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GalahadPC
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
380 Posts |
 Posted - 08/19/2007 : 6:31:43 PM
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Starship Troopers occupies a strange kind of limbo for me. It's by no stretch a good movie, yet it's not quite horrible either. It's not at the level of Alien 3 as Food reviewed it, where the good things are done very well but a few other things are done very badly. In fact, there are a solid list of things that are done very badly, but the good stuff isn't so exceptional or interesting that it's worth noting scene by scene. A Jabootu review (at least any that I could write), would be incomplete, the movie rich with veins of godawful material at the beginning, but eventually fading to unremarkable competence, leaving this writer with little to add.
But, since I already invested hours of my life watching the movie and writing this junk down (I actually thought I could do a whole review before I began), it would seem a shame not to do something with it. It's just rough, incomplete, unfunny, and I have no desire to finish it. But at least I've managed to add screencaps, which might provide some amusement. And at a couple kilobytes each, why that's a darned economical way of covering up for my slacked writing!
And yet...
There is something in this movie that simply makes it impossible for me to leave it alone - the wonderfully Jabootuan commentary track, provided by director Paul Verhoeven and writer Edward Neumeier. Listening to the commentary is a profound experience, as the viewer begins to realize how seriously these two take the politics of their movie, and how completely they convince themselves that this is a meaningful work of art that they have created. And so, while I have this standard-style recap review punched up, within a few more days I intend to add some thorough commentary of my own, based on the, erm... "enlightening" ideas expressed by the filmmakers. If you want to skip this initial abortive review and see a selection of critical ammuni... I mean, material from the DVD commentary, it's right there at the bottom.
But for the time being, here's the first attempt.. Consider it a placeholder, or maybe a warm-up exercise. But hey, I've got screencaps!
*******
The beginning is simple, almost deceptively so. Over a subdued, somber military drumroll, we're shown only the names of the production companies and title. The title doesn't fly out at the viewer or explode or anything.
Any illusions that this movie might be a grave, thoughtful work is immediately and cruelly dashed only seconds later, when we're treated to a broadcast by the Federal Network, it's logo featuring a golden extremely stylized eagle (imagine a silhouette of a jumbo jet with a big blocky wart on the side of its nose and you're not far off) over a spinning globe. Said broadcast is basically an advertisement for military service, the narrator boasting of proud young people from all across the globe signing up for service, as we see rank and file by the hundreds. Several soldiers are highlighted as they turn to the camera and say "I'm doing my part" (not exactly "be all you can be" or "army of one" as recruitment catchphrases go), before a pre-teen boy steps in front of his rank to say the same, much to the mirth of the assembled troops. "Join the Mobile Infantry and save the world," the narrator announces with jackhammer subtlety, followed by the far more significant tagline, "service guarantees citizenship."
This is followed up by a news report on the planet Klendathu and its neighboring asteroid belt, providing the "bugs" with the weapons they use to attack Earth, and reinforcing the need for Klendathu's destruction for the salvation of the human race. The feed cuts live to an invasion of Klendathu, where a reporter has all of ten seconds to speak before one of the bug warriors - imagine a pair of mottled green wirecutters on four insect legs about the size of a small truck, and you have the basic idea - picks him up, thrashes him around for a bit, then snaps him in half. Variations on this will occur on a routine basis throughout the movie, so rather than point out each gruesome death, how about you just assume there there's a whole bunch of it in any of the battle scenes, 'kay? Troopers rush up to empty several dozen rounds into it (and the fact that six soldiers with automatic weapons don't appear to be achieving squat bodes ill for our side of things), which ends with our hero - the extremely white Johnny Rico - screaming for the cameraman to get away, just before we see him get speared through the thigh by some long, pointy portion of the bug's anatomy. The resulting hole looks big enough to have left almost no flesh left, so it's surprising the whole leg doesn't just fall off. Meanwhile, as Johnny screams in agony before the fallen camera, I just noticed the dramatic, action-filled stings of the soundtrack, which seem pretty damn superfluous right at this moment.
One Year Earlier
A pale white hand is sketching two faces looking at each other in profile - a man and woman - directly on a monitor. The annoyed voice of Michael Ironside (YAY!) barks with mounting frustration, "Rico... Rico!" as we're treated to the chiseled, white, and way-the-hell-too-old-for-high-school features of Casper van Diem, aka Johnny Rico, intent on his masterful work on his desk. Ironside finally has to bellow before Rico snaps out of his haze (mayhaps explaining why he's been held back a handful of years), and thanks to the stump of Ironside's missing left forearm, we presume he's playing the part of Dubois, Rico's one-armed History and Moral Philosophy instructor... except that Rico immediately apologizes to "Mr. Rascak."
Rascak handily sums up the year's worth of classes (and coincidentally, sums up all the history of this future world that we're going to get in the whole dang movie), highlighting the failure of democracy and the social scientists who brought the world into chaos, and how veterans took over and imposed the lasting peace they enjoy today. As he wraps up by asking the class if they've learned anything of value, Rico immediately shuts him out and resumes his masterpiece, looking up briefly to catch Carmen (Denise Richards), the model for his female representation, looking vacuous enough to float away on a stiff breeze. Hilariously, as she turns to Johnny, she does so in the most lifeless, robotic manner possible, with her wierd pointed nose upward, and pouty lips perpetually parted just like they'll be for almost the entire damn movie. For God's sake, it makes Denise look like she can't even turn her head and smile in any believable way.
I'm also just reminded of something else that will happen through the movie. Much like the history lesson here, there are going to more than a few moments of character and setting development that get all of five seconds' attention before being kicked out the door, never to be heard from again. The history lesson is just the first of these. None of this stuff really matters in the plot of the movie. Honestly, it makes me wonder why Verhoeven even bothered getting the rights to do a Starship Troopers adaptation if he's going to dispense so utterly with the heart of the book. Why not just make a new movie about whatever he wanted to make it about, hm?
Rascak begins asking why only citizens are allowed to vote. Getting no satisfactory answer to this, he then explains that exercising political control is force, which is violence, the supreme authority. He goes on to make the fairly interesting assertion that force has solved more problems than any other power in history, and those who forget that will ultimately suffer. Meanwhile, we're pulled away from this genuinely engaging bit of debate to see that Johnny's sent Denise an animation of his completed drawing... the faces are colored in and move together, closing their eyes and opening their mouths to kiss. Or so I presume. I must also presume that Johnny's a horrible kisser, since his drawings open their mouths wide enough to take a sizable bite of a fully-stacked sub sandwich between the two of them. She sends back her own version of the girl blowing bubble gum into the boy's face. Johnny's reaction to this lame gag amuses Carmen, much as she might be with the average "ball-to-the-groin" shots in the halcyon days of America's Funniest Home Videos, being played by Denise Richards and all. Rascak finally concludes his lesson by asking what the difference is between a citizen and a civilian. Johnny wakes up again and answers from the textbook - citizens are willing to take responsibility and defend the body politic with their lives, while civilians do not. When he can't answer Rascak's question about whether he believes or understands it, Rascak admits his disgust at his whole class before dismissing them for the year. Johnny and Carmen pause in the hallway to make out for a bit, before Carmen stops and tells him "not here." (So why did she start with him in the first place? Jerk.) They go outside to check their test scores... which are outside... for some reason.
A generic view of gleaming skyscrapers and flying cars informs us that this is taking place in some sort of future world... you know, for those of us who weren't tipped off by the war against asteroid-throwing bug aliens, and the name Starship Troopers. In what may be the school's quad, Carmen excitedly runs to a wall of monitors to check on her math score, which helpfully displays her name and percentage (97% for Denise Richards!) for all passersby to see. While she runs off to ask about a friend who got into the fleet, Johnny checks his score - a meager 35%. Carlos (Neil Patrick Harris) hops up, and proving to be the worst best friend possible, expands Johnny's score so that it takes up the entire wall. Much mockery ensues - even Carmen seems to find this entertaining - with best-buddy Carl taking center stage.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v475/GalahadPC/Starship%20Troopers%20Review/03-Thisreallyissciencefiction.jpg[/IMG]
This really is science fiction!
Three things came to mind at this point:
1 - Carl's a colossal ass. The fact that he's Johnny's best friend doesn't say much for Johnny's social skills.
2 - Having all the actual teenagers in this scene makes it really apparent that Johnny and company look old enough to have graduated several years ago.
3 - I don't think anybody else checking their scores appreciated having their work interrupted for Carl's shallow gag. Ass.
The following minutes are typical teenage drama stuff. Johnny likes Carmen, no they haven't gotten nekkid yet, some Frizzy Redhead from their class also likes Johnny, Frizzy Redhead makes a dig at Carmen, blah blah BLAH blah. The only good part of this is Johnny assuring Carmen that she'll get to be a pilot. "I mean, imagine flying a half a million tons of starship," she says dreamily.
Yes, imagine a future where Denise Richards is qualified to pilot a front-line warship of the military.
Next up is some manner of biology class, where students pair off to dissect alien beetles the size of large dogs. When Johnny makes a remark to Carmen about it being "just a bug," the blind teacher passing by immediately (and I mean immediately) launches into an obviously-rehearsed and scoffing lecture about the superiority of insect life - including how their lack of ego or fear of death makes them the perfect selfless member of society. [This is a bit of a kick in the teeth, for reasons I'll get to with my next installment.] Carmen tries to argue (feebly, of course) on the side of human merits: art, literature, technology and whatnot; while trying not to get sick from everybody around her madly ripping out bug guts. Exactly what they're supposed to be learning, I have no clue.
The teacher then proceeds to discuss the merits of Klendathu's Arachnids (note by the way that these "arachnids" have only four legs each), somehow activating a holographic display that produces an image and data for said Arachnid with just a wave of her cane. Meanwhile, her ramblings seem to have nothing to do with biology and everything to do with psychology, sociology, and politics, making me wonder if she's wandered into the wrong classroom by mistake and everybody's being too polite to tell her. The scene concludes with Johnny piling organ guts into Carmen's hands until she finally blows chunks at the camera and runs out of the room.
It occurs to me that Carmen can't even defend the human race in an argument, nor can she stomach encountering harmless dead creatures that pale before the Arachnid menace... and then she goes and enlists right after high school. Anybody else see what's wrong with this? Is there such a thing as true unintentional irony?
After school, Johnny and Carl are hanging out in Carl's nerd basement. They're sitting on opposite sides of a desk, with a computer monitor facing Carl. Rather redundantly, there's another monitor on the wall behind Johnny with the exact same display - specifically, pairs of playing cards. Carl's administering a sort of psychic test, concentrating on card images and seeing if Johnny can guess them, with the ever-superfluous computer technology helpfully displaying a "no match" message, in case we couldn't notice that Johnny's guesses weren't matches. Another throwaway plot point takes the form of a discussion about the emergence of psychic humans, before Carl decides to temporarily dispatch his pet... I don't know, weasel? Ferret? I can't really tell rodent-like things apart - by giving him the psychic impression of where he can find some food. If I understand right, Verhoeven and Neumeier did this bit to prove Carl's actually a bit of an ass, since the whole "math score" thing might not have been enough.
Speaking of which, Carl's assery is yet another throwaway piece of development. No bearing on the movie whatsoever.
Now wer're watching some sort of indoor football game, where Carmen's cheering Johnny on. He's making a run with the ball, slamming aside one defender after another, until one tries to make a flying tackle and Johnny's stunt double does a somersault WAY the hell over him. Johnny scores, spikes the ball, and an announcer gives us the time and totals, while also informing us that this is the Buenos Aires Sports Arena.
Yes, Buenos Aires, Argentina. An Argentina of the future, where everybody's bleached white, speaks with flawless American accents, and are named John instead of Juan.
Carmen helps up the formerly airborne tackler, a slightly less white and lantern-jawed chap who flirts with her, impressing her with the fact that he's shipping out for fleet training the very next day, then gets accosted by Johnny before they take their places on the field. As Johnny blissfully spaces out in Carmen's direction, Flying Tackler bowls him over, receives a pass, knocks over a couple of guys, and... scores. Altogether, the play takes about ten seconds. What's even better, each score counts as five points . Judging from the current scores hovering around forty points each, I guess a whole game doesn't take more than fifteen minutes to play at this pace.
Johnny gets into a team huddle, but is busy watching Carmen and FT flirt. The team quarterback, none other than Frizzy Redhead, who's finally identified as "Diz," justifies my own sophomoric infatuation with red-haired women by sharply smacking Johnny upside his head to get his attention.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v475/GalahadPC/Starship%20Troopers%20Review/02-DizclobbersJohnnyprovingwhyredhe.jpg[/IMG]
More proof that redheads are just plain awesome.
At the snap, Johnny rushes forward, does another Crouching Tiger over the heads of three defenders (you'd think they'd be looking out for that sort of thing by now), catches a pass, and gets tackled by FT just as he scores yet again (!). Approximate total time for the play: 20 seconds. Yes folks, football of the future is just that easy! Johnny's team wins, hurrah hurrah, FT gets ticked, and so forth.
Cut to the absolutely palatial Rico household, where Johnny's straightening his formal white shirt and bow tie in front of a mirror. His mother walks up, and in true motherly fashion, marvels at what a man her little boy's become. "Who said you could grow up so fast?" she wistfully asks. Of course, in most cases this would be a rhetorical question, but she may have a legitimate concern here - Johnny's grown at least twenty-five years' worth before he's finished high school. Father shows up and gripes about an enlistment pamphlet that came in the mail, and Johnny confesses that he's considering Federal service. More of the usual; mom and dad don't want little Johnny going off to die just so he can have the right to vote and such, and try to sway him back to the original plan of attending Harvard by revealing their graduation surprise: an outer space vacation. Mom deludes herself into thinking that somehow settles the issue, despite Johnny not really saying anything one way or the other.
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"Lots of guys take ten years to finish high school, dad!"
It's the big school dance now, and we quickly see that the filmmakers even provided a painfully untalented live band for that touch of authenticity. Lots of "teen" *cough* drama between Johnny, Carmen and Diz, and yes, it's all pretty pointless. Johnny breaks off to chat with a much-friendlier Rascak about joining the military, affording us an all too brief respite with Michael Ironside. Resume drama, with FT, now identified as Zander, flirting with Carmen in his fleet academy uniform. Once Zander gets brushed aside, Rico joins Carmen for the last dance and tells her about his decision to join up. She then volunteers vital information that her home is vacated for the evening, implying that she's going to let him do the humpty hump with her.
Throwaway elements: four and counting.
Oh, wait. I think there actually was a purpose for their impending copulation, because according to the commentary, Verhoeven was making the worn-out point that sex is basically the primitive reward for male aggression. There's two things wrong with this though. First, it's the kind of generalization that's so broad as to be largely meaningless, since it'll be wrong as often as (or more often than) not. Second, who, watching this movie, would really give a rat's ass about this out of place bit of anthropological conjecture? Really, the only way the audience would realize Verhoeven had a point to make is if the bottom of the screen flashed "IMPORTANT SOCIOPOLITICAL STATEMENT" at the end of this scene, like they might have done in Wayne's World.
In fact, I stopped to imagine ust that, and it made me smile. Also note that at this point I started watching the movie at 1.5x speed with subtitles on. I really want this to be over faster. Also, the chipmunk voices everybody has proves to be some of the only genuine entertainment I can squeeze out of this.
We're spared the sight of Denise Richards smearing her bloated lips over Casper's slablike face and parts beyond, as we cut to swearing-in of Federal service applicants the next day. And... holy smokes, I had no idea Buenos Aires would be full of so many white people. Johnny, Carl, and Carmen go up to an old solidier at a reception desk to give him their papers identifying the branches of service they've been accepted into. Carmen's going for navy pilot (Denise is playing a space cadet - unintentional irony strikes again), Carl gets bumped up from research to intelligence of the military variety, and Rico's signing on for the infantry. The old soldier approves of all these, but especially beams at Rico's choice, telling him "Mobile Infantry made me the man I am today," raising up his artificial hand to shake Johnny's, then pushing himself away from the desk to reveal his missing legs. Okay, now that part is supposed to be ironic. Are you doing that knowing smirk thing that people do whenever they catch the subtle and clever joke? Are you? Because you're supposed to at this point.
And what's really ironic is that the filmmakers' "clever irony" here wasn't even their own idea, really. It was one of the few details pulled from the book, but with the meaning reversed... which just makes this little scene twice as sad.
Playing this movie in fast forward causes me to nearly lose track with the throwaway count after the next couple scenes . We blow past a bit where Carmen wants to do some silly "eternal friends" vow with Johnny and Carl, and then we see Johnny packing his stuff while arguing with his parents. So I think we're up to six now.
Carmen and Johnny meet up one more time at the Federal building before catching their outbound transports. "My dad helped me pack," Carmen dizzily mentions. "It's like suddenly he's afraid he's never going to see me again or something." Yeah, those silly parents worrying about their kids being sent off to war. Johnny in turn decides to inform Carmen about his father disowning him. She replies with "I'm sorry your parents are mad," said with the same conviction as though she was saying "I'm sorry I sneezed on your cheese sandwich," or "I'm sorry about that rash I gave you." Goodbye I love you blah blah, then she steps into the back end of a subway-type tram and it launches itself away abruptly enough to have left Carmen and everybody else inside a pulpy mass against the back wall.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v475/GalahadPC/Starship%20Troopers%20Review/05-ImsorryImsuchalousyactress.jpg[/IMG]
"I'm sorry I'm such a lousy actress."
Time for an update from FedNet, which means we might be seeing something worth watching! First up is a propoganda bit about "a world that works" and "making a better tomorrow," while some infantrymen let a bunch of eager children play with their guns, and hand out bullets to them. No, I don't get it either. I'm sure it's supposed to be yet another wild stab at irony, but it's clear at this point that it's just not going to happen by design in this movie. Next up, a murderer was caught in the morning, convicted as soon as he stepped in front of the judge to the robotic applause of the gallery, and his execution is set to be broadcast that evening. Ironic justice! Next, a very brief bit about psychic testing. And now, we come to actual news - after reminding us how dangerous the Arachnids are by showing a clip of a captured bug warrior slaughtering a cow (with a big "censored" banner over the cow as it's being bloodily enthusiastically dismembered), we're told that Mormon extremists disregarded federal warnings and went into the quarantine zone to establish Fort Joe Smith (I kid thee not), the footage even showing the statue of the angel Moroni that adorns Mormon temples.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v475/GalahadPC/Starship%20Troopers%20Review/01-FortJoeSmith.jpg[/IMG]
Umm... yeah...
The view then cuts to the massacred inhabitants, who had inadvertently chosen a bug world for their colony.
Throwaway count: nine.
Back to the story. New recruits are being lined up at camp, with the very white and non-Japanese Career Sergeant Zim explaining why they can all expect shortened lifespans, and whacking them all with a metal baton for even the slightest imperfection. Pretty much like real drill sergeants, from what I've been informed. His menace is undercut by the fact that he doesn't actually look or sound particularly imposing, as drill sergeants go. (That probably isn't the actor's fault, since R. Lee Ermey set an outrageously high standard in that department.) It could also be because I'm now playing the movie at double speed, so now he sounds like that guy from the old Micro Machines commercials.
Anyhoo, he challenges one of the recruits to take him on, hand-to-hand, and, true to the book, an enormous American southerner steps up. Zim rather quickly gets him onto the ground, and deliberately and unneccessarily snaps the boy's arm. He calls over a medic, then proceeds to explain to the recruits, "Pain is in your mind." I must say that it's not the most enlightening or useful mantra, since while it's true that pain is in your mind, damage and incapacitation are not, and pain is supposed to signal you to those things. I suspect that while a good soldier doesn't let pain slow him down, he doesn't ignore it either. But I don't make movies, so what the hell do I know?
At this point in the book, recruit Shujumi steps up and engages in a more formal match with Zim. Instead, Diz walks up to the sergeant, informing him that she's requested a transfer from her old camp, since she's heard Arthur Currie was the best of the lot. She manages to trade a couple blows with the sergeant, but once he gets her on the ground, he plants a knee into her neck until she passes out. Johnny is amused at this, the bastard.
Chow time, and after some friendly banter among the recruits, Diz asks to sit beside Johnny. He turns her down, apparently upset that she'd decided to join the MI to tag along with him. She gets disgusted and stalks away, which is certainly the most restrained reaction I can imagine to Johnny's continuing bastardry. This scene is followed up with basic training shenanigans, consisting primarily of Johnny competing with Ace, another of the recruits, and both of them getting shown up by Diz. Next is knife throwing practice, and when Ace asks the sergeant why they need practice with knives to prepare for a "nuke fight," when you just have to press buttons. Zim tells Ace to hold his hand up to a nearby wall, and then throws a knife through it. While Ace's bloody hand is stapled to the wall (and he keeps tugging at his wrist to free himself, instead of taking the knife out - but then, if he did, we'd realize real quick how fake the hand is), Zim turns to the recruits and says "The enemy cannot push a button if you disable his hand." And while I paused to type all this, it's really obvious that the fake hand is balloonish and off-color to the rest of the somewhat pink-skinned Ace.
Naked shower scene! Not much to see here, just more banter, particularly of the sort where everybody talks about why they sign up. The fact that they're all naked together would conduce this sort of personal exhange I'm sure, since it doesn't really leave any secrets left. The Spartans were probably on to something in that regard. Oh, and apparently one woman wants citizenship so she'll have an easier time getting a licence to have children. That's ten.
Johnny's at the barracks, recording a message for Carmen. Meanwhile, the recruits are acting like complete buffoons, although it turns out Ace isn't a bad violin player. Carmen's watching in her monitor, and just as Johnny's signed off, another uniformed woman trots into the room, informing her that they're due to launch in five minutes. They race through some corridors to their shuttle, complete with Carmen sliding down a rail like a frickin' kindergartener. (Truly hilarious is that Denise can't even pull off this either! The nameless extra racing with her shows more childlike enthusiasm than Denise.)
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v475/GalahadPC/Starship%20Troopers%20Review/07-Weepforthefutureofmankind.jpg[/IMG]
Weep for the future of mankind.
As they're about to launch, a couple last-minute passengers jump aboard, with one of them exclaiming "Oh, no! Not Ibanez again! She's crazy!" broadly signaling that she's the stereotypical hotshot maverick type, and be assured I'm going to bitch about this a wee bit in part 2.
The shuttle's hatch closes, and with all of ten seconds of checks, the car-sized shuttle launches down a track from a hangar. It emerges into space at the end of the tube, and as rocket away from the lunar surface, they "deploy wings" ... which aren't aerodynamic enough to be wings, and don't appear to actually use any thrust apparatus for maneuvering in a vacuum. But I don't make movies, so... you know.
They head up to what looks like a ring built around the moon, but rather than fly around it to the other side, Carmen chooses to fly through its superstructure like she was making a run on the Death Star's power plant. Carmen's co-pilot asks why she's in such a good mood (what, like we've ever seen her with any kind of weighty thougts in her head?) and Carmen replies that today she gets to fly "that," rolling the shuttle so everybody can get a good look at a cruiser docked at the ring. Said ship will later be identified as the Rodger Young.
Carmen strides aboard the bridge, and reports to the captain for her assignment, her salute representing the only time during the entire movie that she keeps her lips closed. When she takes the pilot's seat, Zander dramatically pivots around to reveal himself in the co-pilot's position, serving as her assistant flight instructor. Carmen's appropriately surprised, but apparently Zander had arranged for this, which doesn't appear to strike her as even wierder, perhaps creepier, than a chance meeting. She's given clearance to depart, and wisecracks that her supervisors could never keep up in simulation, to which Zander sagely reminds her that it's not simulation anymore. Carmen can't resist showing off regardless, and damn near scrapes the bow of the ship onto one of the docking pylons as she backs out of the ship's parking space. Apparently this is to show us how "good" she is. Zander nervously reminds her not to exceed port speed, or both of them will lose their flight status. Carmen wryly notes "your career is in my hands." Zander has no reply, but the distant look on his face and slight grinding of his jaw says it all.
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Having his career in Denise Richards' hands fills Zander with confidence!
Back at Arthur Currie, the recruits are playing a ramped-up verson of laser tag. One can't help but notice that the laser bursts aren't coming straight from the barrels, which happens a lot in movies and such, but is especially glaring here. Diz and Johnny's team is in a bind, so she has him do the Jet Li football play from before. Miraculously he doesn't get shot as he charges three defenders head-on, flips over their heads, and shoots them from behind, then grabs one of their guns and proceeds to mow down the remaining enemy groups with two-fisted action and a swell of truimphant music. The sergeants are impressed, so they decide to give him leadership of a squad and see how things turn out.
Carmen sends Johnny a Dear John (heh), informing him that she wants to go career, which won't really leave room for a relationship. "Funny how they always want to be your friends after they rip your guts out," Ace accurately notes. Johnny's down on himself because he thinks he deserves it, since he wouldn't have signed up if not for her, but Ace tries his honest best to remind Johnny that he's succeeding on his own, and suddenly I'm wishing that Ace could have been the hero of this story because I'm finding him so much more likable than Johnny.
The recruits are now taking on an assault course using live ammunition, with pop-up targets firing the kinds of stun beams we saw the recruits with earlier. After a minute or two into the exercise, Diz berates Breckenridge (the large Southerner from the arm-breaking scene) for being too reckless, and he complains that his helmet isn't fitting right. Johnny has Breckenridge take off his helmet so he can adjust it, and another recruit starts arguing with him about being such a screw up. Standing on top of a ridge the way she is, and not paying attention, she naturally gets zapped and drops, for some reason firing her weapon on full auto as she goes down. One round goes straight into Breckenridges forehead, blasting a chunk out of his skull, and after a moment's hesitation, Johnny optimistically calls for a medic instead of a priest.
Johnny gets administrative punishment for giving Breckenridge permission to remove his helmet without the proper qualifications (not that it would have stopped a bullet to the face, but protocol and all). In this case, ten lashes on his bare back before the assembled personnel at the base. Johnny passes out before the sixth lash, and we hear the count continue while the scene cuts to the Rodger Young. It's the night watch, and Carmen's all alone on the bridge (as opposed to the bridge being manned by some sort of night watch crew, one would think). Zander joins her, and notes that she's changed course, which she claims is more efficient. Zander checks the computer and gets a very handy "New course optimal," message, which only begs the question of why they don't always check the computer if it's so definitive about these things. Or hell, just let the computer do the flying.
Just as Zander's about to get his flirt on, they notice a gravity disturbance, and hey! Check out that bigassed asteroid right outside the front window that's headed straight for us! The captain calls in for a report and orders emergency evasion. Carmen gets the controls ready, but for some retarded reason, Zander has her wait for his countdown before firing the thrusters. This last-minute maneuver results in the ship's comm tower (with who knows how many people within) getting snapped clean off by the asteroid. Apparently the asteroid was sent by the bugs, but now the ship can't contact Earth because, you know, communications are literally gone. When one crewman comments "We're lucky to be alive," the captain ignorantly beams, "Luck didn't have anything to do with it. We have a hell of a flight team." She may change her mind as soon as she reviews the logs.
Johnny's packing his bags, and when Diz reminds him that he's still good enough for the MI if it's willing to keep him, he replies with the smartest thing he says in the whole movie - he joined for all the wrong reasons and got a guy killed - which isn't what it takes to make it in the Mobile Infantry. They're interrupted as a sergeant comes to Rico and informs him that his call has been connected. Rico heads to a public terminal and talks with his mom and dad, asking to come back home which they eagerly agree to. Just then, the sky starts getting dark, and rather humorously, mom and dad start to wonder if it's rain (have you heard of a rainstorm that blackens the sky in ten seconds flat?) The video feed fizzles out, with a message from the service that atmospheric interference cut off communications.
Johnny starts to head down Washout Lane out the camp's gate, when shouts of alarm pass through the camp and the drilling recruits gradually are pulled from their formations and exercises to run to a central monitor. Johnny joins them and along with Diz, they learn that an asteroid has just obliterated Buenos Aires. More amazing than the fact that a asteroid was shot across half the galaxy to hit another planet (and without going faster than light, as depicted in its scrape with the Rodger Young) is the abundance of information being presented within literally seconds of the impact. Millions dead, ruins of a city in flames (you'd think an asteroid impact would have left the city a massive crater instead of crumbling buildings and setting them on fire, but there you go), information about how the Arachnids launched it and how they did it, and a vote by the ruling council to go to war. Say what you will about this fascist future world, their media and government are pretty damned efficient.
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City-smashing asteroid impact, or nasty tree fire? You decide tonight, on FedNet Interactive News!
Rico heads back to the camp commander's office and asks to take back his resignation, when the commander and Zim decide to do the Admiral Nelson-style "I don't see any signature on this form" bit as they tear up Rico's paperwork.
Whee! FedNet reports, now with awesome flaming graphics! After a pointless reminder of all the destruction in Buenos Aires (including a snaggle-toothed white man with a dead dog screaming "the only good bug is a dead bug!"), we cut to the Federal council, where the Sky Marshal - apparently the armed forces commander in chief - is giving a generic statement along the lines of ensuring that human civilization continues to dominate the galaxy. We're told that he announced plans for a direct assault against Klendathu. Cut away to a blurb of military intelligence, as Carl demonstrates that you can blow off an Arachnid warrior's limbs without doing too much to impair its fighting ability. His suggestion is to aim for the nerve stem, which kills it completely. Carl demonstrates this as well. Two problems - first, he neglects to mention quite where this nerve stem is, and only seems to be aiming somewhere at the center of the bug's mass. Second, it's pretty damn easy for Carl to tag it in the right spot, what with it being caged up and all... troopers out in the field won't have the luxury of confining the extremely fast and twitchy bug warriors. Next is a bit of "comic" relief - a generic statement about how we all need to keep up the war effort at home, with a shot of neighborhood kids stomping on beetles or some damn thing. More than the absurdity of rounding up these critters just so they can get squished out in the open in broad daylight (which such critters tend not to get caught in) is some psycho mother bouncing and laughing and clapping her hands like she would if she were on some serious drugs. Or perhaps if she were in need of them.
Finally, the broadcast cuts to a live reporter at a fleet base, deep in Arachnid territory. As he brings up the impending invasion of Klendathu, he runs into Camp Arthur Currie's newest products, Ace, Diz, and some other guy, who make some pretty stereotypical tough-soldier talk to the camera about how fun and easy it's all going to be. As they move on, the reporter brings up the opinion that humans provoked the attack by intruding on Bug territory, and that leaving them be is the solution. Rico overhears this, steps in and simply says "I'm from Buenos Aires, and I say kill 'em all!" to the support of the other troopers. The reporter looks back in the camera with what I can only call a skeptical expression. This subtle and cunning insight into the evils of military aggression is further delicately woven in with a pointless scene where Rico and friends decide to get matching tattoos. Because, you know, they're soldiers and they like pain, or something. I'm sure Mr. Verhoeven had a good reason for this scene that I'm just too brainwashed by The Man to understand.
Rico gets interrupted when Carmen calls to him, and they reunite. Carmen's dialogue suggests that she's still sad about her hometown and everybody she knew and loved getting smeared by an asteroid. I might believe her, if she was being played by some manner of actress, instead of an ambulatory blow-up doll. Rico's still upset about their breakup, and she says it's better for them both that way, just as Zander sidles up to her. Carmen tells Rico that she and Zander are a flight team, "the best in the fleet" Zander adds (despite all evidence to the contrary). Rico gets huffy and Zander tries to take Carmen away, making some remark about the Infantry being trained to kill instead of being polite. This is followed with a brawl between the two and some more mudslinging about how Infantry and Fleet don't mix and holy God you couldn't pay me to pretend I give a crap about ANY of this.
So they get around to the tattoos. Eleven. Fleet ships have come into orbit of Klendathu and fighter waves are headed to the surface. Armed M.I. by the hundreds are seen pouring through corridors and into hangars, where they board their dropships. In Rico's transport, we see the troopers strapping into their seats, while their CO gives the simplest orders: "You smash the entire area. Kill anything that has more than two legs." More triumphant music as the dropships are released and begin descending on the planet, while blue fireballs are rising up from the surface.
On the bridge of the Rodger Young, Carmen reports fire from the surface, which Captain Deladrier dismisses as "random and light," according to their intelligence. As the scene goes on, Carmen begins to look a little concerned about the near misses.
Back to the Rodger Young, the infantry CO very inaccurately tells his troops "remember your training, and you will come back alive!" The dropships are descending into the atmosphere (sans any friction, apparently), narrowly avoiding the surface fire. Some of the troops inside are shown getting sick, and one (who would later prove to be Shujumi) gives a cowboy holler. Back above, a small ship next to the Rodger Young gets lit up by surface fire, and it finally dawns on the captain, "This isn't random or light. Somebody made a mistake." A large cruiser is hit and veers away to crash into another, and Deladrier orders Carmen to break off. Carmen deftly manages to dodge the colliding hulks ahead (mad piloting skillz, remember?), although she doesn't appear to be gaining distance like the captain ordered. Anyway, her incompetence is moot when the Rodger Young takes a direct hit and the bridge is engulfed in a wash of white fire. That includes Carmen...
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...who will later emerge amazingly unscathed.
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The dropships are landing on the rocky surface of Klendathu and begin disgorging troopers by the hundreds, who all start running... somewhere... someplace for them to start fighting or... something. The dropships themselves start firing off flare-like rockets at... something... can't really be sure. The troopers all pile up to a ridge, beyond which are a handful of the wirecutter-headed warrior bugs escorting two round, fleshy bugs, each about the size of a moderate suburban apartment building. These things swell up with blue light glowing from their abdomens, before directing their asses upwards and farting out the same fireballs that have been blowing apart the fleet. Rico and another trooper are called up to the ridge with tactical nuclear rockets to blow up the battery bugs. The rockets are fired, veer about wildly in a manner more akin to cheap fireworks than military-grade weaponry, and hit, resulting in two small stereotypical mushroom clouds. The CO orders his company onward, yelling out orders for the different platoons to spread out... and it finally occurs to me that he's not using radio gear of any kind. Finally, CO and his forward troops run into a single warrior bug (wherein a couple of his MI respond by immediately falling backward on their asses), which promptly skewers the CO.
The next few seconds are hilarious for a couple of different reasons. First, Carl's suggestion about "aiming for the nerve stem" is worth jack squat, as a half-dozen or more troopers (standing shoulder to shoulder!) all fire their weapons into this thing with little effect for the first few seconds. Eventually the bug starts to withrdraw, and as the troopers advance, it's plain that their guns are aimed way the hell too high - they're nowhere near where the bug got edited into the shot.
Finally, the bugs start fighting back. Scores of them begin swarming out of the rocks and advancing on the troopers, and squad leader Ace hesitates. Rico picks up the gauntlet with his brilliant "Kill them all!" strategy (seriously, that's what he says yet again). This works out poorly as Shujumi runs way ahead of the rest and gets his leg snapped off before being thrown into - and dismembered by - the advancing horde. Some woman immediately loses her nerve and makes a run for it, but soon the ground collapses under her feet, and a bug comes out of a tunnel to drag her away. Rico, realizing after all of thirty or forty seconds that his plan sucks, orders the squad to fall back. Apparently the only thing soldiers are taught in Verhoeven's Federation is running forward, running backward, and shooting guns, because that seems to be the upper limit of their tactical ability. As Rico moves back, he runs across Diz who's in contact with command, which has also realized how they boned themselves and ordered retreat.
The scene from the beginning repeats itself. This time we get an omniscient perspective, and a real obvious, long look at the cameraman moving in to better film the reporter being thrashed around in bug jaws. The cameraman eventually gets speared as well, and the bug moves on Rico, who, thanks to his magical future-gun, has been able to pour out a few hundred rounds without reloading, or without his gun being stupendously heavy with all this ammunition. The bug seems eventually put down, but in its death throes, does the leg-skewering thing. Johnny goes down as more bugs advance on him, and he shoots back with his pump-action shotgun attachment. Again, this is amusing because he not only squeezes off sixteen shots with this, on top of the hundreds of bullets he had loaded on earlier, but he has to manually rack each shot. Like they won't have automatic shotguns three hundred years from now. Hell, we have them already. It's not enough to stop the bug advance, he screams, and fade to black.
The Federal Network reports in, with the title card in mourning black and white. 100,000 are dead in one hour of fighting, accompanied by shots of a single dead warrior bug with a dozen dead troopers nearby. The military admits underestimating the bugs and the Sky Marshal resigns, being replaced rather conspicuously by a black woman, who puts forth her "new strategy." "To fight the bug, we must understand the bug." And suddenly I'm wishing I was reading Ender's Game again right now...
The next story features debating military analysts, with one (a woman, and therefore the "correct" one) arguing that insects over time will inevitably grow smarter. Her opponent, a bowtied man who looks and sounds like Martin Short impersonating Sylvester the Cat, comes back with "Insects with intelligence? Have you ever met one?" Noble Woman suggests there me be a kind of unknown caste of brain bugs coordinating their actions while Stupid Male is literally offended (his word) at the idea of a bug that thinks.
Back at Station Ticonderoga, the Rodger Young is limping into port with a few other larger ships. The bridge looks remarkably functional considering that last we saw, it was being consumed in alien-spawned hellfire, and Carmen herself is sporting only a single long cut over one eye. The captain and Zander aren't even hurt to that degree. Zander looks over the other battered, burning ships, and wonders at how it all could have happened. "We thought we were smarter than the bugs," Carmen replies, which is great coming from the one actor for whom the idea is indeed dangerously presumptuous. I'll give the movie credit for this... we see that these ships can get wrecked pretty badly while still remaining functional, unlike most sci-fi spaceships that explode at the slightest provocation.
Aboard the base, Carmen and Zander stop to review casualty lists, and Carmen notes that there are almost no wounded. Zander says it's because the bugs don't take prisoners... which doesn't really address her concern, since prisoners would be listed as missing, not wounded, right? Even better, when Carmen calls up the part of the list to look for Rico, we see a number of WIA and MIA, contradicting both of their remarks. Not as many as the dead, but certainly a lot more than "almost none." Carmen gets all upset... I think... and goes off to pout.
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I feel emotions when my friends die... don't I?
Meanwhile, one of the extras in back looks a lot like she's trying not to laugh.
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Yeah, I know.
We immediately cut to Rico floating in a green-lit fluid tank while a robotic arm stitches up the massive, gaping hole in his leg. Ace and Diz come to cheer him up by showing him a printout of his death report and having a great big forced laugh. As they leave, Diz comes back to plant a kiss on the glass of his tank.
Back to trumphant music as the big ships are on their way again, dramatically backlit by binary stars. Also, we can clearly see several figher craft sitting on an exposed flight deck, for God knows what reason. Rico, Ace and Diz are joining a new unit, and Ace gets decked when he mentions hearing that their lieutenant was a "nut buster." The whole unit takes offense, since it seems a good majority of them have been personally saved by the lieutenant, as well as Rico himself. There's a call to attention, and the infantry form into lines as the Lieutenant strides in - showing first a mechanical hand from behind, panning up to a bald pate, and finally cutting in front to reveal Rascak, along with the slim hope that the quality of the dialogue will pick up. He recognizes Rico and Diz, but shows no sign of it, telling the new troops his only rule: "everybody fights, no one quits," and threatens to shoot anyone who doesn't do their job. Then he welcomes them to Rascak's Roughnecks. He gives his troops a quick breakdown of their next attack - the fleet will begin plastering outlying planets one at a time, and the MI will do cleanup.
Cut to a horde of bugs out in the open in a rocky desert. The lead bugs recoil as several fighter craft head in on a low approach and proceed to firebomb them all.
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Air superiority, our bold new strategy!
Out of the smoke, the MI comes lumbering out. Rascak gives the order - find bug holes, and nuke them. As troops begin teaming up and spreading out, a bug pops up in front of Rico's squad, and again demonstrates Arachnid superiority by taking a couple hundred rounds from four fully-automatic weapons before finally dying. One of the troopers, Watkins, goes a little bonkers and keeps shooting the dead bug, spraying himself with its green blood. A bug hole is spotted, and Rico fires another tac nuke into it, causing it to erupt in flames and take a few emerging warrior bugs along the way. Somehow this also causes the ground to explode in a series of waves.
Rico's squad hears that there's been open contact nearby, and run to assist, finding a couple dozen other troopers surrounding a pile of dead bugs, and a couple live ones. The ground cracks significantly behind them. (And I don't mean that it cracks a lot, I mean that the camera angle ensures we know it's a significant bit of foreshadowing.) After the warrior bugs are put down, the cracked ground erupts, and a tank bug emerges. Think of a long beetle roughly four times the size of a semi and that sprays napalm, and you have the right idea. It proceeds to send the troopers scattering even before it does anything, and when it does, it's napalm spittle melts the arm arm off of the corporal. Johnny manages to get onto a ridge above the thing and jump onto its back, and for a couple minutes we try and get excited as he shoots a hole in its back and drops a grenade in, making the abdomen explode and covering Rico in orange goo. Rascak asks Rico where he learned to do that and Rico answers "Back in school. Don't you remember? I was captain of the team." I'm not sure how this applies, since arena football doesn't really prepare one to ride the backs of giant bugs (bullriding, or surfing maybe), and even with the football, he certainly didn't seem to be the one in charge of anything, the way Diz was delightfully smacking him around. Anyway, Rascak needs a new corporal and names Rico, who in turn has Diz take his place as squad leader.
That night at camp, Rascak has a couple of futuro-crates brought in, and proceeds to distribute beer from one and entertainment (musical instruments, footballs, etc.) from the other. Ace picks up a neon-green plastic violin (FUTURE!) and happily goes to town with it. Rico and another Roughneck discuss Rascak a little before Diz asks Rico to dance, which he's not in the mood for, so she takes off with the sergeant instead. Rascak comes to Rico and gives him some overdue advice: "Never pass up a good thing." Rico decides on that dance with Diz after all, and I find myself genuinely amused for the first time in this movie when Ace passes by with his violin, deliberately and blatanly intruding on their space for a brief serenade. A perfunctory sex scene follows, with some teasing and boobies and other things that eat up screen time. As they're in the sack, Rascak comes in to tell them they have to pack up in ten minutes to answer a distress call, and noticing Diz in bed with Rico, gives them twenty instead. I remember this being greeted by applause in the theater on opening night. Now I just wonder. Also, that's thirteen, I think?
Off at another rocky, dry world, the troopers are headed thorugh a canyon, and the sergeant is ordered to higher ground to get a better signal. This makes him prime bait for a dragonfly-like bug that snatches him up and takes him up to a remote ledge where it can more easily stab him bunches of times. Rascak takes another trooper's rifle and shoots the radioman dead (and not the bug, strangely enough), significantly stating "I would expect anybody in this unit to do the same for me," somewhat ruining the pathos later when Rico has to shoot Rascak later to end his suffering. Sorry for blowing the surprise. Rico gets field promoted again to replace a dead guy. Rico seems happy with this, pattern recognition not being his strongest suit, apparently.
They soon find their goal, a pre-fab fort built up against the end of the canyon. Quickly getting inside and spreading out, they find dozens of butchered troopers, and a quick search of the buildings reveals the tunnel the bugs used to dig up into the mess hall. Diz calls Rascak over to a a man dead at the radio, with a gaping tennis-ball sized hole in the top of his head. Rascak digs some of his mechanical fingers around in the wound, and somberly tells Rico "they sucked his brains out." Meanwhile, I'm simply stunned at Michael Ironside's ability to utter this line without the barest hint of a giggle.
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"I think I can see why you haven't had any good ideas lately, Mr. Verhoeven."
Almost immediately, there's a ruckus coming from a closet, and several troopers surround it and break it open, as one General Owens falls out. Rascak disgustingly orders the General picked up, and as they move on, the general goes way the hell out of his way to explain that he had to hide for the sake of the Federation, to keep his operational knowledge secure. As they get back to the radio, Owens explains that the bugs got into the radioman's brain and controlled him, sending out the call as a trap. They want to capture and study humans to understand them. Not that their ignorance has stopped them from kicking our asses.
Rascak orders a call for retreival and for the troops to prepare for attack, while Owens follows him outside and randomly freaks out and I swear to God I am so damned sick of the "cowardly leader" cliche. Moments later, bugs are sighted and the troops begin firing off the walls at the hundreds of warriors massing against them. A handful of fliers show up as well, neatly decapitating a couple troopers, but Rico tags one in the wing with his magic shotgun and it careens into the general, leaving only a bloody smear on the ground. Ace is most amused by this. Presumably, we're supposed to be as well. Instead, I just imagine the vengeful revenant of Heinlein bursting out of his grave, and proceeding to stalk Verhoeven and Neumeier across the world, seeking retribution for the world he created being made into such a mockery, what with his battle-hardened and experienced leaders being turned into cartoonish stereotypes. Also, the character is at least the third strike on the deliberate irony count.
The next several minutes are pretty bland, review-wise. The bugs start piling up on top of their own corpses to gain the wall, just as a call it put through to Rodger Young. Diz requests the retrieval boat to come down on the compound, which the guy on the other end says is crazy. Diz suggests they send "a crazy pilot." Ugh...
Rascak has the troops fall back from the wall, and out of nowhere, people finally start running out of ammunition. What's great about this is that they start passing spare ammo to each other, and judging by the size of the shell casings and the magazines themselves, each clip might hold fifty rounds or so, instead of the hundreds they've been pouring out thus far. No miniature caseless rounds here, these are full-fledged slugs they're throwing.
Eventually, a boat touches down and Zander comes barreling out to join in the firefight. As troopers begin loading up, a hole opens up under Rascak and a few others, and something under the dirt mangles up the lieutenant. Rico and Diz get a hold of him and pull him up, but he's gone from the waist down. He says he knows what Rico has to do, and with just a little hesitation, Rico shoots the Lieutenant. As the last troopers retreat, a tank bug pulls itself out of the hole. Diz somehow kills it by throwing a grenade down its throat, but as she heads back, she gets lanced by a warrior. Ace and Rico drive it back and shoot off its limb (which they then pull out of Diz) and drag her back to the boat, along with Zander. After this narrow escape, we cut to the inside of the boat where Diz is dying. "It's all right, because I got to have you," is all she has to say, and we pity that she has such low standards for her quality of life.
Zander joins Carmen in the cockpit and lets her know Rico's alive, who joins them soon after. He requests that fleet bombard the planet, but gets a negative from the Rodger Young, who welcomes them back. "The MI do the dying, while the Fleet just does the flying," Johnny pissily tosses off, but Carmen tells him that something's up. HQ has plans for Planet P, and there's a big operation coming up, as a couple dozen large warships are now magically before them, in a ridiculously tightly-packed formaton considering how easily they were shot down at Klendathu. And considering how, you know, space lends itself to a bit more elbow room. Johnny finally deals with it and heads back.
Rico conducts the burial detail of Diz, says some junk, and the casket gets shot out into space. Carl shows up and is greeted by Johnny and Carmen, and Carl confirms knowledge that Planet P was a trap. The others don't approve, and Carl simply tells them to shove off - the war is about numbers, survival of the species - and he doesn't need this crap because every day Carl has to make decision that send hundreds to their deaths. Johnny's turn to get pissy as he replies "Didn't they tell you Colonel? That's what the Mobile Infantry is good for." Carl approves, since the Roughnecks are headed back to the planet, and Rico gets another promotion while he's at it, right up to lieutenant.
Back on Planet P, at another fort, Rico's inspecting his new troops, commenting on their youth. Apparently the situation is getting desperate enough to enlist teenage boys, and I just don't care about any of this. Seriously, there's nothing worth commenting on beyond this point except for a ridiculous bit where Zander and Carmen are taken before a brain bug. As the brain bug extends a proboscis from a suspiciously vaginal opening in order to spear Zander's cranium, he manages to produce and toss a knife to Carmen, rather than use it himself. This handily allows him to die and clear up that whole "love triangle" thing, Pearl Harbor-style. After ickily draining Zander's head, the brain bug goes for Carmen, bringing to mind the Futurama gag where a brain slug attaches itself to Fry and dies of starvation. Carmen uses the knife to cut off the brain bug's sucking straw and makes a break for it before running into Rico and his rescue squad. There's some suggestion later that Carl had a hand in psychically guiding Rico to Carmen. Not that any of this matters anymore, I'm done.
*******
And for those of you who had the patience to actually read all that (or just decided to skip to the bottom)...
BONUS: NOTES FROM THE COMMENTARY TRACKS!
Verhoeven and Neumeier insist that the theme of the movie was that war makes fascists of us all, but apparently some critics didn't get it because they thought the movie was just a brain-dead exercise in special effects. Silly critics.
If you see a black uniform, you should know "bad, bad, bad." It is indeed, very simple, as Verhoeven says.
In the classroom scenes, Verhoeven believes this provides some break from the movie's politics, then Neumeier has to jump in and remind him that this is where all the politics are founded. Verhoeven actually makes this mistake twice, forgetting the purpose of scenes he created himself.
But wait, "this movie is ultimately not about politics, its about giant insects." Verhoeven's words.
The adults are all scarred and blinded, and the kids are beautiful and innocent. "Maybe that's the metaphor for growing up," one of them mentions. Maybe? It's their danged movie, shouldn't they know better than anybody?
Apparently it was difficult for audiences to understand a girl who might like two guys, and Carmen was hated by audiences around the world for it. Two scenes got deleted because nobody could handle being confronted by her kissing another guy. "These things happen in real life, but in the movies you're not supposed to like two people," they say. Or rather, a girl isn't supposed to like two guys. They consider this a double-standard, since nobody minded Johnny being torn between Carmen and Diz... except for one crucial detail Verhoeven and Neumeier fail to catch: Johnny isn't pursuing Carmen and Diz at the same time, as Carmen does with Johnny and Zander.
"If you're rich, you don't have to be a citizen, which comes straight from Heinlein's book." Or so they say. I must have missed that part the half-dozen times I read it.
The prom music composed by the daughter of the film's composer. From the sound of the prom music, maybe talent doesn't run in families after all.
Audiences wanted Carmen to die for what she does at the prom, dancing with both Johnnie and rival Zander. "Johnnie has two girls, and nobody thinks he should die." Except he doesn't like them both at the same time. Dur!
The Mormon extremists setting up their colony basically started the war. "Mormon settlers being killed was extremely popular in Salt Lake city." It shows the Mormons have a sense of humor, they figured. I have two other thoughts to the contrary... One, a sizable portion of Salt Lake's population is sharply polarized between devout Mormons and equally devout anti-Mormons, and the first group would not be attending any screening of this movie. Two, any actual Mormons in that audience were probably snickering at the absurdity of "Fort Joe Smith," which is about as authentic as the Catholics establishing a colony called "Fort Johnny Paul." Not that Verhoeven cared enough to consider things like that, from the sound of it.
The female hotshot pilot (Carmen) and female captain (Deladrier) were meant by our forward-thinking filmmakers to show gender equality. First, in 1997 this was not nearly the brilliant and revolutionary idea Verhoeven and Neumeier seem to think it is. It was, however, faily revolutionary in the '50s, when the book was written, with Carmen as a transport pilot and Deladrier as a navy captain. So far our commentators have proven a knack for crediting Heinlein with stuff he never really focused on, while taking credit themselves for his good ideas. Bravo.
The red team/blue team training exercise at Camp Arthur Currie is an homage to The Dirty Dozen. I swear to God, that's what they say.
Again, Carmen is a super-feminist, strong and putting her career first. Meanwhile, test audience objections crossed gender, race, and nationality - everybody hated Carmen. Maybe feminism's had it's day and passed in America, they actually think. But wait, wouldn't it be strange that Thailand hates Carmen too? "Maybe we should have had Carmen grovel in every scene," is their snide and ignorant solution. Oh, but wait again, people liked Dizzy and she's a very strong female character. And in all of this back and forth, not once do they show any clue in why Carmen is so completely unlikable.
Concerning the high spirits of the MI troops: "They think they're all going to win, that they're all going to survive." Well yes, soldiers tend to do better overall when they're optimistic. What's wrong with that?
They mentioned they had a lot of problems with their military advisor (ha!... one would think so), since he didn't think that Americans would retreat like they do at Klendathu. Now there's at least two things wrong with this. First, it shows that these characters are meant to identify with Americans, when in fact it's supposed to be an international fighting force (and our lead characters are supposed to be Argentinian, on top of that). Also, I can't imagine any professional armed force, American or otherwise, breaking ranks and scattering so easily.
Concerning the resignation and replacement of the Sky Marshal after the Klendathu campaign, "The weak white male is replaced by a [strong black female.]" This is the Deep And Meaningful Statement they are trying to make. Also, this is taking place in an evil fascist society, so... wait... huh?
Verhoeven describes the return of Rascak as "an ultra right-wing officer, that he knows what this war is all about... now they have a good chance of survivng." So, the ultra-right wingers (i.e. fascists) are our best hope for survival? Huh?
The entire tank-bug riding bit, Verhoeven's going "digital Johnny, and here's real, and real, and digital, and real Johnny, and here's digital again," for about half a minute, with every single cut, even interrupting Neumeier when he tries to interject. Not that this is terribly meaningful, I just thought it was hilarious he felt the need to point it all out. |
Edited by - GalahadPC on 08/19/2007 6:47:10 PM
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Sardu
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1126 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2007 : 10:32:40 AM
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"That includes Carmen...
...who will later emerge amazingly unscathed."
How can you say that?? Her makeup was ruined.
"Meeting you makes me want to be a real noodle cook"
--Tampopo |
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Greenhornet
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1791 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2007 : 2:43:21 PM
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I always wince at the "tough as nails training sequince" in movies, but not for the reasons the makers intended. I always wonder how many recruits get CRIPPLED or KILLED by the macho instructors. Even if their tactics are encouraged by the higher-ups, you have to realise that even if they have the greatest medical treatment ever devised, a solder who is on sick call isn't TRAINING, so you have one or more who have to be replaced when your unit goes into the field and the ones left behind have to make up for lost time.
"The Queen is testing poisons." CLEOPATRA, 1935 |
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GalahadPC
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
380 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2007 : 6:57:37 PM
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Carmen also got that fashionable scratch on one eye, too. So yeah, maybe I'm being too hard on her.
As for the training... I don't get it at all either. I can understand casualties during live-fire exercises, or survival training, but what Zim does in this movie is inexcusable, and not all that smart neither. Breaking an arm, choking a recruit to unconsciousness, throwing a knife through a hand... It's not like he couldn't have just explained what could have happened.
And since you reminded me, Breckenridge does indeed have an arm in some kind of futuro-gel cast after Zim breaks it. Still, it's a cast, and I imagine he couldn't get much done with it while it was healing up.
And now, part 2:
THE STORY SO FAR
In a distant future, Juan "Johnny" Rico is a high school graduate, privileged and somewhat naive, who decides on a whim to enlist in the military and earn full citizenship. Soon after he joins, territorial disputes result in open war with the Arachnid race. We're witness to memorable moments of Johnny's early career, featuring boot camp, a disastrous attack on the Arachnid homeworld, officer's school, and flashbacks to a high school philosophy class. All throughout the story, Johnny learns little by little about what it means to be willing to fight and die for one's way of life, and about the responsibility every citizen should accept toward the welfare of one's society.
That's the book, anyway. For a synopsis of the movie, just repeat that paragraph, add some humping, and remove the part about officer's school and any references to anybody learning anything. Also, Johnny's friend Carmen is played by Denise Richards. Draw your own conclusions.
OUR "HEROES"
John (not Juan) "Johnny" Rico
Rich, chiseled, and alabaster white, like everybody else in Verhoeven's vision of Future Buenos Aires. Johnny's a well-meaning but somewhat directionless youth, unsure of his future, as one might expect of a high school student in his late twenties. He decides to join Federal Service to earn citizenship. His early career provides many opportunities to gain accolades and he quickly scales the ranks, proving his leadership skills with his uncanny ability to summon up stunt doubles and CG clones to get the job done when the going gets tough. The fact that everybody who outranks him has a nasty habit of dying certainly helps.
Carmen Ibanez (not pronounced Ibanyez)
Chiseled, alabaster white, and the complete epitome of form over substance, Carmen is the "superwoman" character Verhoeven and Neumeier were trying to create in order to show that womyn can do anything men can do. This was in 1997, mind you, so I have no idea what made them think this was such a groundbreaking concept. Just don't try to tell them that, because anybody who doesn't appreciate Carmen is clearly an unenlightened primitive. Carmen, and the thinking behind her character, is easily one of the most massive blunders in ths movie, so she gets her own whole section below.
Carl Something (like it matters)
Carl had a very small role in the book, and has an even smaller role here, despite talking more. In the book, he disappears after high school and is only mentioned again when Johnny learns that he died. In the movie, he doesn't even serve that much of a function, basically just being a jerk in order to show how Nazi fascists are bad people. I'm not joking. Listen to the commentary yourself, if you don't believe me.
Zander
I don't remember if "Zander" is his first or last name. Not that it really matters. If his name was Zander Johnson, everybody would call him Zander, and if his name was Bob Zander, everyone would still call him Zander. You have the chance to call somebody by a name like "Zander," you don't pass it up.
His character? Well, he's new character created for the movie - a slightly more likable version of Johnny, but since he's not Johnny, and he gets caught up in a trangle with Carmen, the poor bastard is doomed to die, even when it's completely implausible. It's like Pearl Harbor, where that chick had the two boyfriends, so that regardless of whichever one of them died to provide pathos, she'd still have a spare. Same deal here.
Diz "Dizzy" Flores
This is the rare case where a moviemaker decided to provide a bigger role for a book character, and it works out. In the book, Diz Flores is a trooper that gets killed during a raid at the beginning. In the movie, he's become a redheaded woman who has no trouble smacking around big stupid men, and calling out Carmen on her many failings as a human being. I think I could fall for a woman like that, except that she's stuck on Johnny, and her greatest happiness while dying a messy death is that she got to shag him once. Just sad.
Mr./Lt. Rascak
A simple and understandable case of splicing two book characters together: Rico's harsh and disapproving History and Moral Philosophy teacher, and the lieutenant he's assigned to after his own unit gets decimated at Klendathu. He's played by Michael Ironside, and really, that's all you need to know.
PROS
At this point, I'd like to discuss some of the merits of the movie before going onto the somewhat longer list of failings, but as I mentioned in the first post, the stuff done well doesn't really merit discussion. Michael Ironside and the none-too-subtle digs at CNN in the form of the FedNet reports are a treat. The action is pretty good too, and the alien bugs still look seamless in motion, even ten years later. But... what is there to say about such things?
So now I'll just jump into that other stuff.
CONS
Black Coats are Bad!
An evil part of me would suggest that you could make a drinking game out of the commentary, taking a shot whenever the word "fascist" or "fascism" is used, but you'll likely take some serious liver and brain damage if you tried. This is because criticism of fascism - and of war, which Verhoeven appears to regard as an inherently fascist act - is the central focus of the movie. Seriously, it is. Not that I had any clue when I first watched it, I just figured it was an action movie with soldiers and bugs killing each other. And not that Verhoeven himself had any clue either, since the commentary implies that even he's not sure if he made an action movie or a topical film.
By the way, just in case you didn't realize, this is the same guy who went from making the awesome Robocop, to the entertaining-if-shallow Starship Troopers, to Showgirls, which managed to feature sex and stripping, and yet still be completely forgettable. Figure that out.
War is Bad!
Early on in the movie there's a scene where our heroes are in their History and Moral Philosophy class, taught by one-armed veteran Rascak. Part of his lecture regards the juvenile fantasy that violence never solves anything - in fact, he claims that naked force has been the deciding factor for more disputes than any other throughout human history. Of course, for anybody with a grip on reality, this is plainly true, no matter how unpleasant it would be to admit it. Even the most enlightened rule must either yield or collapse when confronted with a determined and superior might of arms.
However, it's during this scene (if I recall correctly) that Verhoeven makes one very interesting statement: "Power and violence are always used at the time when it will take too much time to solve the democratic way."
In context with the rest of the stuff he talks about, it sounds like he's criticizing the use of power and violence whenever it's more convenient than discussion, and I'm quite sure this is how he meant to say it. However, notice that his exact words are "...when it will take too much time..." which, taken literally, makes his remark very reasonable. If there's a situation that needs immediate resolution and we put ourselves in extraordinary jeapordy by trying to be diplomatic, then doesn't it make good sense to use force to control the situation now and figure out the details later? If a bunch of bugs are throwing asteroids at Earth and we really don't have any means of communicating with them, isn't it entirely practical to contain the threat first, and work on dialogue after things are more under control? He seems to regard this as a bad thing to do. I can't help but think of it as a smart thing to do.
This situation reminds me of another sci-fi novel, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. The solar system in the story's future has already been aggressively invaded twice by antlike aliens properly called Formics, but are colloquially spoken of as "the buggers." As a race, their culture and thought processes are utterly unfathomable to humans, especially because they didn't use technology to communicate between ships and facilities, and not one Formic has been captured alive and functioning. The whole human race is at a loss as to how we can establish meaningful dialogue with them - all we could learn was that they are experienced with interstellar travel, sent a much larger fleet with the second invasion (which would have overwhelmed Earth had their command ship not been destroyed, causing the whole fleet to go brain-dead), and had absolutely no regard for human existence. As a veteran commander explains to the story's protagonist, there is every reason to believe a third invasion is on the way, and no reason to believe that words or gestures of friendship will make the slightest difference.
What this situation has come down to is classic survival of the fittest: two species are in need of the same piece of real estate, yet they're plainly unequipped to coexist peacefully. (Even as I typed that last sentence, I remembered that something almost exactly like it was said in the Starship Troopers novel as well...) It turns out later that the first Formic invasion was an expendable scouting fleet, and the second was the colony of a queen in need of her own world to claim. She'd tried to communicate telepathically, as their species does, but being unable to establish contact, assumed that we were merely animals, driven by instinct rather than intellect. The expertise with which the humans stopped that invasion convinced the other Formics that we were indeed sapient beings and should be left alone, but of course, there was no way for the humans to know this. Thus, the entire human race spends decades harnessing every possible resource to prepare for an attack that we literally could not know would never come. Was it an unfortunate decision? Absolutely (especially when you read about how it all ends). Was it the right decision? Yes, given how little was known and how grave the danger was.
When Verhoeven says "power and violence are always used at the time when it will take too much time to solve the democratic way," he's stating it as a criticism of the human race, and of powerful nations in particular, but to me it sounds like an obvious rule of life. Besides, even Jesus trashed the temple of Jerusalem when he found it overrun with moneychangers, instead of giving a stern yet gentle lecture and asking them to leave. Even Ghandi said that if nonviolent resistance didn't work, he would rather resort to violence than be a coward and do nothing. And you know, when Jesus and Ghandi agree that there are times for dialogue to be set aside in favor of direct and decisive action, I think I'll take them at their word.
Military Intelligence
Right up there with the Evil Gub'ment, the Incompetent Military is one of the most tired sci-fi/war cliches around. In this movie, military unintelligence is on full display. Even when my younger, stupider self saw this on opening night ten years ago, I thought it was pretty damn strange that future military tactics would involve masses of guys running around in the open, Normandy-style.
Another big laffer was when Captain Deladrier eases Carmen during the attack by telling her that intelligence predicted resistance to be "random and light." For one thing, that doesn't mean you don't plan on it being so, clumping together and parking your big asses in orbit instead of watching and maneuvering to avoid their unguided weapons. Or hell, at least spread out a little. In any case, you never plan your tactics based on the assumption that your enemy is stupid.
And for another thing, how can you so badly underestimate an enemy that can throw asteroids at your planet from half a galaxy away!? If they can nail a shot like that, you'd better damn well believe that can fart your big clunky ships out of their sky.
The most damning evidence against the military minds in this context is the "bold new strategy," which involves using air power to sweep battlefield surfaces clear before sending in the ground troops to shoot nukes down their tunnels. Pretty sad when you have to bring in a whole new commander to figure out a strategy that anyone could pick up after playing Command & Conquer for a couple hours. Even better, Starcraft.
In the commentary, Verhoeven and Neumeier mentioned how their military advisor didn't like how they portrayed the retreat from Klendathu. I had to replay that part to make sure I heard it right, because I never would have guessed they they even had a military advisor for this movie. Or if they had, I really doubted they listened to anything he said.
Carmen, Carmen, Carmen
Denise Richards as Carmen is easily the movie's most accessible and vulnerable weakness, its Achilles' Heel. Or maybe even two of them, because this was such a bad idea for two completely different reasons.
The most obvous of these is that calling Denise Richards an "actress" is a tenuous designation at best. I'd imagine upon hearing such, fellows like Anthony Hopkins, Ian McKellan, or Patrick Stewart would feel an impulse to smack you in the mouth for befouling their trade, their refined gentlemanly courtesy being the only thing staying their hands. For Denise Richards, I'd suggest a form of acting that specifically doesn't require much expression. Mime, for example. But then she'd probably get herself stuck inside that damned invisible box.
But ah! Then you listen to the commentary and find out what the thinking was behind Carmen's movie persona... and you see how completely and royally Verhoeven and Neumeier deluded themselves into thinking that her character was such a fantabulous idea! I mentioned at the end of the first post a couple of bits from the commentary regarding their befuddlement over audience disapproval of Carmen. I think it all bears repeating here.
First, Carmen was supposed to be their symbol of female empowerment; how in this glorious and ideal (yet fascist and evil) future, women can do everything that men can do! This is most forward thinking indeed... for a character created for a sci-fi novel in the fifties. For an action movie of the nineties... not so much. Not that it's a bad idea, but damn, it's a little late in the equal rights movement to try and take personal credit for "empowering" women.
And so, Carmen goes out to get everything she wants. She wants a career in the military, flying the big warships, and by golly she succeeds in spite of her Denise Richards-inherited deficiencies! And she wants romance too, but oh no! The audience hates her because she gets embroiled in relationships with two guys! But wait a minute, Johnny hooks up with two different women in the movie, but nobody hates him for it. Clearly, say Verhoeven and Neumeier, this is an evil and primitive double-standard that we must not yield to! Of course, test audiences showed this "double standard" to be universal across age, sex, and nationality, which is particularly odd for a sentiment that's been steadily going out of date for some decades now in just our own country. At this point, some combination of common sense and critical thinking should kick in, and make it apparent that there's some other problem - one that offends almost all people everywhere. Like, say, the fact that unlike Johnny, Carmen pursues multiple suitors at the same time, and basically lies to Johnny when she tells him that her career won't leave her room for a relationship because, gee, that doesn't stop her from accepting Zander's smooth moves. Lying and cheating? Could that be something that most societies and demographics would disapprove of? Why yes, I think we're on to something here.
But of course, we're talking about the intelligence behind the Starship Troopers movie. Common sense and critical thinking clearly are not welcome here. So it's the fault of the entire rest of the world that we just don't get what a wonderful and enlightened character Verhoeven and Neumeier created.
Besides, even if they did get Carmen right and made her an exemplar of equal-opportunity power - they still hired Denise Richards to play the part. One can only imagine how she managed to land the part. I'm tempted to suggest that her lips are perpetually parted through the movie because her face got stuck that way after her long "audition." But that's pretty crude, so I'm not going to make that joke.
Hotshot Mavericks
I don't think I need to say much, because everybody else here is as sick of this as I am. Hotshot heroes don't save the day, they just stupidly risk the lives of their comrades. Books and regulations are there for a reason.
Only once, and exactly once, have I ever seen the maverick type get taught a lesson, and it was in a video game of all things: Wing Commander. One recurring character, "Maniac" Marshall, has a few close brushes with responsibility when he lets his talent overcome his good sense, and damn near gets people killed pointlessly. In what I thought was a great moment, in the last game, he's lamenting over a rookie under his command who charged ahead of his formation and got blown away with ease. It makes him think back to when he pulled that kind of stunt in his earlier days, and how lucky he is that he lived as long as he did.
So how come I see this happening in a frickin' game, but never in a movie?
Future Confusion
Another major point of behind-the-scenes befuddlement: is this supposed to be a good future or a bad one?
*Good future*
Female empowerment!
A strong black woman can replace a weak white man!
People can shower together without ogling!
*Bad future*
All problems are solved by war!
You need a licence to have children!
Pervasive media controls information!
No fair trials!
Verhoeven and Neumeier can't seem to agree on what kind of world they've created. Yes, it's the stereotype of a "fascist" society... but one which boasts gender and race equality... except that Buenos Aires and the military have been thoroughly bleached white... huh?
Not that an idea like this couldn't work. Sci-fi, by its nature in exploring human possibilities, typically make its societies idealized, representative of a particular ideal or philosophy. It might be clever for a writer someday to create a society where "good" and "bad" elements happen to coexist and work together well, just like in the actual world. Unfortunately, it's fairly obvious that Verhoeven's idea of the Federation isn't any kind of clever study in contrasts, and more like a product of a peculiar schizophrenia. In one scene, the Federation is evil and bad because of its oppression, like Star Wars' Galactic Empire. In the next, it's happy and good because of individual equality, like Star Trek's UFP. It's not both worlds intertwined - it's just two different worlds we're being given, each with their own half-assed "lessons" to teach us. Which I suppose means that between the two of them, you get a complete ass..
Defiling the Source
Anytime there's an adaptation of anything, you're going to see complaining about how everything got messed up somehow. Ordinarily I can't stand that kind of thinking, and what's wrong with taking an old story and finding a way to make it your own? Hell, Shakespeare made a career of it. So I'm usually willing to cut adaptations a good bit of slack. For example, many years back there was a Brave New World TV movie, boasting Leonard Nimoy as Mustafa Mond. Yes, a few things got twisted around, the most notable of which being the theme of the story, but that was understandable. The book was a cautionary tale of anti-communism, but what with communism being largely irrelevant these days, remaking the story would be a bit of a waste. Instead, with just a slight tweak here and there, it became a tale of a society being controlled by sensationist media. The new theme is farily topical, relevant, and most of all, it could conceivably grow naturally out of a modern reading of the old story, with media control being a big part of scary future worlds written in those days. Big Brother, anyone?
Starship Troopers, however, seriously screwed any fans of the original book by not only focusing on material that really wasn't important to the story (the actual fighting with the bugs), but by taking everything left over and doing a 180 with it. Verhoeven's comments during the movie makes it all worse, since it's hard to tell if he messed it all up on purpose, or if he even read the book at all, since his few references to the original story are so completely off-base. Even worse, there are a couple of points where it sounds like he's trying to take credit for Heinlein's good ideas, and when he actually does try to credit some of Heinlein's thoughts, he gets them completely wrong. A few cases in point:
Female equality - Verhoeven and Neumeier clamed that the characters of Carmen and Captain Deladrier demonstrate this. And yes, they do. Their problem is in the suggestion that they were the ones who came up with this idea, when both of these characters and their roles were already established in the book. in fact, in Heinlein's world, deep-space pilots and commanders are almost always women, because (at least according to the story's science) women bear up under the stresses of zero-gravity maneuvering and acceleration better than men do, and are quicker at making the mathematical calculations for precise operations. So in this case, not only are women equal to men... they're better. Score one for Heinlein.
Service gurantees citizenship - Verhoeven remarks that one of the idea "right out of the book" is that rich people can buy their way out of doing service. I really have no idea what in the world he's talking about, because in the book, there is one and only one way to become a citizen: put your life on the line for the good of your people. For most, that's military service, but accomodations can be made even for those physically or psychologically unfit to serve. One example in the book: field-testing experimental survival gear in the asteroid belt. No matter what you can or can't do, the Federation will find meaningful way to endanger you. The point being that there's no free ride to becoming a citizen. You earn it, and certainly not with money.
The one-armed man - That little scene with the old soldier at the Federal building with the one arm and no legs? That's from the book, more or less. The difference is that the movie tried to be ironic about it, having him remark "Mobile Infantry made me the man I am today," before wheeling away so we can see his legs are gone, on top of the cybernetic arm. You see, the joke is that warfare destroyed him. Get it? Of course, one could also say that the measure of a man isn't the wholeness of his body, but his willingness to risk it for a greater good, in which case, he's an impressive man indeed... but whatever. The point is that the original version of that scene had the completely opposite meaning. The old soldier is very blunt about his injuries and warns Rico that he could end up with worse if he signs on for service. Afterward, Rico meets up with him again but doesn't recognize him, because he's walking about with a full set of prosthetics. The old soldier cheerfully tells him that he puts on the horror show at the front desk to scare off anybody who doesn't really have it in their heart to serve. Because after all, you want your soldiers to know what they're getting into before committing, right?
Social responsibility - If somebody weer to ask me what the theme of the book was, that would be my answer. If you're going to exercise political control in a society, you'd better be the kind of person who loves it so much you're willing to die for it. The people who should be voting aren't the ones thinking "what's best for me?" but the ones thinking "what do I believe is the best for my people?" This is why it's pretty jarring to hear the biology teacher in the movie go out of her way to describe the Arachnids as the "perfect selfless member of society." Assigning these traits to the icky bugs, I'm pretty sure Verhoeven and Neumeier meant this is to be a bad thing. Meanwhile, rejecting Heinlein's central theme, they just decided to inject one of their own. You know, stuff about war and fascism being bad. Which is also totally a part of the book. Except not really.
Really, they could have just made up their own story, not bothered with getting the license to the book, and nobody would have been the wiser. Certainly not the fans of the book, whom I doubt were pleased at all with the movie version anyway.
Did I mention that I hate Denise Richards? |
Edited by - GalahadPC on 08/24/2007 1:54:48 PM |
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Gristle McThornbody
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
Germany
186 Posts |
Posted - 08/24/2007 : 08:23:30 AM
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I had never read the book the first time I saw Starship Troopers, which was shortly after it came out on video. I'd heard about some of the complaints from Heinlein fans, but dismissed them as the usual book-to-movie transition whining. So I enjoyed the movie in spite of it was: a goofy, woodenly acted B-movie with scattershot politics and some of the worst military tactics ever portrayed on film. I wouldn't go looking for a Criterion Laser Disc edition, but if it was on Showtime late at night, I'd tune in.
About three years later, I read the book.
Wow. If Verhoeven had specifically set out to make a film that was 180 degrees out of phase with the source material, he couldn't have succeeded any more than with his final product. He didn't just miss the boat, he missed the freakin' ocean!
I'll say this for the movie, though - at least Diz was a fun character, dying line excepted. Like GalahadPC, I also have the "redheads rule" gene. It must be my mostly Irish ancestry.
"Hi, I'm Bob Evil!" |
Edited by - Gristle McThornbody on 08/24/2007 1:32:45 PM |
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Terrahawk
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
644 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2007 : 1:14:28 PM
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Nice review GalahadPC. It pretty much follows my opinion of the movie. What seemed to happen is that Verhoeven read the book, decided it was fascist, tried to follow the book, and ended up completely confused about the whole thing. You can see how he followed the book, but things are twisted just enough to make you want to scream.
One note on the trial aspect which Verhoeven completely screwed up. The point of the swift trials in the book was that justice delayed was not justice. If the case is clear cut, then this makes sense. I'm sure Heinlein would have supported a reasonable appeals system. But, how often in our society do we see people drag out the process when they are obviously guilty. Also, there were no jails. You either were executed for your crimes, suffered corporal punishment (flogging), or were fined. It would have been interesting to have seen this explored intelligently. Of course you could expect that from Verhoeven.
One other aspect that has always interested me is the concept of insanity. In the SST, insanity did not absolve you from the crime. I found his argument of who would want to live knowing that they had killed someone even if they were mentally deranged at the time to be compelling. Star Trek Voyager also had an episode that dealt well with the subject.
- While science has societal benefits, science is not a social virtue. - |
Edited by - Terrahawk on 09/06/2007 1:28:06 PM |
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Starship Troopers
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