Detroit area back in the 80s.  My friend warned him in the late 80s to early 90s to sell and get out before the prevalence of PCs and home consul systems took over.  Well Dad didn't listen and rode the value all the way to $0. At his death, all my friends dad left him was a car that was underwater on its loan and a metal suitcase full of wrappers that used to go around stacks of $100 bills. 

Bedwyr

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #24 on: 27 January 2020, 16:14:10 »
My friends dad owned one of the largest chains of arcades in the Detroit area back in the 80s.  My friend warned him in the late 80s to early 90s to sell and get out before the prevalence of PCs and home consul systems took over.  Well Dad didn't listen and rode the value all the way to $0. At his death, all my friends dad left him was a car that was underwater on its loan and a metal suitcase full of wrappers that used to go around stacks of $100 bills.

Diversify your wealth allocation, people. Don't put it all in one thing; that's epic foolishness.
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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #25 on: 02 February 2020, 00:18:49 »
I would tend to object to a remake also, on the other hand a sequel, or a spinoff might work better.

throw out Xur and the Kodan Armada, and modernize it.

have a person recruiting on earth using some kind of game, for various positions for some force.

my thought is pilot/gunners some kind of VR game
maybie squadron tacticians (strategists) some kind of RTS
etc.

and rather than only recruiting 1 person, maybe recruiting a group, (bigger payday if you can essentially provide a full squadron or similar)

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #26 on: 04 February 2020, 06:59:11 »
Like any artform, how good or bad it is depends almost entirely on the execution. Whether a group is better than a solo hero or not depends on what the story you're telling is. Making the Last Star-Fighter about a group would remove one of the key aspects that made the original great, that being only one person on Earth could pass the test.

This is the ultimate power fantasy, finding out that you, and you alone, can save the world/universe. Add more people into that category and it's no longer so compelling.


Von Jankmon

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #27 on: 04 February 2020, 14:23:07 »
With e-sports as big as they are now, I think a $5k purse would be a bit too small...

Don't cut Centauri's profit margin!  Also you want a good gamer, not a pro gamer.  Top ranked millionaire DOTA players have their own scene, will be easily missed and unlikely to sigh up to fly for the Star League.  5k casual purse will get the right applicants, people will take up the challenge and if the game is proliferated wide enough you will get candidates with nothing to lose.
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dgorsman

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #28 on: 04 February 2020, 15:09:18 »
Naturally, the one selected will be a washed up, burned out championship player.  Who after single-handedly defeating the armada will opt to continue flying and train the next generation over a lucrative new competition contract.
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elf25s

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Re: The last star-fighter
« Reply #29 on: 04 February 2020, 23:22:08 »
ok as i mentioned earlier there was a last star fighter game fan made
it was by roguesynapse.... it had been a while since i went there site is still up
you sure cannot out run death...but sure as hell you can make that bastard work for it!