jamesgandrew A group of futuristic soldiers are sent to a planet to attack bug-like aliens called Arachnids after a meteorite hits Earth. Loosely based on Robert Heinlein's novel of the same name, the film goes with a satirical approach to highlight the militaristic fascism of soldiers attacking aliens.The film is directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeir, who previously collaborated with each other for the sci-fi classic Robocop. What Robocop is for yuppy consumerist culture, Starship Troopers is for the war on terror.There's an excellent use of satire with an information based advertising system which shows hilariously cheesy propaganda against the bug like creatures. The film follows Johnny Rico who joins the military to become a 'citizen' and also to impress a beautiful girl. However, another girl is also attracted to Rico and she joins the infantry with him, which creates a love triangle between the characters. This storyline is intentionally hammy and it's all done to satirise how youth is a cog in the machine when it comes to military recruitment.This is an excellent sci-fi satire that's rather under appreciated although I believe it has become increasingly popular over the years.

Nadeeshan Tennage (nadeeshantennage) 'Starship troopers' is a film in which basically you would be able to see shooting sequences. Quite honestly the action packed shooting and charging sequences are the only interesting strains about the flow of this film. The script in itself is so malnourished and in my opinion adapted science fiction concepts in the worst ways imaginable. You gotta watch a movie like this to understand how cinematically brilliant are masterpieces like ' Arrival (2016) by Dennis Villeneuve and how masterfully such science fiction strains could be used in films to deliver a rich story instead of using science fiction elements just to charge a film with the necessary momentum in a vague attempt to keep the audience invested. But, believe me when I say that nothing about this awful film would be fascinating. The characters are written so badly with lack of emotional complexity and even scenes where it feels like they deliver the dialogues just because they signed up for the film and gotta do their job. None of the acting performances are convincing enough to keep you invested in the storytelling and after the first quarter of the film which is the only thing that I found as interesting in this big bore of a film; very soon the film would manage to exhaust you visually with back to back badly executed plot points, high octane shooting sequences, and pretty bad visual effects in some scenes. Afterall, this film could have gained the potential to be interesting if this only had a stronger script instead of the unconvincing, shallow execution of interesting science fiction elements which must have been adapted with a rich story. Afterall this film belongs in the category of films that are 'so bad that they become unintentionally comical'. So, go on and watch this for the guilty pleasure of it and to see how badly a film maker could adapt science fiction elements into a film with a shallow script to ultimately execute it to destruction.

jalfmar3 I know Heinlein is one of the old masters of sci-fi, and the book Starship Troopers, while not my favorite, is a valuable story. This crap though was only surpassed in its failure by the Schwarzenegger Total Recall. The so called Mobile Infantry was neither very mobile nor was it an effective infantry. Their main maneuver seemed to be running around screaming and dying. In the book, everything was done with a purpose. Here, it was just to be able to stage carnage. Giant bugs able to target orbiting ships with their asses, really? Lame visual anus jokes. Whatever statement it was trying to make about militarism, or fascism or women in the military, it failed to make clear. The bloodbath did not rise to the level of say, Saving Private Ryan for illustrating the horrors of war. It just looked like a horror movie.

Leofwine_draca Being a massive fan of Paul Verhoeven's work, I was very pleased to be able to see this in the local cinema – where the BBFC kindly decided to award it a 15 certificate! The decision was later changed to 18, and its easy to see why. Along with ROBOCOP and TOTAL RECALL, this makes up the Dutch director's gore trilogy : science fiction actioners packed with as much extreme violence and gruesomeness as possible! Verhoeven has a bigger budget around this time, so nominally sets about filming a serious Robert Heinlein '50s sci-fi story. Instead the film turns out to be an epic, action-packed cartoon adventure ride, with cardboard characters and a whole lotta mayhem going on! Verhoeven also has time to satirise those gung-ho American characters but the whole thing is performed with such a love and sense of humour that you can't help but settle back and enjoy the ride.The special effects are out of this world and make STARSHIP TROOPERS one of the best effects films I've watched. The future is portrayed in a subtle way and seems real, even the battles in outer space. The aliens themselves are only CGI, but it's good CGI – especially those huge beetle bugs that crawl outta the ground to burn the enemy! The action comes thick and fast and is loaded with extreme gore. Numerous decapitations, people being impaled, burned, and all sorts of nastiness. The sickening 'brain sucking' climax really pushes things over the edge a la Peter Jackson. Verhoeven takes a moment to reference the British classic ZULU with a nail-biting siege attack, whilst a period at boot camp sees trainees being flogged, knifed, and having their arms smashed for failing! It's not hard to see the similarities to the Nazis, down to the uniforms and the trench coats, so you get to snigger as well as enjoy the action.The acting is the one weak spot of the film, with Denise Richards and Casper Van Dien absolutely terrible as the clear-cut, one-dimensional young, beautiful heroine and hero – but maybe that was the point??! Otherwise we have solid support from the always reliable Jake Busey (making his dad Gary proud) and Doogie Howser himself, Neil Patrick Harris, as a member of the SS! Old pros Clancy Brown and Michael Ironside are on hand to supply the toughness. The film goes on a long time without losing focus, although the ending does seem to be a little abrupt in retrospect. Nevermind – this is a humorous, gruelling, ultra-violent, sometimes sick, always exciting war film like never before!