Verhoeven's STARSHIP TROOPERS is certainly a film that doesn't stand up to repeated viewing . The first half consists of the most unlikely military recruits put on to celluloid . You get the impression that the recruits are taking part in a beauty contest rather than a military training camp , all those these bimbos and pretty boys totally fail to convince . Like ancient Rome they're joining the military to receive citizenship but why ? They all have perfect teeth which means this future meritocracy has a much better health system than we've got in present day Britain so is this authoritarian society so bad ? By the way if we're subjected to a one world government does this explain why everyone speaks with a similar accent no matter what their nationality or ethnic background ? Apparently main pretty boy Johnny Rico is Argentine but looks like he's stepped out of Beverly Hills California same as nearly everyone else in the film . So much for diversity
Despite stepping up several gears in the second half of the movie the audience are still subjected to a complete lack of logic in the story . Roger Ebert has asked if the human race is capable of interstellar travel then why are they incapable of coming up with an effective insecticide ? A good point but why even bother with insecticide ? Surely it'd be a good idea to send missiles containing warheads of several megatons of explosive towards the bug colonies ? No matter how much you try to explain it away you're left thinking of what a ridiculous idea it is to send ground troops to a planet to engage in pitched battles with literally billions of self aware homicidal insects
Actually I've just realised why , because if humanity nuked the bugs then we'd be left with two hours of THE OC IN OUTER SPACE with the last two minutes composed of a couple of large explosions and that would have made for an extremely boring film . Say what you like about the first sixty minutes of the running time ( And if you've nothing nice to say about it I'll agree with you ) but the second half of STARSHIP TROOPERS is very gory fun with Verhoeeven delivering the goods . It's certainly not a masterpiece of intellectual SF cinema but it is very entertaining as long as you don't think about it too hard
Despite stepping up several gears in the second half of the movie the audience are still subjected to a complete lack of logic in the story . Roger Ebert has asked if the human race is capable of interstellar travel then why are they incapable of coming up with an effective insecticide ? A good point but why even bother with insecticide ? Surely it'd be a good idea to send missiles containing warheads of several megatons of explosive towards the bug colonies ? No matter how much you try to explain it away you're left thinking of what a ridiculous idea it is to send ground troops to a planet to engage in pitched battles with literally billions of self aware homicidal insects
Actually I've just realised why , because if humanity nuked the bugs then we'd be left with two hours of THE OC IN OUTER SPACE with the last two minutes composed of a couple of large explosions and that would have made for an extremely boring film . Say what you like about the first sixty minutes of the running time ( And if you've nothing nice to say about it I'll agree with you ) but the second half of STARSHIP TROOPERS is very gory fun with Verhoeeven delivering the goods . It's certainly not a masterpiece of intellectual SF cinema but it is very entertaining as long as you don't think about it too hard