Review of Starship Troopers (1997) by Scott S — 25 Jul 2012

Starship Troopers (1997) -- [8.0] -- Director Paul Verhoeven continues his knack for combining violence, gore, dark humor and social commentary. I can almost enjoy the movie for the action alone. It escalates beautifully, with plenty of exciting sequences and spectacular visual effects.

But it's the satirical edge that sets "Starship Troopers" apart. The whole movie is designed as a recruitment film for a fascist society. When our 'heroes' win in the end, the movie has its tongue firmly in cheek, dressing them as full-blown Nazis while Leni Riefenstahl-like propaganda leads us into the closing credits.

Sure, you can make fun of the actors. You're supposed to. This is probably the only movie where the extreme vapidity of Denise Richards is actually an asset. Verhoeven cast beautiful people and directed them to play stupid because they represent the arrogance and ignorance that almost allowed Hitler to take over the world.

Nobody says, "oops, genocide," better than Richards. The frenetic musical score by the late Basil Poledouris is an exciting listening experience on its own, one of the composer's finest works and one of the best film scores of the `90s.

"Starship Troopers" is a smart movie parading as a vacuous one, so it gets misunderstood. If it makes you feel sick and queazy, that's kinda the point. But even if you miss the point, Verhoeven's got you covered.

You still get to watch pretty people blow shit up.