Having read pro and con on the movie I have now seen it.
Here is the problem with it. While it is generally faithful to the novel, the future is brought up to date with the 1990s. Remember this was a novel for young teens written in the 1950s. Therefore no sex of any kind much less for teenagers. And not love triangles. It is all comraderie.
It is not that the first half of the movie drags waiting for the violence. It is that all the added scenes that set up the love interests are not Heinlein's and frankly do not fit with the style of the rest of it. While the rest of society might be permissive these are the people who have chosen to become citizens and permissiveness is contrary to the rest of the setting for the story. These are the people you would expect to call for lashing for permissive sex. If there is to be sex it is in the R&R section of the space station for money.
The problem this modernization introduces is less emphasis on the primary themes of the story as there is no time to tell it. The opening civics lecture is the main theme of the story and it is way too short. Development scenes for that lecture are missing such as the man who had failed for the fifth time being taken out in a wheel chair vowing to be back. Without this scene you get an impression it is all for the young and no one can be washed out.
Where was the obligatory fat man with thick glasses trying his best because of his desire to be a citizen? That desire in the war movies was to kill Japs. There is no war as this starts. Instead they all have bodies that look like they can not fail. Like they were the only ones accepted where the only civil right guaranteed to the non-citizen was the right to try as many times as he wanted. Only citizens had guaranteed civil rights even though non-citizens customarily had them.
And that is a problem as all of the training is physical, none moral, none the real theme of the story. We see exactly two quits when there should have been quits and washouts right and left. There is no portrayal that becoming a citizen is the goal of vast majority of society. We get the impression that it single point decision in life of a minority.
So the modernizations do not fit and they are at the expense of the original novel. That is important to see the motivation behind the people in battle.
And the battles scenes do portray the type of people the selection process of training is supposed to produce. But we do not see them being produced or selected or learning dedication.
As to the guaranteed fun part of the movie, great. Not only from the special effects, the pace, the events, but also attention to detail. The first hole they nuke has fine special effects. One part of it shows the flat earth jumping slightly delays.
With an extensive underground tunnel system that is what you would expect. But if that had not been included it would not be missed. With its inclusion, it is an attention to detail that is very much appreciated. Similarly when the bugs attack the ground fortification not only do they try to get over the walls but also start tearing at the structural supports. It is unusual in any movie of a siege where the attackers do more than one thing at a time.
Enough said. If the theaters only showed the second half twice in a row they could sell as many seats. You will like it, unless you believe violence never solves anything.
Yes there are technical problems. In combat training with live ammunition when people are hit by their mock targets they lose control of their bodies and fall to the ground. Of course they lose control of their weapons and a predictable accident occurs. Helmet or no the face is uncovered. It would have happened before.
This leads us to the cause of the above. In the original they wore powered full body armor including face covering. But in a movie everyone would look alike in body armor and then you can't tell the heroes even with a scorecard. In Star Wars this was solved by Darth Vader's fighter looking different than the others. This would have required six different styles and still no facial expressions visible.
There was also a thankful lack of bringing the novel up to date. Given when it was written, air power was not used in support of ground troops to any degree and ground troops didn't trust their own air force not to shoot them by accident. AND the troops did not get air support here either.
All in all, if there is ever a director's cut of this movie, it should cut the sex scenes for a 90 minute great movie.
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