Starship Troopers

For this entire month, I thought of reviewing a goofy sci-fi franchise that actually had some enjoyable entries, the “Starship Troopers” franchise. Let’s jump right in with the first movie, released in 1997.

Paul Verhoeven returns from the realm of campy adult material to the realm of campy action with “Starship Troopers.” Like “Robocop,” “Starship Troopers” takes place in a neo-fascist future, what was taken too seriously by some reviewers who were very critical of the film. Carlo Cavagna said in his review, “I choose to believe that, as in Robocop, the neo-fascism is Paul Verhoeven's idea of a joke, and it's a pretty funny joke, too--almost as funny as the terrible acting.” If looked at as a comedy, “Starship Troopers” is actually an actual enjoyable film, thanks largely because of the spectacular special effects, which matched those of “Alien Resurrection” as the best of 1997.

Cavagna noted, “Based loosely--very loosely--on Robert Heinlein's 1960 Hugo Award-winning novel (most fans of the book were offended by the screenplay), Starship Troopers is about a group of young people with perfect cheekbones who enroll in the military to fight the "bug menace." They are all so attractive that genetic engineering is clearly a part of Verhoeven's neo-fascist world, although it is never explicitly acknowledged.” Only by enrolling in the military can a person become a “citizen” and get the right to vote.

The first half of the movie focuses on showing how the young recruits are shaped into murderers and establishing the romantic subplot. Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) is in love with Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards), who goes off to flight school while Johnny joins the infantry. Dizzy Flores, played by Dina Meyer, who has loved Johnny for years, is in infantry training as well, but Johnny only has his love for Carmen. Cavagna notes, “Johnny continues to reject Dizzy's advances, despite the fact that Carmen appears to be utterly devoid of a personality and is less attractive than Dizzy to boot.” Then again, Johnny doesn’t look like he has much of a personality, either.

The difficulty with being in the military is that the “bug menace” is very real, and the numbers of casualty is surprisingly high, especially in the infantry. Cavagna said, “In the second half of the movie, the wall-to-wall action begins, featuring amazing computer-generated giant bugs of several different varieties and plenty of blood and gore. The action is organized around three separate campaigns, the first of which is an ill-advised assault on the bugs' home world. It's not entirely clear why the military sends in ground troops instead of blowing the planet to pieces with nuclear weapons, but in the subsequent campaigns, the infantry's role is more defined. In the end, Johnny, Carmen, Dizzy, and all of the other featured characters get the opportunity to be heroes.

A lot of “Starship Troopers” plays like an exaggerated marketing film – in fact, Verhoeven uses hilariously funny advertisements and news reels as narrative devices, as he did in “Robocop.” The plot isn’t badly articulate, and it’s odd how all the characters keep running into one another, even though the military is so large that, when Carmen leaves for flight school, she says to Johnny that they will probably never see each other again. However, if you’re in the mood for some escapist entertainment, the bad acting and ludicrous elements of the story are part of the fun.

Look, this is a silly 90s sci-fi action film. I don’t really think this may be a great film, but it is a fun movie that I think everyone can watch and enjoy. This is the definition of a product of the 90s. Check it out and see for yourself.

Now how was the sequel to this film? Hold on to your vomit bags, because next week we’re going to look at that in “Starship Troopers Month.”