Well, the previews had us SF-types drooling for most of the year, and it looks as though Paul Verhoven has delivered a reasonable product to justify our wait. We get plenty of cutting edge special effects, and unlike Spielberg's "Lost World," this one has a coherent story behind it. Not a new story, though. Some have labeled this a parody, but I see a careful reworking of a W.W.II B-movie, retreaded with futuristic gadgetry and foes. There is some "1984" and some classic wartime propaganda thrown in, but it is the inherent absurdities of those genres that inspires any amusement.
Since this is a special effects movie, there's no sense spending the budget on big names. We follow high school senior Rico (Casper Van Dien), who is being pursued by Dizzy (Dina Meyer). But Rico is only interested in Carmen (Denise Richards). Most of the action revolves around these three, but we also get psychic Carl (Neil Patrick Harris). And just so you don't think EVERYONE in the future is beautiful, the gene pool still allows for a rodent-toothed Busey (Jake). Adult mentors Michael Ironside and Clancy Brown round out a cast that keeps running into each other, even though they all go their separate directions.
Carmen is one of those "natural pilots we always find in the movies, and she plans to join the military. In this future society, you are either a non-voting layabout, or a citizen, who has earned this status by a hitch in the military. Rico's family is rich enough that he doesn't need citizenship, but he wants to impress Carmen, so the fool signs up anyway. Not smart enough for fleet, he ends up in the Mobile Infantry (laser-cannon fodder). Dizzy joins to be near Rico, and the psychic goes off to Intelligence, natch.
The military trappings are intentionally evocative of totalitarian Germans and Soviets. This unified-world army would have been believable as the army Orwell mentioned in Big Brother's news reports. There are such news broadcasts here, presented with a CNN/Internet style. They have the exhortative propaganda feel of 1984, with little of the parody that Verhoven employed in his Robocop happy-news bits.
Once the war with the alien "bugs" starts, we are treated to plenty of complex battle scenes, with hundreds of Arachnids kicking our butt. Inexplicably, no good tactics are developed to deal with these superior warriors. Our guys just fire their automatic weapons at 14-foot arthropods that keep on slashing, even when half of their limbs are shot off. Also unexplained is what these bugs do for a living as the sole creatures on a barren planet. The ability of huge "tankers" to spit fiery plasma is an interesting adaptation for a race that shows no signs of tool-use. The bugs on the screen may appear three-dimensional, but they truly have no depth. In contrast, the franchise antagonists in "Alien" and "Predator" have enough definition that an audience member could conjure up his own backstory.
Computer graphic imaging (CGI) was a new toy for stop-action expert Phil Tippet when he built his dinos for Jurassic Park. Overseeing Starship's effects, he was able to bring the many images together by farming out pieces to several different effects houses. This movie does not give us a quantum leap in technology, but it does signal that Hollywood has turned the corner on producing CGI. Lesser efforts like "Spawn" and "Mortal Kombat II" can now be churned out regularly, without using the resources of a Manhattan Project. This movie does not rate a position of honor comparable to Robert A Heinlein's source novel, but it IS pretty cool.
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