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Starship Troopers

Starship Troopers

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good flick.....Thrilling, entertaining.....gory
Review: I actually enjoyed this movie. The battle sequences were spectacularly done, the special effects were awesome, the story kept moving. The film was true enough to Heinlein's original concepts without bogging down, as the book did, in mind numbing discussions of fascism and civic responsibility. The point is made, and the film moves on. The bugs were awesome, if a little unbelievable, but hey! This is SF....the same people who rag on ST and the bugs are the same folks who love Star Wars with talking teddy bears in the third movie. Go figure.

Another thing I liked about the DVD was the behind the scenes features, particularly the extended discussion of how they made the scenes where bugs and humans interacted. It was very interesting and earned increased respect for the special effects technology available to filmmakers.

One other thing.... in reading the scathingly negative reviews from folks who gave ST 1 star, it seems that these folks either a) hate science fiction films in general, b) hate Paul Verhoeven and so will automatically dislike anything he does, c)believe that any movie based on a book must be 100% a film recreation of the book with no room for maneuver or interpretation. These are the same folks that didn't like "To Kill a Mockingbird" because it wasn't "true enough" to the book.

Overall, Starship Troopers was a well-done, entertaining movie. It's not as good as a 5 star, and certainly better than a 1. Get real folks.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: So where's Adrian Paul?
Review: Adrian Paul is not in this movie. Why is it in a list requesting videos staring him? I've found at least 3 movies so far that he's not in & they're in the list of his movies. Somebody needs to do a little correcting, don't ya think!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Verhoeven has it both ways
Review: What delighted me in this film was Verhoeven's cleverness in having it both ways--he gave the kids the action picture they wanted (lots of blood and guts, things blowin up REAL GOOD) but at the same time had good grown-up fun at Heinlein's fascist philosophy, the tedious setting out of which makes his novel almost unreadable. The recruiting advertisments in the film ("Do you want to know MORE?") were a hilarious send up of Heinlein, probably had the old soldier spinning in his grave. Verhoeven is aware of the ethical blind spot at the center of Henlein's philosophy--what if the enemy is not a bunch of odious bugs but other human beings? The problem, in other words, is one of empathy. This is nicely exposed at the very end of the film, when Doogie Houser announces of the Brain Bug to the assembled crowd of bloody warriors "It's Afraid!"--thereby humanizing the bug, making it a potential object of human sympathy. Oops! Compare Henlein vision to, say, Philip Dick's perspective in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" where the ethical problem of empathy is foregrounded, not evaded. Verhoeven's film is Heinlein strained through the guts (as it were) of Dick. Brilliant satirical stuff.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Read the book
Review: Starship Troopers was a decent movie. Most people may not have not liked the movie, but don't let that influence your views on the book. The book was one Robert Heinlein's masterpieces. Most of the movie was a bug shoot-em-up, but the book was a deep look in the political system of the future and what it takes to make a good citizen.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Far better than the critics would have you believe.
Review: This adaptation of a science fiction classic got clobbered by the reviewers when it first came out, and that's a crying shame. The movie actually comes closer to capturing the flavor of the book than 90% of the book adaptations I've seen. On the surface, it's a gratuitously bloody shoot-em-up with clean cut youths defending us against a homogeneously bloodthirsty, fabulously-computer-generated enemy. But below that B-movie gore and violence, you'll find a healthy smattering of Robert Heinlein's political beliefs. Like them or hate them, they are certainly food for thought.

Paul Verhoeven happily surprised me by managing to translate many of the themes of the book onto the screen. Of course, as a purist, I'd have preferred a syllable-for-syllable screen adaptation of the book, and some of the omissions and liberties taken with the story, themes, and elements were disappointing. But all in all, I thought the movie worthy of repeated viewing.

I'd recommend that anyone who hated it or didn't get it to read the book, then watch the movie again. Why? It might open your eyes to something, and you'll probably become a Robert Heinlein fan.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Science Fiction at it's BEST!
Review: This is what happens when producers get a good script, give it to a good director and leave him alone. Paul Verhoeven has given us cutting edge film since his Arthurian "The Blood of Heros". An edgy, bloody tale from a villain's point of view, it rocks your view of that age. "Robocop" threw us full steam ahead into the next century but with a touch of ironic satire. "Total Recall" was much the same but instead of Frankenstein/Judge Dredd, we saw an intergalactic spy story. Now "Starship Troopers" continues the tradition taking a piece from all of these to create a space-age vietnam story. When James Cameron heard that this film was being made he said "I already made that movie.". Well certainly the epic book was a major inspiration for "Aliens", but ST is it's own animal. It has it's own morales, archetypes and role models. A special effects extraveganza, we follow the life of Johnny Rico who enters the service to be closer to his girlfriend. Sound familiar "Space: Above and beyond" fans? It should. Through the course of boot camp and a normandy style invasion of the alien planet, Johnny loses and gains friends. The experience makes him strong, and we see him grow into a man who gives orders instead of takes them. I think the timing of it's release is the only explanation for it's underperformance at the box office. The DVD itself is excellent. It includes many goodies that take you deeper into the ST universe than just the film itself. Don't miss out on this truly fantastic film

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It's a review of the DVD, people!
Review: Jeez, after a while, I still see this movie getting re-reviewed, but this should be a review of the DVD, not the movie. Everyone that gives it less than 3 stars speaks of the movie, not the DVD. Even if the movie may be poor, this DVD isn't. There's NO WAY you can give the DVD of this movie 1 star. I have many of those DVDs. Here's my first review of this movie back in January, and it's still the same:

After reading the other reviews, I'm left with this opinion: A lot of people don't know how to review a DVD. You don't read this section to get a review of the MOVIE, you read this section to get a review of the DVD. If the movie rates 1 star, you don't give DVD 1 star because of that. Now for Starship Troopers. I saw this at the theater, and I liked it somewhat. It was action packed, and had nice one-liners and some humorous moments. If the DVD just had the movie, I would not have purchased it. But it has SOO much more! It has the FULL movie on the flip-side with the directors opinion of EVERY part of the movie. It also has scenes that didn't make the final production, which I felt made the entire Starship Trooper experience complete. This is the type of movie you can throw in when you're not doing anything and just watch. Get this DVD if you thought the movie was even SOMEWHAT interesting.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not the greatest all-time, but it surely entertained me.
Review: When I was first told of the movie, I found it rather corny to have a movie with 'big bugs' fighting the human race. But I have a rather insistent friend who told me I had to see it. I was pleasantly surprised by the movie overall, especially since no big name actors starred in it. I felt as if I really got the message of the movie, or at least enjoyed what I gathered from it. I'll admit, parts of it did 'struggle', but I never thought this to be any big time action hit. I like war movies, but I grow weary of older war movies with such limited technology and a futuristic flick about what war technology will be (hopefully) in the future intrigues me to the fullest. Also, not to sound too regurgitant, but the special effects were very impressive. I also feel maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I had initially seen it on the big screen, but from what my buddy told me, it didn't last that long in the theatres. I know not everyone liked it, but I was never one to enjoy the same movies as the masses, I like what I like whether it won awards or was laughed at when brought up at the awards. I would reccommend anyone to see it just to give it a shot.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Come on guys!
Review: There are multiple layers in this film. If you think it sucks, it's because you can't see them.

At the most immediate level, it's a Sci-fi shoot-em-up. It happens to be one of the best ever produced, and on that score alone is a landmark film.

It's also a study in state-of-the-art animation. So was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. So was Akira. So was Toy Story.

It's a social satire. It takes the checks and balances in our society (media vs politics, personal freedom vs debt to society, public interest vs public entertainment) and illustrates them by parody and hyperbole.

It's a study in how technology may (*may*) be used in a future society and how they inter-relate, which goes to the heart of what sci-fi is about.

It's a comedy. "A bug was in his brain, sir". Goes right back to the Fifties alien films, re Mars Attacks. This is not unintentionally loose dialog (re Armageddon).

The fact Verhoeven was able to overlay all these levels is amazing enough. To be able to do it with such style, energy and confidence just ties the whole thing together and makes it irresistible.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Why can't I give it the 0 stars it deserves?
Review: This is the worst movie I have ever seen in my entire life. I feel the same way about this movie as I do about Natural Born Killers (the second worst movie I have ever seen). They both are supposed to have a message written in blood, but they fail miserably in making any point at all (IMO). No matter what the director says his intentions were, it was obvious to me that he intended only to entertain the male teenage crowd who likes blood, explosions, sex, and nudity. As bad as the movie was, I still plan to read the book because I do like GOOD science fiction (which the movie was not according to the rules for SF).


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