Starship Troopers
Starship Troopers (1997)
I hate that we don’t have movies like these anymore. Who doesn’t want a bunch of vapid thirty-year-old teens and a Nazi NPH fighting bugs for the sake of our children and all mankind. “The only good bug is a dead bug!” Absolutely love it.
I have such fond memories of this movie from the start. When it came out somehow it was only a 15 certification in the UK cinema’s (The DVD, and I assume the Blu-Ray, are 18) and so I went to watch it with a friend. I was only 14––but close enough.
I’d never seen anything like it. I’d seen violent movies way above my age range before, but not with an excited energetic audience in a packed cinema. Everyone was so into the film, and why wouldn’t they be?
It had sex, violence, bravado, bugs, Ironside, and all the sci-fi elements you could want to make a highly entertaining sci-fi action movie. And for my own personal taste, it took its time to set-up the world, and the characters we’d be following, which I appreciated. (I’ve always been all about story and world building)
Sure, they were all massively unlikable (with the exception of the always amazing Michael Ironside) but at least I knew who they were, and could laugh along and enjoy the insane machoism the fascists had to offer.
It boggles my mind that so many people––and by all accounts the studio––didn’t realise it was satirical. But, that’s a good thing, as i’m not sure the movie would have got made otherwise. The newsfeed was amazing. The uniform and logo’s perfect. The blonde hair blue-eyed hero, and all his beautiful friends. I love how Verhoeven’s mind works.
But even without the genius satirical slant, this movie is so incredibly enjoyable. The bugs looks awesome with some fantastic early CGI. The ships were great, and the space stuff exciting despite the bugs themselves not having spaceships (could you imagine.) The ground battles were wild and gory. The Zulu Dawn scene will always be stand-out, but I loved every action sequence from the initial landing to the brain bug.
Them getting tattoo’s together always makes me laugh (how many people wanted that tattoo? lol). Ironside’s delivery of “They sucked out his brains” should have earned him an Oscar. “Mobile Infantry made me the man I am today,” is about as dark of a joke you can get in a sci-fi action flick. I use “someone made a big God damn mistake,” on an almost weekly basis. Every single line is so quotable. Just perfect.
I must have watched this movie about twenty times now and it still gives me goosebumps when Johnny Rico is heading to Washout Lane and all the trainee’s rush pass him announcing the war has began. It’s absolutely badass, and encompasses the whole movies attitude.
The film plays so well to every primal instinct, and just wants to have a good time. It’s a great reminder that movies can be fun, no matter the subject. Starship Troopers isn’t a guilty pleasure, it’s a fantastic movie.
