11/19/10 - Starship Troopers

Starship Troopers (1997, 129 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120201/

The last movies I watched were pretty good and I knew I had a double feature planned for tomorrow featuring particularly unspectacular (but probably enjoyable in the company of friends) movies. Therefore I settled on Starship Troopers since I knew it was highly enjoyable in its own way but not on the same "film" level as something like Bonnie and Clyde.

The film follows Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) as he decides to enlist in the military and hope to wipe out the bugs that are attacking Earth. Joining him in this decision are some of his good high school friends in Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer), Lt. Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards), and Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick Harris). They meet new friends once they go out to combat with the most prominent being Zander Barcalow (Patrick Muldoon) and Ace Levy (Jake Busey). A former teacher - Jean Rasczak (Michael Ironside) - is also quite important.

As I mentioned in the first paragraph, I'd seen Starship Troopers and loved it for the typical silly reasons. Starship Troopers is in no way a good movie in the same sense that something like Chinatown is or even something more recent like Moon which is also sci-fi. Instead, Starship Troopers is just good-natured silly fun. However, the whole plot moves along sometimes with no purpose and seems to be all over the place at the beginning. It seems to take a step back when Rico almost leaves the military but then steps forward somewhat reluctantly when he joins back up after the big bug attack on his home. The whole first half of the movie is really poorly constructed and lacking in things such as pacing, structure, and purpose.

However, where Starship Troopers shines is once the action sets in and the troops are out there fighting the bugs. The movie actually boasts some of the top CGI of any film from the 1990s. I've stated repeatedly how I feel that CGI from this period has aged extremely poorly (such as the Star Wars prequels). Somehow Starship Troopers hasn't been cursed in this regard as it still looks fantastic. The attacking bugs show no signs of poor construction and the fluidity of motion and the ability to show the swarming hordes of the bugs (I was really impressed how you can make out individual bugs during one particularly massive swarm, especially given the limitations of technology back in 1997) are all captured fantastically. This is easily the best part of the movie and it's actually a very important one. The bugs are so important to the action and their presence is necessary so as to feel the mounting odds against our heroes. Seemingly ageless CGI helps on both accounts and I'll never cease to be amazed when I see Starship Troopers compared to other movies of the time.

Sadly, Starship Troopers also has some glaring negatives. First and foremost is the acting. Neither Meyer nor Richards can act at all and it was obvious they were just chosen to be pretty faces. Richards's acting is actually some of the worst I've ever seen in a big budget movie like this. I don't know what she was thinking in the late 1990s when she tried to make a name as an actress because she's pathetic. It's somehow worse than Tomorrow Never Dies. I think the biggest problem here is that she's completely unbelievable as someone smart. Maybe that's a snarky thing to say but it's true. I don't believe for one minute that this smart girl can be the ace pilot that she is. Van Dien's acting as Rico isn't particularly great but he's enough of a grunt that he's pretty believable given his role. There's a few moments of pain like when his whole home is destroyed in Buenos Aires and when Ibanez dumps him and he's not bad when he has to display a little more emotion than "Let's kill some bugs!" so at least he has that going for him.

There's two other things worth noting with Starship Troopers. The first is the interlude news reports. They're humorous and bring an easy going tone to the movie that makes it work better as a whole compared to a non-stop serious action movie. They're corny and somewhat stupid but I don't think they're in there for humor value but rather to add to the satire and to break the constant action. The other important thing is that satire to which I just alluded. Starship Troopers was originally a novel and it's a highly respected one. I'll admit I've never read it and I doubt I will. It's drastically different from the movie which is really only similar in the name and the name of some characters and the basic premise. This allows me to view the movie without the bias of "Hey! This isn't like the book at all!" which actually seems to be a common complaint. Starship Troopers gets a military point across, yes, but it's clouded with satire and with that you can take it or leave it. Starship Troopers is enjoyable as an action movie or as a military commentary and it deserves praise for that.

Overall, I gave this film a 7/10. Starship Troopers could easily be a 9/10 film if there were halfway decent actors delivering the most basic of lines. Instead there's some performances which I would hardly classify "acting." I can watch Starship Troopers again and again and its cheesiness keeps it enjoyable but again that acting keeps it from getting any higher than a 7/10.