Starship Troopers feels like a cross between Ender's Game and Dawson's Creek and Full Metal Jacket and Idiocracy and Star Wars and She's All That, which is to say that it feels simultaneously distinctive and unusual while also seeming fairly familiar and unoriginal.

But it's a generally fun ride. The characters are all only skin-deep, with stock characteristics and standard-issue problems to go along with their standard-issue personalities. The film, however, doesn't take itself too seriously, revelling in the cheesiness of its story and those carrying it along. That self-awareness, the way it steers into the skid of its own shallowness, makes it camp instead of kitsch and renders the whole exercise a lot more enjoyable.

The visual elements of the film are its greatest success. There's a comic book feel to the film, with bright, sharp colors, whether its neon alien goo or candy-toned spaceship interiors, that make the setup feel unreal enough that the audience doesn't have to take it seriously. Again, it's a bit cornball, but there's a distinct and coherent feel to every setting, from the toystore playset that is Rico's basic training campus, to the G.I. Joe battlefield look of the alien planet. The costumes, the spaceships, and even the bugs (with effects that hold up fairly well considering the film's nearly 20 years old) all work together to convey a lighter tone for an intergalactic war film.

That said, the various battle scenes in the last third of the film get very monotonous very quickly, and the film has its greatest success when its moving its slight and predictable plot forward than when it's pausing to show the excitement/horrors of war. The acting isn't much to speak of, though Denise Richards has a certain charm to her, Dina Meyer has a rough-around-the-edges quality that makes her character endearing, and Clancy Brown's drill sergeant is a trope character that the actor nevertheless breaths life into. Add in some interesting creature design and practical effects, and Starship Troopers becomes an entertaining, if fairly empty, theme park ride of a film.

The satire, especially in the little propaganda videos that permeate the film, do add a fun twist, and in some ways, Starship Troopers feels as much like a parody of both war films and sci-fi films as it does playing them straight, but I hesitate to give it too much credit on that from Verhoeven keeps it light for the most part, despite the blood and guts, and it lets a fairly insubstantial movie succeed on its own, cotton candy terms.

I essentially never give a film a 1 vote; even a very bad one. But this film takes one of the most powerful and historically significant works of science fiction, and quite consciously makes a joke out of it. Heinlein, in 1959, years ahead of his contemporaries, in one single small book, absolutely stunned the world. In this book were packed dozens of mind blowing new science fiction concepts, and since then, virtually every work of science fiction you have ever enjoyed, contains concepts and ideas which first appeared here.

In addition, the book is not a joke. It is a tragic tale of soldiers who die fighting to save humanity under the most dire of conditions. Each of these soldiers fight to the death, decked out in advanced body armor that nobody had previously thought of. To put it into context, "Master Chief" from Halo is a complete rip off, directly from Starship Troopers. Also, the original soldiers from the book would have completely kicked his ass.

To give an idea, half a dozen of these ultra soldiers could be dropped onto a planet and be reasonably expected to *subdue a continent*. They were the baddest of bad ass. In the book, it is also gut wrenching to watch the soldiers fall in combat. You sense the loss and numbness of the surviving soldiers, the terror of a ruthless and devious alien enemy, and the horror and losses that define war..

What does this turd of a film give us? A mockery. To me it feels like if you were to insult our proud soldiers overseas who serve to keep us all safe. You just don't do it. Some things are off limits.

I get the bit about how it's fun to see idiots running around shooting alien bugs and doing stupid things, yay CGI and bug blood. And if this movie had been named ANYTHING else, I would actually rate it fairly highly. Who doesn't love killing hostile aliens? I sure do.

But it was named after the book, which means the only way you can rate this film highly is if you decide to be ignorant of the profound insult it casts upon one of the most important science fiction works in history.

I'm done ranting. You can now go watch idiots shooting bugs now.... (Sigh)

Great movie, from one of the best and most famous directors coming out of the Netherlands: Paul Verhoeven.

I enjoyed watching the short promotion clips throughout the movie that depicted an at first sight utopian society, but if you look more closely its more like a fascist regime much like Nazi Germany was in the 1930's and 40's. The difference being that now they have highly advanced weapons and spaceships, and instead of the Allies they fight a coalition of different giant insect races.

The differences between race and even man and woman seem to have vanished (co-ed showers!). Maybe because of a new danger where all of humankind had to respond to. Whatever the reason the co-ed shower scene was nice :P.

The overall action was very great and the acting of everyone involved was good. The bugs and spaceships looked very good, especially considering that CGI was still in its infancy back in 1997. But i think a lot of it has been made using actual models.

As the movie goes further we see that instead of a justified war the men and women are fighting a pointless war while the media at home brainwashes the masses in supporting this war with a thick layer of patriotism. I can't help but see some similarities between this world depicted in the movie and the USA of today.

I remember when I watched this movie at the theatre in 1997. It was unlike any movie I had ever seen... dismemberment, blood & guts all over the place.
But it was all in context.
Verhoeven really had a way with deceptively smart satire and this movie is full of it (all the school children stomping on cockroaches saying "I'm doing my part").

This is a Paul Verhoeven masterpiece. Probably the most watched movie in my collection (right up there with RoboCop).

Absolutely NO similarities with Robert A. Heinlein's controversial Hugo Award-winning bestselling book of the same name. I loved the book and I loved the movie. And both for very different reasons!

Almost a classic.
Maybe it is a classic.
Another semi classic or classic by Verhoeven.
The "in your face" action is set to science fiction, this time with soldiers battling giant bugs from space.
These are big bugs.
I mean BIG BUGS!
And they're mean and evil.
The characters are especially likable.
The comic relief in this one comes mostly from the fight scenes to anonymous characters in "commercials".
The directing is probably what makes this as great as it is, but the writing is pretty dog gone good, too. While I prefer RoboCop, this is a great replacement movie for it, being the same style, if you can't see RoboCop. Some people prefer this one. The difference is so minute that you're safe either way.