Starship Troopers (1997)
One of my dominant thoughts upon entering the theater to see "Starship Troopers" was what I had read from an anonymous Internet writer: "There is enough action in this movie to make two movies, one named 'Starship,' the other 'Troopers'." And this is more-or-less the case--in part. But action does not a movie make. Perhaps it does for the teenage generation, but as in action movies (as in any genre), I do not need my intelligence insulted. One, of course, must not have high expectations upon going into a action movie (especially one with this title), but when it breaches a barrier of mindlessness, another part of me takes over. The cast consists of a generation of cocky teenagers (portrayed by cardboard-cutout, dime-a-dozen, television-show drop-outs), each with the depth of a single sheet of paper. One does indeed get the feeling of a "90210 Meets Aliens" several times throughout the picture; the cast is saturated with 90210 and Melrose Place denizens. hese kids are sent off to fight a war in distant planets against "bugs," huge armored orgami-like creatures, seemingly unintelligent to the Earth. These kids want to fight, they are enticed to fight by somewhat amusing propoganda blurbs on television. This latter part might be viewed as some sort of satire --but satirizing what and to what purpose? Mindless emotionless war-machine ethic? It doesn't deserve that much credit. And certainly not to advance the plot, which I might add, is mostly non-existant. One saving grace of this movie are the action scenes that are literally mind-blowing. The intense battles between the aliens and the troopers had me pinned back in my seat. Decapitations are rampant, gore litters the screen, and if it's patented action-movie rhetoric like "C'mon maggots! You wanna live forever?!" that you're needing, this movie has plenty of it. There are some degrees of originality as well. The aliens are all claws as far as I could see, and I liked what I saw. Compliments to the Special Effects crew and art direction of this movie as well; it is hard to go wrong with futuristic sci-fi effects given today's tech advancements, but there are some clever visuals. In fact, the visual effects supervisor was Phil Tippet, who started his career on a little film called "Star Wars." A favorite of director Paul Verhoven ("Total Recall," "Robocop"), Michael Ironside is decent enough in tough-as-nails Patton-esque leader role and his sharp barks of dialogue invigorate the dull moments. Same goes for Clancy Brown (the Head Guard from "Shawshank Redemption") as the Drill Sargeant from Hell. But at the same time, some of their "borrowing" is blatant and it seems that they would know better and steer their action to new, more unique levels. At one point, Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) jumps on a back of a particularly large bug, tears open its flesh with his gun, throws a nuclear grenade in, and leaps off to safety. And did anyone else in the audience besides me (while half hooted and applauded) that what they just saw was virtually Luke's triumph over the AT-AT on Hoth in "Empire Strikes Back?" The "Starship" part of the movie is at times painful to watch, most dominantly because it involves only three characters and each is more inept than the other. Ditzy pilot Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards) seems that she would be better suited back at Melrose Place; she is awkwardly out-of-place and her acting ability is simply limited to: happy, sad, surprised. Neil Patrick Harris (Doggie Howser himself) is thankfully limited to a few short scenes, but he wins the Golden Raspberry for Most Unintentionally Hilarious Dialogue. The dialogue suffers from cliche way-too-often--as in constantly. A futuristic science fiction movie should have engaging dialogue--"Starship Troopers" should have either hammed their character up a lot more or tried harder to make the in-between drama geniunely emotional. To compare, a mindless, comic book movie like "Con Air" this summer had clever (often witty) dialogue to take ones mind off its overall dumbness. There is no such relief in this movie. It is neither funny and the scenes where they do (somehow) seem to be striving for pure emotional drama don't work at all. It's not all cornball either; I could have sworn that at times they actually wanted us to care some for the characters. This movie contains the most poorly constructed love story sidebar I've ever seen on the big screen and I am dying to tell you what one of the character says upon their death, but I don't want to spoil the laugh for you. It was written by Edward Neumeier, who is (I stress) unbelievably the same person who wrote the very well-done original "Robocop." It is true that the purpose of action movies is to entertain and little else. Yet, there are multitudes of sci-fi and action films that can entertain with a spark of intelligence on the side. I found myself uncomfortably shifting in my seat whenever the action scenes ended and the mind-numbing dialogue began again. "Starship Troopers" has action in plenty, and may I emphasize that it's good at it...what it doesn't have is any intelligent dialogue or worthwhile lead characters in between these rampaging action segments. If you are looking for an science fiction epic or even for that crucial intelligent side, my best advice is to look elsewhere.
STARS: *1/2 (one and a half stars)
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