Starship Troopers (1997)

Starship Troopers (1997)

4/10

Starring          

Casper Van Dien

Dina Meyer

Denise Richards

Jake Busey

Neil Patrick Harris     

 

Directed by Paul Verhoeven

 

Starship Troopers is one of those movies I struggle to remember. I saw it when I was young a couple of times, and still, it never stuck in my memory. Even after seeing it now, regardless of the growing recognition, the bad acting by the central cast — which, for the money spent on the production, is inexcusable — still stands out. If it was just one person, it would be alright, but many of the main cast, who get enough screen time, acted like they were in a school play.

Then the special effects were poor. The story idea is totally off. So you need to serve in a war before you can get the right to vote or procreate? Wow. I could not think of anything sillier.

Some say this is satire. Hmm. Which it kind of is, based on the propaganda ad we see at the start of the movie. I still think the story idea is silly. That just adds to the other problems in the movie. Plus the length and the too-much romantic drama made this, for me, once more forgettable. I could not find one thing to hold on to and say, hmm, this is what makes the movie really stand out in my memory.

Now that said, if you can get over the whole cringy, annoying first half, ignore the bad acting from the central cast and the flimsy effects, the second half of the movie is about fighting — which is the one thing I liked. When they had to take on the bugs, I liked that part. Funny enough, even seeing that now still didn’t bring back memories of watching this movie, even though I liked that second part.

The plot is this: in the future, the world is governed by the United Citizen Federation. Citizenship is earned exclusively through federal service, which grants rights like the ones I mentioned above. Humans can now travel the galaxy, and we’re in a constant interstellar battle with insectoid creatures called Arachnids.

Rico, the central character, joins the military because of a girl — who later breaks up with him after falling in love with someone else. Rico makes a mistake that leads to the death of another cadet and tries to drop out, but rejoins when the Arachnids attack Earth, killing his parents.

Then the real action starts. The Mobile Infantry gets dropped onto a Bug planet thinking they’re just going to flex some muscle, but the Bugs tear them apart. It’s not even close. The humans discover the Arachnids have a brain bug that controls the others, and that becomes the new mission. So they send Rico and the rest of his unit, who are now practically a suicide squad, into a massive Bug tunnel system to capture this thing.

So that’s what the movie is about. For me, it’s one of those films that’s long for no reason, has too many turning knobs trying to add drama and realism, but all I get is a B-movie trying to be more than it is.

Now, I’ll say: see it if you haven’t. But keep all this in mind and ask yourself if it’s still worth it.