Regardless of the technology, it's a great story. And has a great cast of characters. I think my favorite part was when Matthew Broderick asks his computer geek friends for help. That's a great part, and the audience loved it. A number of recognizable actors appear in very brief scenes, including Maurey Chaykin (one of the geeks), Michael Madsen and James Tolkan.
It would have been a very different film in the hands of another director, according to John Badham (73) was in attendance and talked about the film, and how he got involved with the project. There were a number of good questions from audience members, including one from my friend who asked him what he thought about the previous-released direct-to-video film WarGames 2 and the proposed "remake". Badham said he had "no comment".... He wasn't involved in "Part 2" (I didn't even know there was one) and isn't involved with the remake. Someone else asked him if any politicians contacted him about the film, and he said there was a special dinner and screening in California back in '83 with some Senators; that was about it.
Someone in the audience was a huge fan of Badham's film American Flyers, which was filmed in LA; it's a movie I've never seen but is in my queue.
After the Q&A, the second film in the double feature was Hackers (with Angelina Jolie) which has numerous references to WarGames and is also sort of a time capsule (no one uses cell phones, floppy disks still being used, etc) The less said about that one the better. Let's just say I fell asleep during it.