Random thoughts on "Starship Troopers"

Random thoughts on Starship Troopers, 20 years on (warning: spoilers... but come on it's been 20 years)

1) I can't think of any other film that matches it's tone - mixture of high school antics, awkward acting, war cliches, Nazi imagery, bug killing, camp, seriousness.... even the sequels don't match it - maybe Robocop comes close but this feels different to even that.

2) The acting ranges from the genuinely good (Dina Meyer, Clancy Brown) to the iconic (Michael Ironside) to 50s B war movie (Casper Van Diem) to 40s film noir (Denise Richards) to dreadful (the guy who plays Casper's dad) but somehow everyone is perfectly suited... whether its minxy Denise, square jawed Casper or Doogie Howser in a Nazi outfit.

3) Main problem with this film for me... the last act (it's roughly five acts: school, training, Klendathuu, Planet P and return to Planet P)... the action builds then there's this final battle which we never see, Rico and his friends go off from a genuinely important battle to go rescue Carmen who no one really cares about even if she is hot... and at the end Doogie goes "the human race was saved by one guy who captured the bug"... and it's Clancy Brown! Who we never saw. So we missed a massive battle. I admit that this nutty story decision is part of the film's charm.

4) Has Michael Ironside ever given a bad performance? (To be fair you could also ask if he's ever given a different one... but he's always awesome!)

5) Hokey as it is, the love triangle plot completely works for me in this film and Dina Meyers is (don't laugh) the emotional core. It's pure Archie-Veronica-Betty-Reggie (with Zander as Reggie).

6) I love the character touch of making Ace (Jake Busey) a good violin player - and how Michael Ironside provided violins for his troops along with beer and footballs. Are violins more popular in the future? Did he just know a lot about his soldiers? Was it good luck? So much mythology that remains unexplored.

7) I never noticed how perky the ship captain played by Brenda Strong is... (Denise Richards' boss) - she's always got a smile on her face, even when picking up Rico from Planet P after most of his platoon has been wiped out.

8) I like how in the future people will still listen to Mazzy Star.

9)It's great how even the more selfish characters, Carmen and Zander, are completely bad ass - Zander has a great defiant final line.

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10) I love how the military strategy of the humans is so incredibly abysmal that, like "Aliens", you can enjoy the militarism and the critique of it at the same time.

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