Review of Starship Troopers (1997) by Pete L — 11 Apr 2011

"Come on you apes. You wanna live forever?!".

I have no idea why I love this movie so much. I also don't know why I haven't fully reviewed this movie before. I've loved this movie ever since I saw the trailer when it came outm, but I wasnt allowed to see it. A few years later I got the chance and have been a huge fan of this ever since.

Plot: Four hundred years into the future ,four friends growing up in a fascist society called The Federation, join the military. Carl Jenkins(Neil Patrick Harris, Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother) goes into Military Intelligence, Carmen Ibanez(Denise Richards) becomes a star ship pilot, and Johnny Rico(Casper Van Dien) and Dizzy Flores(Dina Meyer) join the Mobile Infantry. After a meteor destroys Buenos Aires(the hometown of the main characters) ,The Federation declares war on The Arachnids, an empire of different species of giant alien insects. Despite having no technology whatsoever, the bugs out smart the technologicaly advanced Federation multiple times.

Director Paul Verhoeven( Robocop,Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Showgirls) has created a cheesey and fun masterpiece that I am proud to say I know line for line as a result of watching it countless times. This movie has been criticized for it's supposed glorification of Fascism, but in my opinion I don' t think it glorifies it, but rather pokes fun at it. I want people to know that this isnt some mindless bug hunt action movie, it actually has a lot of Drama and Romance elements to it which makes the story a lot more interesting. The first half of the film focuses on the last day of high school and the military training of Carmen, Johnny, and Dizzy. Sadly Carl's training is absent. The second half focuses on the war and the love triangle between Johnny, Carmen, and Dizzy and shows the characters dealing with the horrors of war. Death is all aroud them, some of them being close friends and family members. The Federation looks at The Arachnids as an abomination, and they believe it is humanity's destiny to completely eradicate them from the galaxy so humanity can spread across the galaxy. I often wonder what The Arachids would be like if The Federation had just left them alone. Would they grow into a peaceful empire or as the movie indicates, mindless killing machines? Another thing I love about this movie is the philosophy. Are we humans perfect? The following conversation between Carmen and the biology teacher really made me think a lot; BIOLOGY TEACHER: "We humans like to think we are Nature's finest achievement. I'm afraid it isn't true. This Arkellian Sand Beetle is superior in many ways. It has fewer moving parts, can reproduce itself in vast numbers, and unbound by concerns of ego and mortality, makes the perfect selfless member of society. Our galaxy is teaming with insect life. We have identified over two billion species so far. Human, life, it would seem, is the anomaly.".

CARMEN: "But we 're intelligent. Human minds have invented art, mathematics and interstellar travel.".

BIOLOGY TEACHER: "True, we know of no insect society that has produced a Shakespeare, an Einstein or a Cherynkov, but before you let that go to your head, take the example of the Arachnids, a highly organized, highly evolved insect society. They are relatively stupid by human standards. Workers have an IQ of 12, warriors around 35 , and yet the Arachnids have colonized planets. Over a million years of evolution, Nature has provided the Arachnids with the biological means to hurl their spore into space.".

All in all I am a die hard fan of this movie(not so much the awful sequels) and I can overlook it's small flaws such as some crappy acting and awful dialouge. Total score: 9.7/10.