Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

An excellent film well acted, Directed good all round story. Excellent special effects for the time. I have watched it several times over the years and I enjoy it every time.

I'm going to admit right now that this isn't the best movie I've ever seen, but it's still quite fun. I knew little about it except that it's plot was alluded to in the "South Park" episode "Best Friends Forever". It features a guy who gets the highest score in a video game, only to find out that the game was a test created by aliens to recruit people from all over the Universe to use starships to fight. Okay, I admit the premise is pretty goofy, but it's still a standard film. The makeup effects are quite good. This was in the very early days of CGI, so I can understand that those bits don't hold up well. The guy is replaced on Earth by a robot duplicate who meets up with his girlfriend, Maggie. The ending is really one of the most heartwarming I've seen in a long time. He goes back to Earth after finding out that they need him in space to rebuild the fleet. He decides he at least wants his girlfriend to join him on his adventures and eventually she goes. Honestly, these are some very heartfelt scenes and they more than make up for slower bits in the movie. I love how they set up the story to continue too. ***

Just watched this with my 12 yr old daughter and she loved it. I was a junior in HS when I first saw it. Loved it then, still enjoyed in 2017. The characters are funny, and enjoyable. This movie, unlike others I saw back in my youth that I thought would be fun to watch again, did retained it's sense of adventure, humor and seriousness for me. I never noticed the early CGI when I was young, and very much noticed it now. That didn't deter from the story or enjoyment of the movie; kinda reminded me of TRON CGI. If you're into sharing movies of your youth with the kiddos, put this one on your list!

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.