Review: Starship Troopers (1997) Rating: 2.0 stars (out of 4.0) ******************************** Key to rating system: 2.0 stars Debatable 2.5 stars Some people may like it 3.0 stars I liked it 3.5 stars I am biased in favor of the movie 4.0 stars The movie had impact or stood out markedly ********************************* A Movie Review by David Sunga
Directed by: Paul Verhoeven
Written by: Ed Neumeier, (but it's based on the Robert A. Heinlein science fiction novel)
Starring: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer, Patrick Muldoon, and Michael Ironside
Ingredients: Hero named Johnny, gun battles against giant mantises in space
Synopsis: If you've ever seen old World War II propaganda films - - where late-breaking war news is highlighted by photos of spinning news clips while a narrator with a high pitched voice barks exciting battle news - - then you'll recognize the same cinematic style in ‘Starship Troopers.' The only difference is that in ‘Starship Troopers' a story emerges between the war narration. In the story a high school jock named Johnny (Casper Van Dien) and his cute girlfriend Carmen (Denise Richards) graduate and join the military. Johnny only joins to be near Carmen, but when she runs off to become a space pilot, and he remains a mere infantryman, they separate. Eventually Johnny gets his chance to save Carmen when her spaceship crashes on a planet that his platoon is doing a mission on. Meanwhile Johnny's buddies in the platoon capture the giant brain bug responsible for helping oversized mantis creatures wage war against mankind.
Opinion: Lots of bullets. I found ‘Starship Troopers' kind of boring because there was no suspense or emotional investment. I suspect director Paul Verhoeven (Best known for ‘Robocop') may have intended the movie to be a half campy tribute to old serials or war propaganda.
Reviewed by David Sunga November 7, 1997
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