Subject: Review: Starship Troopers (1997)

From: [email-masked] (Jeff Walters)
Date: 13 May 1998 03:58:19 GMT

**Starship Troopers**
Reviewed by Jeff Walters

There was alot of Aliens Resurrection vs Starhip Troopers talk last
year and both were tagged as movies to watch at the Box Office.
It came as a fairly big surprise when both movies fizzled and died
on release. Dissappointment aside, which movie emerged on top?
 Well, in my opinion - it's Starship Troopers.

               Alien's Resurrection was the movie I was waiting for in
1997 and I had very high hopes for it. Dissappointment was sadly the
end result. Besides one or two nice action scenes (the underwater
sequence was brilliant) the movie just really failed to make any
real impact. Quickly souring on bug-theme movies I wasn't really
looking forward to Starship Troopers and walked into it with my sights
set low. This movie is no masterpeice of cinema - that is for sure.
But damn it was entertaining, something A4 really failed to be.

             One thing you can't do with this movie, is take it
seriously - no sir. First time I saw it I was half-expecting a serious
film and didn't enjoy it as much - but the second time I
saw it I knew what to expect - and man was this film better the second
time around. The key is to accept that the movie in no way takes
itself seriously - so you must do the same. The cast appears to be
handpicked from Aaron Spelling's stables. The script
keeps the multiple syllable words to an absolute minimum ("You're some
big fat smart  bug aren't ya?") and the tactics used by the troopers
and ships in combat would have any retired army veteran
rolling around laughing hysterically. ('Duh yeah, let's park our ships
here where they can be shot out of the sky like last time or better
yet - let's walk down through this narrow canyon where falling rocks
betray the presence of bugs up high...no wait...I've got an idea -
then let's send a guy up out of the canyon to be hacked to death!').
Smart this movie ain't.

               With all this sarcasm and cheap jibes at the movie
you're likely wondering why I gave this movie 3 1/2 out of 5
stars? Well, to put it simply - this movie is fuuuun. The special FX
are simply awe inspiring. The bugs are the best CG creatures you'll
see in a movie. Forget the Jurassic Park dinos or Alien 4 cockroaches
- these bugs look incredibly real...and more then slightly
frightening. They are quick deadly and very difficult to kill. There
are also many different types of bugs. My favourite is the big
bettle-like bug that spits something resembling napalm at it's
 enemies - very nice. The scenes involving the massive starships are
also beautifully rendered, though it would have been nice if these
ships saw some kind of action besides getting shot down by
planet-launched balls of  'bug-plasma'.

               Ok...onto the characters. Casper Van Dien (Johnny Rico)
is likable enough in the lead role, but no-one would accuse him of
depth or his character of intellect. Dina Meyer (Dizzy Flores) is
actually pretty good as one of the two female leads, her character has
 much more life to her than most of her co-stars. The pick of the cast
are Michael Ironside as the no nonsense teacher turned combat leader,
Rasczak, and Clancy Brown as the incredibly tough and likely
certifably insane Sergeant Zim. He is the real scene-stealer of the
movie and his somewhat unorthodox methods for getting messages across
to his troops is hilarious if twisted (He turns the word 'MEDIC!' into
the ultimate one-liner). Ace Levy (played by Jake Busey, who is
a dead-ringer for relative Gary Busey) also provides some good comic
relief through the training section of the movie.

         The weak links of the cast? Two big ones. Denise Richard's
Carmen Ibanez has gotta be one of the dullest characters you'll see.
Talk about a barbie doll. She has zero one liners, no character and a
smile that seems to have been surgically fixed in place. Even
when her love interest (Patrick Muldoon) has his brains sucked out of
his skull by the 'big fat smart bug' she seems to be unable to stiffle
the gameshow host smile. Never  seen this actress before. No wonder
why. The other big mis-cast is Neil Patrick Harris as the geeky
psychic, Carl. Why did someone have to dig up Doogie Howser? I thought
we were finally rid of the runt. 

               The action scenes involving the troopers are very
thrilling indeed. Especially when Rico does his rodeo act on the
back of one of the bettle-bugs or when the small squad of troopers try
to hold the Fort against staggering odds. It takes quite a while to
reach the cool action seqeunces though, about 50 minutes of training
and scenes back on earth. Though you start itching for the action, the
lead up parts are still entertaining in their own way. The hilarious
'propaganda' commercials spaced through out the film keeps the
audience's attention. 

               The ending is a total anti-climax unfortunately. After
a short 'rescue the girl' sequence the movie ends abruptly
 leaving the audience fairly unsatisfied. Though the movie is long
enough as is I would have happily sat there for an extra 15 or so
minutes if it meant a more involved and thrilling ending.

               All up - I really enjoyed this movie. It is a very
violent movie, but it is delivered in such a way so that it is never
 disturbingly so. As long as you don't try to take this movie
seriously - you should enjoy it as well. There is talk of a
sequel already and I certainly hope it eventuates as there are many
loose ends left to be tied up. 

3.5 out of 5 stars