Starship Troopers [18]

I anticipated this movie would NOT follow the book too closely since Heinlein is so philosophical it would be almost impossible to fit all of the dogma of this book into a 120 minute Hollywood picture. I was pleasantly surprised. Paul Verhoeven did a wonderful adaptation of this book to the screen. He managed to follow the book (or at least its more significant moments) faithfully. Other critics have dubbed this movie "Melrose Place” in space. I disagree. Remember who the main characters in the film are. They are the high school "popular" crowd i.e. the pretty people, the privileged, the smart, the jock. It is a coming-of-age film certainly. It also shows the importance of role models and how life experiences can shape our lives.

I found the special effects dazzling. The interface between the live actors and the computer generated "bugs" is convincing. The space cruisers being torn apart by planetary defenses was stunning, and for once believable. NOT everything hit by an energy weapon vaporizes cleanly/completely in a vacuum. There will be lots of debris. This film is NOT for the squeamish. The battle scenes depicting close combat (or the aftermath thereof) were hard to take at times as one would expect--war is grim. I'm sure any veteran can tell you the difference between life and death on the battlefield is often accidental if not random and usually terrifyingly quick. This is NOT a date movie. Though I liked it immensely, I find I must give it a mere 18 rating due to graphic content. No kids under 17 should see this. Read the book first. See this on the big screen then rent it to catch things you missed the first time. It will be a classic.

[Warning Spoilage ahead!]

Hollywood moment:

Why does Hollywood insist that the best way to assault a celestial body (planet, Death Star, Rebel Base etc.) is to approach it from one direction with your Hulking Space Cruisers all bunched closely together? I may be absent minded as I do not recall the Humans making this mistake twice in the book, but it was apparent that we hadn't learned much from the failed and disastrous assault on Klendathu: The Human cruisers appear tightly bunched over Klendathu with information that the plasma being launched from the planet's surface would be random and inaccurate--they were wrong. It was neither and the cruisers were cut to pieces. So at the films climactic battle the Humans appear over planet P and once more appear tightly bunched and get cut to pieces, with several ships crashing into each other. Great effects, bad strategy! [JB]

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Added: April 7th 2004
Reviewer: JDB
29 Point Scale Score:    [18]

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