***Minor Spoilers***

Starship Troopers is a movie that is loosely based on Robert A. Heinlein’s book of the same name and follows the story of John ‘Johnny’ Rico from high school student to officer in the Mobile Infantry. Along the way he looses everything dear to him and gains a certain greatness.

This is one of the films that I saw when I was in my mid teens that struck home with me and left a mark on my DNA. Director Paul Verhoven gives us a very brutal society in which public floggings happen, Rico himself receives a flogging, and there’s a huge propaganda machine that is constantly trying to get people to sign up for a term of service which once it is completed they becomes citizens and this means that they have more opportunities. A couple of examples is only a citizen can go into politics and its easier to get a license to have a baby if you’ve served.

The bad guys in this movie are the Bugs. A species of arachnids that are intent on destroying mankind. These bugs are lethal warriors and swarm a battlefield with superior numbers. A single soldier against a bug is in a lot of trouble. The battle scenes are brutal and are quite bloodthirsty, so this is not one for the faint hearted. The actors pull off their roles very well in my opinion. Casper Van Dien, Jake Busey, Denise Richards carry the film well and Michael Ironside brings a little maturity to the movie and a little gruff, take no sh*t character which has a huge influence on Van Dien’s character of Johnny Rico.

There are those moments in the movie where you think ‘Yeah right, there’s no way that’s possible’ but those are few and far between and do not dilute the movie. The effects are generally pretty good and the visuals are memorable but not dominant. I remember the story and performances from the actors when I think of this film.

Starship Troopers had a very satisfactory ending for me. It wrapped up its story arcs very well and left me feeling like the tide in the war against the bugs had began to turn.

On a side note there is a scene during the soldiers basic training where they are all in a uni-sex shower room. All the actors are naked and I’ve heard this rumour a few times, but apparently the actors agreed to do the scene naked if the director filmed it naked. I love a bit of trivia 🙂