MovieChat Forums > Flight of the Navigator (1986) Discussion > First 1/2 was great. Second 1/2 was WTF?...

First 1/2 was great. Second 1/2 was WTF???

posted 14 years ago by savvysearch
23 replies | jump to latest

I remember seeing this film on tv not knowing what it was about and being so engrossed. The first 1/2 of the film was captivating with a great premise of a boy going missing only to return unchanged for 10 years. While watching it, I kept thinking that this was going to be a magnificent movie watching the mystery unfold and the family dynamic of the kid fitting into society again and possibly the stress of unwanted celebrity.

And then cute animatronics appear and he's flying through space with cute robots with cute voices and then then becomes a film with the most wasted potential EVER in cinematic history!!!!!!!

could have been such a magnificent film.

[–] CosyCatNap 9 years ago

I just rewatched it on TV after ages and that was exactly my impression. It went from intriguiging to corny. What a pity.

But I have love in my heart - Yes, as a thief has riches, a usurer money

[–] Zaqwert 8 years ago

Completely agree. I watched this movie as a kid and barely remembered it and recently rewatched it for the first time in probably 30 years.

The movie is great up until he gets into the ship.

The character "Max" is completely stupid. The tone of the movie is actually pretty serious and cool up to that point but "Max" and his interactions with him are terrible.

Had they done the ship's AI less ridiculous and cartoonish the movie would have been a lot better.

[–] BandicootBurn 7 years ago

You know what I was telling someone else the exact same thing! It was on BBC 2 during the run up to Christmas and it was the first time I've ever watched it.. I found it very good right up until the part where he goes inside the ship and that stupid mechanic Robot/Alien talks to him, I was thinking WTF has happened?

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

There are many ways the whole thing could've been improved, but in my opinion, things inside the originally 'mystical' and 'eerie' spaceship become too 'mechanical' and clunky, and the poor man's muppets ruin the rest.

At least the surfaces should've been completely smooth, 'Max' should've been 'omnipresent' (the whole craft, not just some moving ball with metal ears), and just like the stairs have a sense of wonder about them, how they can shape themselves from a door to stairs and back (and sadly, not much else), -everything- should've been such malleable, smooth material, constantly shapeshifting internally as well (and not just the clunky external transition that does nothing for anyone).

The voice shouldn't have been such a comical thing, but something more mystical and out-of-this-world.

They could've visited other places than just a couple of points around Terra - they could've visited other planets, and the spaceship's purpose for being on Earth should've been something more interesting.

There's another space/UFO movie where kids figure out how to communicate with a spaceship (or something), where the build-up and the whole first half is amazing, and then the rest is just utter garbage.

Sometimes I think it would've be better to just watch the first halves of movies and then imagine the rest.

When you think about movies, almost every 'sci-fi' concept is basically quite shallow - even Back to the Future is about 'getting back to the future', and that's it. Nothing deeper than that. E.T.? Getting back home from Earth, that's it.

Movies like this could go in so many interesting directions, but they stay safely on the 'simplistic crap' that the audiences seem to lap up.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

I mean, I see the point about the kid's spaceship-fulfillment fantasy, but couldn't the spaceship -at-least- be advanced enough to control and eliminate G-forces, so the 'chair wouldn't have to be fixed', etc..?

It's such a waste, as this movie oozes the wonderful 1980s atmosphere, and thus is able to create an incredible, eerie and mystical feel to it until they start zooming all over the place while playing 1970s music and laughing in a goofy way.

Well, I am sure there are good spaceship movies on other planets.

[–] csweetleaf2 (3538) 5 months ago

I actually enjoyed the second half more than the first half, I enjoyed seeing David traveling around the world in a spaceship along with his chemistry with Max.