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Plot In the future, Earth is united under the milatiristic rule of the Federation. They encourage kids in high school to enlist in the army so they can become 'citizens' and gain numerous advantages over those who do not have citizenship. In one such high school Johnny Rico (Dien) and Carmen (Richards) are a couple about to be broken up by Carmen's desire to become a Federation pilot. Through his love he decides to follow her and also joins up. Before long, both individuals find themselves in a war against an alien bug race from Klendathu. What ensues is a brutal and bloody war against an enemy that proves to be much more intelligent than they anticipated.
Ok I'm not expecting to get much support or rep for this one, or to make many friends on the strength of it. The reason being that a lot of people on here seem to love this film, including some of my biggest supporters such as Rodent and Honeykid. However I personally have to ask the question is it just me or is this film kind of crappy?
It shares a lot in common with 1987's RoboCop, more than just director Paul Verhoeven. On the surface they are rather pulpy, B-movie flicks within the sci-fi genre which have at their core a a strong dose of social satire. While I love RoboCop however, this was a different matter. Throughout I'll point out a few reasons why.
I'm pretty sure that I was able to pick up on most of the satire present; it's just that it didn't particularly engage me. Clearly it's very much a piss-take of the military, the gung-ho militaristic way of thinking and the inherent fascism that comes along with it. And Verhoeven clearly highlights it by placing our 'heroes' in rather Nazi-esque uniforms. And fair play to the film for being really quite prescient with its depiction of events. It's easy to see links to events which have unfolded since such as the War on Terror following 9/11, the underestimation of the enemy, the increasingly propagandist and biased slant that the media would take on etc. I was able to identify and understand the satire but it just felt flat to me, and I just didn't find it anywhere near as intriguing or rewarding as that featured in Robocop. And even if you weren't gripped by the satire of Robocop there was a great chance you'd still enjoy it as it's a cracking good romp. With Starship Troopers however I struggled to really care about the 'story', and the novelty of seeing large space bugs get blown up wore off pretty quickly. I can see it working well as a 22 minute episode of South Park, but at over two hours my patience was getting very stretched.
One of the main problems I had with the film was that I didn't have a horse in this race; there wasn't anyone I felt like rooting for. The human characters were all really hateful little people who I had no interest in cheering for. I initially hated them for their vain and pathetic soap-opera style problems that I didn't care about; for the opening half hour or so I felt like I was watching Star Trek: The 90210 Generation! And then it gets worse when we see them in their army surroundings. They're loud, stupid and ignorant; they came across more like members of a college frat house than of an army division. Perhaps that's part of the satire however as it made me question why idiots like these get the right to choose between the life and death of other beings. They don't seem like men and women fighting a gallant fight, more like soldiers just wanting to revel in and glorify killing people. They reminded me of those cringeworthy videos you see every so often, where US soldiers are shown riding in a tank or truck and they'll turn on a heavy metal rock song and shout some tasteless remarks such as Let's go kill some gooks/towel heads/something equally offensive! So I should be on the side of the bugs then right? Except that the bugs have no personality or individuality to them, so there's not really anything there to support either. Whereas RoboCop had Murphy as a sympathetic hero and clearly defined villains that we despised I honestly didn't care about either side, or who won the war. Maybe so, but to me that feels like people desperately scraping for excuses.
As for the acting, well it's just atrocious isn't it?!!! I'm struggling to think of a film that has such a widespread lack of acting talent on show. It's just brutal to watch; so incredibly wooden and forced. Though to be fair, at times they don't appear to have much of a chance as they are asked to deliver some awful dialogue. And spare a thought for the one talented performer in the ensemble, Michael Ironside. If the massive guns they were wielding were real I like to think Ironside would have been so infuriated by their lack of ability that he would have slaughtered the lot! He's like a rose growing out of a patch of manure. I've seen around the web people saying that Verhoeven may have directed the cast to give such poor performances as part of the satire, or that he purposefully cast people with limited talent to achieve that goal.
I'll admit that I was able to get a few cheap thrills from the film, such as the moment a character has his brain and body sucked dry by one of the large bugs. Oh and Dina Meyer's breasts; I got a thrill from them! However my main source of enjoyment actually came from watching some of these pathetic little irritants get killed off one by one! 
Oh and I also got a real kick out of seeing Neil Patrick Harris in this. Legendary!
The one area where I will give the film unqualified credit however is in its special effects. Even 15 years on and they're still holding up as pretty impressive. Most impressive for me were the spaceships and the space battles. The spaceships are immense and gargantuan creations, you can just feel the sheer weight of them ass they are sheared in half and begin to fall from the sky. The effects aside however, I just didn't find a great deal for me here. Sorry to all the film's fans, especially to my good pal Rodent who I believe has this in his top 5 favourite films ever! Nowhere close to the standards of RoboCop in my eyes.
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Year of release
1997
1997
Directed by
Paul Verhoeven
Paul Verhoeven
Written by
Edward Neumeier (script)
Robert A. Heinlein (novel)
Edward Neumeier (script)
Robert A. Heinlein (novel)
Starring
Casper Van Dien
Dina Meyer
Denise Richards
Michael Ironside
Neil Patrick Harris
Casper Van Dien
Dina Meyer
Denise Richards
Michael Ironside
Neil Patrick Harris
Starship Troopers
Plot In the future, Earth is united under the milatiristic rule of the Federation. They encourage kids in high school to enlist in the army so they can become 'citizens' and gain numerous advantages over those who do not have citizenship. In one such high school Johnny Rico (Dien) and Carmen (Richards) are a couple about to be broken up by Carmen's desire to become a Federation pilot. Through his love he decides to follow her and also joins up. Before long, both individuals find themselves in a war against an alien bug race from Klendathu. What ensues is a brutal and bloody war against an enemy that proves to be much more intelligent than they anticipated.
Ok I'm not expecting to get much support or rep for this one, or to make many friends on the strength of it. The reason being that a lot of people on here seem to love this film, including some of my biggest supporters such as Rodent and Honeykid. However I personally have to ask the question is it just me or is this film kind of crappy?
It shares a lot in common with 1987's RoboCop, more than just director Paul Verhoeven. On the surface they are rather pulpy, B-movie flicks within the sci-fi genre which have at their core a a strong dose of social satire. While I love RoboCop however, this was a different matter. Throughout I'll point out a few reasons why.I'm pretty sure that I was able to pick up on most of the satire present; it's just that it didn't particularly engage me. Clearly it's very much a piss-take of the military, the gung-ho militaristic way of thinking and the inherent fascism that comes along with it. And Verhoeven clearly highlights it by placing our 'heroes' in rather Nazi-esque uniforms. And fair play to the film for being really quite prescient with its depiction of events. It's easy to see links to events which have unfolded since such as the War on Terror following 9/11, the underestimation of the enemy, the increasingly propagandist and biased slant that the media would take on etc. I was able to identify and understand the satire but it just felt flat to me, and I just didn't find it anywhere near as intriguing or rewarding as that featured in Robocop. And even if you weren't gripped by the satire of Robocop there was a great chance you'd still enjoy it as it's a cracking good romp. With Starship Troopers however I struggled to really care about the 'story', and the novelty of seeing large space bugs get blown up wore off pretty quickly. I can see it working well as a 22 minute episode of South Park, but at over two hours my patience was getting very stretched.
One of the main problems I had with the film was that I didn't have a horse in this race; there wasn't anyone I felt like rooting for. The human characters were all really hateful little people who I had no interest in cheering for. I initially hated them for their vain and pathetic soap-opera style problems that I didn't care about; for the opening half hour or so I felt like I was watching Star Trek: The 90210 Generation! And then it gets worse when we see them in their army surroundings. They're loud, stupid and ignorant; they came across more like members of a college frat house than of an army division. Perhaps that's part of the satire however as it made me question why idiots like these get the right to choose between the life and death of other beings. They don't seem like men and women fighting a gallant fight, more like soldiers just wanting to revel in and glorify killing people. They reminded me of those cringeworthy videos you see every so often, where US soldiers are shown riding in a tank or truck and they'll turn on a heavy metal rock song and shout some tasteless remarks such as Let's go kill some gooks/towel heads/something equally offensive! So I should be on the side of the bugs then right? Except that the bugs have no personality or individuality to them, so there's not really anything there to support either. Whereas RoboCop had Murphy as a sympathetic hero and clearly defined villains that we despised I honestly didn't care about either side, or who won the war. Maybe so, but to me that feels like people desperately scraping for excuses.
Film trivia The film features a co-ed shower scene where several of the film's cast members are seen naked. The cast only agreed to do this if Verhoeven himself was willing to direct the scene in the nude, which he did. Speaking of Verhoeven, it's probably not all that surprising that his take on the story has a much more satirical bent to it than the original novel which is said to be pro-miltiary and fascism. He never actually finished the novel, abandoning it after just a few chapters as he found it boring and depressing.
He's like a rose growing out of a patch of manure. I've seen around the web people saying that Verhoeven may have directed the cast to give such poor performances as part of the satire, or that he purposefully cast people with limited talent to achieve that goal.I'll admit that I was able to get a few cheap thrills from the film, such as the moment a character has his brain and body sucked dry by one of the large bugs. Oh and Dina Meyer's breasts; I got a thrill from them!
However my main source of enjoyment actually came from watching some of these pathetic little irritants get killed off one by one! Oh and I also got a real kick out of seeing Neil Patrick Harris in this. Legendary!The one area where I will give the film unqualified credit however is in its special effects. Even 15 years on and they're still holding up as pretty impressive. Most impressive for me were the spaceships and the space battles. The spaceships are immense and gargantuan creations, you can just feel the sheer weight of them ass they are sheared in half and begin to fall from the sky. The effects aside however, I just didn't find a great deal for me here. Sorry to all the film's fans, especially to my good pal Rodent who I believe has this in his top 5 favourite films ever!
Nowhere close to the standards of RoboCop in my eyes.