Current Events > why is Starship Troopers so good.

(+) Yeah! (+)

it seems like there should be more movies like this but others fall flat.

An underrated aspect of the movie is that the main space battle scene easily has the best portrayal of spaceship battle damage ever.

Because the movie isn't actually about alien bugs and that's why it's entertaining.

Do you want to live forever you apes.

Because it works on a surface level, and also as something deeper. Robocop and Idiocracy have a similar aspect to them

Paul Verhoeven, the director, has done a lot of memorable scenes that give his movies something to make you want to watch them again.

it's the first movie i saw in theaters. scared the absolute fuck out of me. the part where that dude broke his arm is permanently burned into my brain.

The thing about Paul Verhoeven is that social commentary is woven into the fabric of his films. That's what motivates him to take hokey concepts and push them beyond their limits.

CGI movies were good and the series.

It's amazing how many critics didn't realize it was a parody. But I guess they didn't realize that for Robocop either. And I have seen way too many reviews of Blade Runner where they thought they replicants are robots when the literal opening text explains they are biological.

I think movies that require some level of thought often struggle critically because a lot of people who review movies aren't necessarily that bright.

Verhoeven is a god, thats why.

I realized some of you might not have been alive or old enough in 1997 to remember how badly this movie was received.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers_(film)

Check out the reception there. It really was like that. I remember damn near everyone calling a Nazi or fascist film and calling the director a Nazi, it was wild.

ssjevot posted...

I realized some of you might not have been alive or old enough in 1997 to remember how badly this movie was received.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers_(film)

Check out the reception there. It really was like that. I remember damn near everyone calling a Nazi or fascist film and calling the director a Nazi, it was wild.

There's good reason for that. Look at the uniforms, theres nazi features like the SS lightning bolts snd the officers uniform that Neil Patrick Harris wears looks undeniably Nazi. The main protagonist is white from Buenos Aires, an area that Nazis fled too after the war. There's probably more that I didn't catch, but it's there dude.

I like how it pokes at the fascistic tone of Heinlein's novel without deviating from the source material a great deal. Of course there is artistic license with some of the characters, but the general plot and major characters are mostly similar to their counterparts in the novel (which was written during the Cold War, and on the cusp of the space age by a former US Navy officer). In effect, the movie both honors and critiques the novel, and manages to do so in Verhoeven's patented "enthusiastic" way, which makes it pretty entertaining. It's pretty damn clever for doing so imo.

I couldn't get over the completely illogical plot of aliens shooting rocks light years away to destroy earth...like, that's not possible in any way and even if it was, they would have had to do it millions of years ago before humans ever existed

Because it's a cheesey Sci fi epic, based on a fascism manifesto, that absolutely takes the ever-lovong piss out of the source material at every turn.

Imit8m3 posted...

There's good reason for that. Look at the uniforms, theres nazi features like the SS lightning bolts snd the officers uniform that Neil Patrick Harris wears looks undeniably Nazi. The main protagonist is white from Buenos Aires, an area that Nazis fled too after the war. There's probably more that I didn't catch, but it's there dude.

My palm just went all the way through my face

indica posted...

I couldn't get over the completely illogical plot of aliens shooting rocks light years away to destroy earth...like, that's not possible in any way and even if it was, they would have had to do it millions of years ago before humans ever existed

Iirc the implication is that they didn't. The meteor strike on Buenos Aires was either staged or a coincidence, and just blamed on the arachnids as an excuse for a war that the federation wanted anyway.

It's got bugs, it's got space, it's got guns, it's got co-ed showers. It has it all!

DarkBuster22904 posted...

Iirc the implication is that they didn't. The meteor strike on Buenos Aires was either staged or a coincidence, and just blamed on the arachnids as an excuse for a war that the federation wanted anyway.

That would make more sense...

Starship Troopers shows how the wrong director can still make a great movie with material he hates. Sure someone who loved the book would have been nice but Verhoeven hating the original book lead to something amazing.

Imit8m3 posted...

There's good reason for that. Look at the uniforms, theres nazi features like the SS lightning bolts snd the officers uniform that Neil Patrick Harris wears looks undeniably Nazi. The main protagonist is white from Buenos Aires, an area that Nazis fled too after the war. There's probably more that I didn't catch, but it's there dude.

Yes. It's there because he wanted it to be. You're supposed to think they are fascists because they are. The key is that they're not the good guys. It's a parody and it's super obvious unless you're a film critic apparently. Shit they even have a reporter state that humans started the war by colonizing the aliens' planets (they cut away from it right after he says it). They also then tell you repeatedly the aliens are mindless but they somehow did this crazy meteor attack (which as mentioned was clearly staged or a coincidence), only to reveal the aliens do have a mind at the end; and when the brain bug says it's scared to gestapo Neil Patrick Harris everyone starts celebrating. It's such an obvious parody the whole way through.

El_Marsh posted...

I like how it pokes at the fascistic tone of Heinlein's novel without deviating from the source material

Oh, that's probably why the movie director included the Nazi elements.

Because Verhoeven knows how to manage balance without restraint.

ironman2009 posted...

it's the first movie i saw in theaters. scared the absolute fuck out of me. the part where that dude broke his arm is permanently burned into my brain.

"MEDIC!"

Clancy Brown ruled.

Definitely in my top 10 movies of all time.

wanderingshade posted...

It's got bugs, it's got space, it's got guns, it's got co-ed showers. It has it all!

unironically this

I forgot to mention it also has Jake Busey.

Director Paul Verhoeven and stars Dina Meyer and Casper Van Dien confirmed that Verhoeven and cinematographer Jost Vacano shot the co-ed shower scene in the nude themselves, on a dare from Meyer. On the day of the shoot, Verhoeven had asked the cast to do a little "fashion show without fashion" so that they could get comfortable being naked. When the cast was reluctant to disrobe, Verhoeven asked them what the big deal was, to which Meyer responded, "Paul, if it's no big deal, why don't you do it?" Quite unexpectedly, Verhoeven got undressed, as well as Vacano (who had been raised in a nudity camp).

After an initial shock (Van Dien reportedly yelled "Oh God! Dina! Why!?") and a good laugh from the cast, the scene was filmed without problems.

Well that's one way to get everyone naked.

First was amazing so was the animated films the sequel movies were anus

I'm not at all surprised that Paul Verhoeven would get naked. lol

Tits and bugs

indica posted...

I couldn't get over the completely illogical plot of aliens shooting rocks light years away to destroy earth...like, that's not possible in any way and even if it was, they would have had to do it millions of years ago before humans ever existed

I don't remember the movie that well since it's been awhile, however a post I saw on IG the other day about how the main woman and a main brunette dude like accidentally change the trajectory of an asteroid that they theorize is the one that crashes into earth, making them the actual cause of it, and it being blamed on the bugs.

Imit8m3 posted...

Oh, that's probably why the movie director included the Nazi elements.

Why are you being so thick and purposely obtuse

ssjevot posted...

Yes. It's there because he wanted it to be. You're supposed to think they are fascists because they are. The key is that they're not the good guys. It's a parody and it's super obvious unless you're a film critic apparently. Shit they even have a reporter state that humans started the war by colonizing the aliens' planets (they cut away from it right after he says it). They also then tell you repeatedly the aliens are mindless but they somehow did this crazy meteor attack (which as mentioned was clearly staged or a coincidence), only to reveal the aliens do have a mind at the end; and when the brain bug says it's scared to gestapo Neil Patrick Harris everyone starts celebrating. It's such an obvious parody the whole way through.

Yeah their society ticks so many boxes from Eco's Ur Fascism that Verhoeven may as well have just used it as a guideline.

I learned from watching the commentary that Verhoeven never read the book, but still made the cast read it.
Still one of my favorites to this day.

As an 8 year old kid

It was like another Star Wars, kinda had resemblance to Starcraft that I couldn't play. Mind that there was other sci-fi stuff out like Lost in Space and MIB.

There were toys to go with it.
Prime Denise Richards

From the simplistic POV it had a lot of cool things going on.

CADE_FOSTER posted...

First was amazing so was the animated films the sequel movies were anus

They all suck mainly for the fact they missed the satirical points of the original, just like with the Robocop IP. Playing the concepts straight at face value just makes them look like very shitty and dull sci-fi flicks as opposed to smartly executed pseudo B-movies.

idk if the upcoming Starship Troopers game will retain that identity in between the fun co-op play but I hope so.

Jiek_Fafn posted...

Because it works on a surface level, and also as something deeper. Robocop and Idiocracy have a similar aspect to them

This.

ssjevot posted...

It's amazing how many critics didn't realize it was a parody. But I guess they didn't realize that for Robocop either. And I have seen way too many reviews of Blade Runner where they thought they replicants are robots when the literal opening text explains they are biological.

I think movies that require some level of thought often struggle critically because a lot of people who review movies aren't necessarily that bright.

like how critics complained that the josie and the pussycats movie had so much product placement when that was actually the joke
the movie was about how corporations manipulate youth to buy random trends and so they intentionally put blatant product placement in every single scene of the film
but critics refused to believe that a movie made for teenage girls could be clever