Starship Troopers - Space Cadets by Homer Yen (c) 1997
If you've ever seen any of Director Paul Verhoeven's other films such as Total Recall, Basic Instinct or Showgirls, there is one common thread that ties all of his work together. That element can be described as 'excess'. True to his reputation, he is equally relentless in his excessiveness here. There is excessive violence, there is excessive body counts, and there is excessive battling. In fact, it is my belief that Verhoeven has made it his personal crusade to release movies that are just short of receiving an NC-17 rating.
Early on, you can sense that this will be a brutally disgusting movie. For example, two of the main characters, Rico and Carmen, are in biology class studying a 'bug' which is about the size of a small refrigerator. As they dissect, the students pull out the innards, digging through the slime and ooze that protect the organs. Carmen barfs, and you might also too unless you've eaten way in advance. Here at this educational institution, we also meet Diz, a feisty girl, who has a crush on Rico and another friend Carl, who is extremely intelligent. One of the proudest things that these young adults can do is to join the Federation, which is Earth's futuristic intergalactic army. Service guarantees citizenship, a highly sought after social status. After taking their tests, each goes their own separate ways. Diz and Rico wind up in the infantry. Carmen becomes a pilot, while Carl becomes a part of the military intelligence. However, soon after, their separate lives begin to converge once again as war breaks out with a bug-like species half way across the galaxy, and it is up to these four and an array of other characters to take part in the cosmic battle of their lives.
Yet, while war and citizenship seemed incredibly important to the characters on screen, the movie failed to involve me in their struggle and their consternation towards their enemy. And I believe that the problem with this movie is two-fold. First, our connection and interest with the characters are mild at best. As we watch the four advance in skill and rank, I never, for one instant, really felt their struggle or pain or jubilation. Mainly, the writer decided that what was more interesting was not how they coped with war, lost comrades, or their overnight transformation from ordinary civilians to ruthless fighters. Here's an example. The bugs are quickly advancing, and the troop seems hopelessly outnumbered. The Sergeant yells to Rico, "You're my Corporal until you die or I find someone better!" Instead, our interest is tied to the love triangles and the subsequent relationships that sprouted as a matter of consequence. I felt that I was watching a hybrid of Melrose Place and Deep Space 9.
The second factor was it's sheer excessiveness, which went beyond satire and bordered on the absurd. For example, to kill one bug, it takes 4 soldiers and literally 2,000 rounds of ammo. Human casualties are in the hundreds of thousands. But here's the really absurd thing. You make your way to a fort that was decimated by the enemy. Limbs lie here and there, heads are decapitated, bodies are gored. Everyone has died a horrible death. You know that the bugs are close by waiting to kill you. Do you leave immediately? OR...do you set up camp? I'll let you decide.
Of course, this is a film about all-out war, so its boundaries are somewhat confined. The best thing about this film is the special effects, which are spectacular, especially the scenes involving Earth's space fleet being fired upon by plasma cannonballs (when you learn the source of the cannonballs, you'll slap your palm to your forehead and murmur how absurd that was too). The 'bugs' are also handsomely detailed. If the story was only half as good as the special effects, then they might have something more interesting than a stalwart band of fighters that just shoot-shoot-shoot and kill-kill-kill.
Unfortunately, in his quest to take the 'R' rating to it's limits, he forgets that it isn't just shock value or incredible effects that we look for. Bereft of pathos, the film ultimately becomes as interesting as the enemy bugs that the Federation must battle. It's full speed ahead without thinking about what comes next, except possibly knowing that it will be something excessively absurd.
Grade: C
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews