Review of Starship Troopers (1997) by Steve A — 20 Jul 2012

Johnny Rico: I'm from Buenos Aires, and I say kill 'em all!

I will admit that this movie is brilliant. This is basically a comedy with a cast that you might find in a teenage drama or comedy. The plot is similar to something you might find in that type of movie as well.

The main characters here are teenagers who are shown as, to be, high school graduates in the earlier scenes of the film. They seem to have pretty standard life aspects for people in that stage of their life. They are not so sure what they want to do with their lives, but have a vivid idea. The main character of the film Johnny Rico has a girlfriend who he feels lucky to have. Also, his parents disagree with him on what he should do with his life and wheather or not he should be making his own decisions. The only thing different here is that Johnny does not want to join a rock band or be a professional skateboarder instead of going to Harvard. He wants to join the army that fights giant bugs in space to help protect (I think the earth) from these things. It's not very laugh-out-loud-funny for me while I am actually watching, but thinking about that whole idea is pretty hilarious. It's great for me since I hate teenage movie clitches so much!

Johnny Rico: Mr. Rasczak, I want to join the Federal Service and become a citizen. But my Dad thinks I should go to college and remain a civilian as he has. What should I do?

Jean Rasczak: Figuring things out for yourself is practically the only freedom anyone really has nowadays. Use that freedom.

After some great and entertaining bootcamp scenes the army goes out to war to fight these bugs. From then on, meyhem ensues. The action scenes there bored me. It might be because of the helmets that the characters fighting are wearing which disallowes me to tell anyone apart. I can't seem to find any fun with this action. It just seems over played showing off too much special effects.

Ace Levy: Shoot a nuke down a bug hole, you got a lot of dead bugs.

It is not all joyless though. Throughout a fair amount of the movie we get some fun scenes that mix science fiction elements with raunchy comedy elemements which is always fun.

Jean Rasczak: I expect the best and I give the best. Here's the beer. Here's the entertainment. Now have fun. That's an order!

The way this movie ends feels pretty abrubt and predictable, but then again, it is all part of it's brilliance for why it is so funny in the first place. If you look at this as a comedy and not an action sci-fi then you might just have a great movie on your hands. I just wish it would cut down on the special effects.

Private Sugar Watkins: Gimme the nuke.

Johnny Rico: You trying to be a hero, Watkins?

Private Sugar Watkins: Just trying to kill some bugs, sir.