What the heck is thIs Armada you guys are going on about?
Second book by Ready, Player One author.
Meh, you’ll likely not be a huge fan, so don’t worry about it. ;)
He’s obviously referencing that. :)
But I think it would be better done if the alien pilot only communicated via references to historical events as metaphor.
Crappy multiplayer Wing Commander game.
Oh wait, was that the one with the bugs instead of kilrathi?
Edit: nope, I’m thinking of Prophecy. Don’t think I ever played Armada.
It was literally the first space movie to use CGI. Anyone writing off the effects as cheesy either saw the movie later and isn’t aware of the historical context, or saw it at the time but had an affinity for spaceships constructed of random parts ripped from plastic model boxes.
It’s how we got Star Wars.
Again, for 1984, this was pretty amazing stuff.
I’m trying to think what the next real use of CGI in this way was… maybe Star Trek TNG in 1987?
I’m wondering if I’m the only one around here old enough to remember that Centauri was Robert Preston reprising his role from The Music Man.
C’mon, it wasn’t that bad.
I would give all the likes if I could. Recall how the movie starts - Alex basically wanders around fixing things for people at the park and he’s clearly torn because he knows how much people there depend on him. Life with Maggie is not some sort of punishment either (he clearly cares about her). But he’s torn because of his desires to go see more, which the coming story nicely mimics.
What I especially love is his second thoughts and the direction it goes in. Alex completely panics and basically gets Grig to fly him home. If not for the scout ships that chase them, and the revelations therein, Alex is giving up and running away. That’s one thing I think really sets this apart from a lot of more recent movies that tried to show the heroes struggling with their mantles. It’s usually just a few lines of dialog here and there (this is true of all the nonsensical DC movies, of Rey, etc) but there’s never any genuine moments of doubt on this level.
The Last Starfighter soundtrack is really good.
The movie has aged great IMO, because it’s so solid at the foundations. The dated effects still have an iconic feel (the ship designs are really neat), as do all the costume designs.
TNG actually used practical effects. CGI didn’t come in until Voyager and the last few seasons of DS9.
Next big CGI was probably the water effects in The Abyss, in 1995.
Toy Story didn’t come until 11 years later, in 1995.
Wasn’t that basically the first use of CG? What besides Tron could claim to use CG before The Abyss?
-Tom
Actually, there’s a pretty important piece of CGI in Young Sherlock Holmes, from 1985. It doesn’t last long and it is not impressive by today’s standards, but back then, in the CGI community, it was a huge thing.
The “big three” before The Abyss are Tron, The Last Starfighter, and Young Sherlock Holmes.
The ships in The Last Starfighter. In all their low poly, low res texture glory. The movie is semi famous for pioneering (post Tron) CG as a special effect.
I used to love the scene with the stained glass window coming to life. I don’t think I’ve seen the movie in 25+ years. Probably last on VHS. I wonder how it holds up. It was a fun adventure at the time.