How a gory, cliche filled, fascist dream can be so entertaining is beyond me, but entertaining it is...
This sci-fi romp is HIGHLY underrated. Highly entertaining and actually thought-provoking in its own way, Starship Troopers delivers a couple of hours of entertainment you'll not soon forget.
The script is loosely based on a book by renowned, sometimes controversial, sci-fi author Robert A. Heinlein, but deviates a lot from the book. If you have read it, you might be disappointed, but I doubt it...
Recommended to anyone with even the slightest interest in sci-fi.
Boy I expected more out of this given its reputation. It's too long. It takes forever to get to the good stuff. It has the older guy who dated Kelly on SBTB. On the plus side it has Ironside and Clancy Brown. I don't know...its a fun movie but didn't live up to its rep.
UPDATE: I'd like to say that I was a real dumdum when I said the above stuff and now have seen the light on Starship Troopers and how it rules. Many thanks to the Action Boyz for helping me realize we got a perfect movie on our hands.
Sadly so brilliantly satirical that some took it as fascist, too subtle for its own good. The horrible sequels are MUCH more blatant to appease the masses and are thus far inferior in just about every way. This is why we can't have nice things. Thankfully I still have this original masterpiece
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 have no idea what I just watched. Is it a comedy? Satire? Was it serious scifi? Horror? Directed by a Dutch guy so I knew it was gonna be weird. So I'm just gonna rate it purely on how entertained I was. Which was quite.
It was nice seeing Denise Richards again. Had a big crush on her in highschool.
This is one of the best Scifi-Trash movies ever made!
If you expect an ideal world in any sense or something to strive for, this movie is not for you.
If you like to watch action in a Universe you certainly never want to live in, this is the movie for you.
What I find most interesting rewatching it (again) in 2021 is that the special effects range from super crappy to amazing even by todays standards (The cheap explosions and the clearly fake hand in the famous knife-scene vs the bugs "artillery" firing at the ships). Sometimes they are even in the same frame so you can see cheap vs amazing at the same time which leads me to believe that they actually did it on purpuse (at least on a subconcious level).
Is this gonna be a stand up fight sir...or another bug hunt??
Verhoeven’s satirical approach was evident in his previous films, but here he takes it to extreme levels, the final sequence serving to remind the audience that the entire film has essentially been one long piss-take all along. That this wasn’t obvious from the start is perhaps a mistake on Verhoeven’s part - the dreadful dialogue that serves as the film’s script, the approach to casting and acting result in confusion as to what is actually intentionally satirical and what is just poor acting/dialogue. It doesn’t help that there is a suspicion throughout that even some of the actors may not have been fully aware of what they were involved in, but it’s also easy to understand why the film was so misunderstood on release and labelled as just another mindless science-fiction action film. Fortunately, the film has undergone something of a critical reappraisal and watching the film again with Verhoeven’s intent in mind, it is remarkable how relevant the film still is and how unbelievably prophetic the film turned out to be.
What if the comic that came in your bubble gum wrapper was insightful political commentary... and was still funny?
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)
A great movie, with some decent CGI and action sequences.
One thing I occasionally struggle with on a personal level is the amount of enjoyment I get from a film that has such a large fascist theme to it. But I resolve this by assuming that Verhoven (who experienced the Nazi regime as a small child) is doing all of it ironically by doing it in a tongue in cheek fashion to try and make it slightly camp/comical.
The only thing that lets it down is the slightly wooden performance of lead actor Casper Van Dien, who's career never exactly went anywhere after this. The only other movies I've seen him in are Sleepy Hollow and then the Starship Troopers 3 movie... which was straight to DVD. Aside from that his career has involved mostly made for TV movies and low budget straight to dvd stuff.
Aside from that, the film is loads of fun and well worth watching, and it stands up to repeated viewing if you just want to throw something on to pass some time.
Omg, childhood, i loved this movie, wheni was about 12 years old,and now, 10 years later, i watchedit again,and now i feel even more pleasure than before :))) Just feel bad because of Dizzy, she was soo great in this movie :( 10 for nostalgic feels.
A very entertaining Sci-Fi film with the familiar style from Paul Verhoeven. The storyline is very entertaining and what sets this film apart from other Sci-Fi films is the fact that the film feels PG-13 but is actually rated R. The alien attacks are very well done, and the actors really look comfortable playing their characters. Very good Sci-Fi, definately recommended.
Nuke 'em!
This movie started as a spoof of fascist kitsch and then kind of dropped the spoof part. The romance was so hamfisted you could spit roast it over a fire and feed your family. The telekinesis aspect was mentioned for about 5 minutes in the start of the film, and then used to save the female love interest. Amazingly bad. I thought the first half was much stronger than the second half as the constant battle scenes got tired fast. It's not bad - it's fun - but it's a product of it's time that doesn't age well at all, and you really won't miss out if you don't watch it. If you do decide to watch this, do it drunk, with friends.
A movie that was misunderstood at the time of its release. Its balance of satire with action/sci-fi isn't too dissimilar from Robocop, so it was probably only a matter of time before it would get reassessed, but it's still a challenging film because it makes a lot of bold, out there choices. Generally, I think Verhoeven is generally biting off more than he can chew here. The bits of satire about the American military are easily its most entertaining asset, for me they're sharp and clever enough to carry this project to the finish line. The sci-fi movie that's build around that is fine. I enjoyed some of the attention to detail in the worldbuilding (gender neutral locker rooms) and most of the CGI holds up surprisingly well, it's certainly not as dated as The Phantom Menace. Still, most of the action is on the unimaginative side as the antagonist bugs make for pretty uninteresting cannon fodder. Then there's the love square that's worked in, which doesn't work because of the cheesy acting and weak characters. It's often interpreted as part of the satire, but that feels like a stretch to me as there's no real pay-off or subversion to it. Honestly, cutting out all that soap opera bs would drastically improve the film for me. The same goes for Verhoeven's stylistic stamp in the dialogue, which still reads to me as cringy and awkward from time to time. Again, he's a filmmaker that likes to take massive swings, which I very much respect, but there's a lot that holds me back from loving this.
5.5/10
It was "meh" when I saw it in the theaters in 1997, and it's "meh-meme" now. That's all this movie is good for. Memes. "I'm doing my part!"
What a classic and the visuals have aged great
"One day someone like me is gonna kill you and your whole fucking race!"
This was my first rated R sci-fi as a kid. I still remember thinking the bugs had such a unique design and loved that the gore wasn't held back. I think some mistook it for being propaganda. Maybe some people need things to be less subtle. Either way, it's a cool movie I will always rewatch and defend.
There were actually points in this movie where i threw up in my mouth a little. Why these movies use romance as a trope is mind-boggling.
One of the worse movies I've ever sat through. Two hours of my life I'll never get back.
Childish fun romp for adults with good effects, lots of gore and wacky set pieces.
Such a one of a kind movie with great odd ball humor.
C'mon you apes, do you wanna live forever. Johnny Ricco
Story - 7/10...fun sci-fi adventure with some oft-noted fascist and military satire
Dialogue - 5/10...were you expecting Coen brothers?
Performances - 6/10...Ironside chews up the scenery and elevates the rest of the crew
Misc. - 6/10...the bugs are disgusting, which was the idea. Rest of the special effects were meh and the sets could've worked for a high school play.
Overall - 6/10...I agree with whoever said this movie is best served with alcohol and friends
Don't you love it that they mastered Interstellar flight and spacecraft but still use outdated, absolutely useless, 1500 years old tech bullet-based rifles? Hehe
I just couldn't switch my brain off long enough to enjoy this rubbish.
The effects are good, the plot is okay, the acting and script are cringeworthy.
Gory and cliche, but surprisingly good.
Themes (tone, impact) 1
Acting and characters 0.5 (overacting was likely intentional)
Story (writing, direction, pacing) 1
Aesthetic (sets, special effects, score) 1 (they're supposed to be cheesy)
Enjoyment 1
4.5/5
So bad it is awesome ! Not an A movie but B movies want to be like Starship Troopers.
Absurdly campy sci-fi action from the tail end Paul Verhoeven's peak as a director. It's got all of his usual calling cards, too, amped up to a feverish degree. Wanton, overindulgent violence, complete with Spaghetti-o gore chunks and rent limbs, tossed carelessly through the frame like so many croutons in a cooking program. Dialog so silly it would've been rejected from the Sunday funnies, delivered with all the passion and subtlety of a knot-laden tree trunk. Not-quite-there CG, featured prominently throughout, and blunt, cringe-worthy humor, smeared over every inter-scene segue.
In many ways it's worthy of applause, if just for casting aside the rulebook and giving in to total, uninhibited overindulgence. It certainly isn't a boring picture (well, excluding maybe ten minutes in the early third act) so it's got that going for it, and the creepy-crawly enemy creatures are appropriately strong throughout - even when it would've been easy to turn them into mere cannon fodder in the final battle. The scale seems all wrong, though, with the lead constantly tripping over familiar faces despite a sizable chunk of humanity being involved in the military offensive, and I never really cared for a single one of them.
Although it offers a few interesting underexplored subcurrents and an admirable knack for ballsy action, I usually found myself laughing at this one for all the wrong reasons.
Starship Troopers is a thematically vague movie. Is the film a critique of fascism and the military? Is it a coming-of-age story about friendship and romance? Or is it simply a movie about killing bugs? Nobody seems to know, and I don't believe the crew who worked on this film knew with confidence either.
Starship Troopers is cheesy, ridiculous, and campy...and gloriously so. The film goes for a satirical, B-movie aesthetic and uses the tropes of the genre brilliantly. The story follows a group of high school graduates who enlist in the military and end up going to war with a bug planet intent on destroying Earth. The cast features Denise Richards, Neil Patrick Harris, Dina Meyer, and Michael Ironside, who all give stereotypical performances that work perfectly with the tone of the film. And, director Paul Verhoeven does a great job delivering fun action scenes. While it’s not serious science fiction, it never pretends to be. Starship Troopers delivers a big dumb action film, and does it well.
Super cheesy fun. Pulls all the cheapest tricks,
guilty pleasure all the way.
image and sound 3.5 / 5 is still just as well, has not lost anything of well-worn ación and social criticism, the actors very suitable
This is what we call a b-movie sci-fi film but is it fun ? hell yeah! the visuals are bad, the dialogue is corny, it has Meyer boobs and great action, very enjoyable and solid
Such a good and fun movie. Lot's of gore but also jokes and good spirit. Some parts kind of drag a little, specially those long and boring battles that become monotonous almost instantly, but those moments are few and far between. The effects hold up great and are a perfect mix of nostalgia, goofy CGI and genuine great looking practical effects. Also it takes some balls from the creators to end the movie with nothing really resolved and with the protagonists not being the one that saved the day.
I'm from Buenos Aires and I say, kill 'em!
Starship Troopers is something of a guilty pleasure - I know by most objective measures it's not a great movie, but for brain-off action and sheer entertainment it is pretty irresistible.
As NotoriousX put it elsewhere in these comments - "How a gory, cliche filled, fascist dream can be so entertaining is beyond me, but entertaining it is..."
Review by dunpealhunterVIP OG 14BlockedParent2011-09-01T17:34:10Z
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.