Review of Starship Troopers (1997) by Mia W — 09 Oct 2016

Paul Verhoeven doesn't make subtle or challenging movies. He throws everything at the screen and then some making brash, loud and OTT popcorn movies that are a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. Taking as it's source a story buy the science fiction stalwart, Robert Heinlein, Verhoeven's Starship Troopers is a satirical look at militarism and fascism.

It follows the story of a group of rookie recruits to a future military regime engaged in an interplanetary war with a race of giant arthropods. I love this movie. It is just so preposterous and violent with each character a cliché-riddled cardboard cutout.

It is pretty much non-stop action and much of it gory and graphically violent. This was one of the first movies I remember that convincingly managed to merge live action with large scale CGI creations.

Even today, the various "Bugs" that appear on the screen look terrific and the hordes of them that constantly overrun the human forces make for some exciting scenes. This is such a ridiculous movie and it knows it too.

At times, darkly comic and morally questionable, it is a massive slice of hokum that just finds the line and crosses right over it without any sense of shame or embarrassment. Perfect viewing if you want to veg out and watch some mindless violence and turn the volume up loud.