Bugs. Why did it have to be bugs?
Starship Troopers (1997): 10 out of 10: is a wild, satirical ride masquerading as a bombastic sci-fi action flick. Directed by Paul Verhoeven, the film opens in a shiny, fascist-flavored future where Earth’s militarized government preaches patriotism and citizenship through service.
We follow Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien), a square-jawed teenager from Buenos Aires, who enlists in the Mobile Infantry mostly to chase his high school sweetheart, Carmen (Denise Richards), a pilot with dreams of starship command. Before long, the classroom propaganda gives way to boot camp brutality and the cold, hard reality of war against an alien bug species supposedly hellbent on humanity’s extinction.
The film plays it straight with space battles and gory action, but don’t be fooled. There’s a subtext bubbling under every shower scene and recruitment ad. Verhoeven cranks the satire to eleven, gleefully skewering militarism, nationalism, and the media.
The Federation’s “Would you like to know more?” info clips could easily pass for actual commercials in today’s fractured attention economy. And while Rico transforms into a model soldier, the film’s polished surface keeps asking: who’s really the monster here—the insect horde or the cheerfully authoritarian system that grinds kids into cannon fodder?
On the battlefield, the bugs are relentless and terrifying—giant, chittering, acid-spitting nightmares that rip through platoons like tissue paper. But what makes Starship Troopers hit harder than most war flicks is how it turns its heroes into just another cog in the war machine. Friends die. Morals get murky. And the uniforms get more Hugo Bossy. By the time Rico’s barking orders with a thousand-yard stare, he’s not the idealistic teen we met. He’s a tool of the state, forged in blood and propaganda.
In the end, Starship Troopers leaves viewers with a weird, uneasy buzz. It looks like a rah-rah space war blockbuster, but it’s a brutal critique wrapped in a shiny action package. Whether you take it as a high-concept satire or just enjoy the teenager and bug-splattering spectacle, one thing is clear. Verhoeven wasn’t aiming for subtle. And somehow, that makes it even more prescient.
The Good
The Good: Lets leave the satire aside for a moment. Played straight Starship Troopers is a fantastic space opera. The space and ground battles are well thought out and staged, often taking from actual battles of history or great movie scenes.
That the leadership rarely knows what it is doing and everything is FUBAR about a minute in adds to the realism.
The acting is surprisingly solid across the board (with one minor exception mentioned below). Honestly, the best performance is by Dina Meyer, who had been in DragonHeart a year earlier. She seems to be acting a level above everyone else.
Now I am biased here because I am team Dizzy instead of team Carmen. Similar to the age old arguments about Ginger and Mary Ann (Team Mary Ann) and Jennifer and Bailey (Team Bailey all day long) I find Dizzy much more appealing. Like the old pimps say, stick to the woman who loves you. Or to quote the philosopher TLC, “Don’t go chasing waterfalls”.
The satire of Starship Troopers is layered and sharp. It amazes me that the movie is from 1997. It feels like a movie from five years ago. The special effects and costumes and sense of scale really are spectacular as well. Verhoeven has created a realistic future that is imaginative and yet grounded.
The Bad
The Bad: Verhoeven works well with some skilled actors, Michael Ironside and Rutger Hauer for example. And when he works with a smart, strong, beautiful woman such as Sharon Stone, Carice van Houten, or Jennifer Jason Leigh, he also hits it out of the park.
Verhoeven is not what we would call an actor’s director, however. As good as RoboCop is, Peter Weller is not exactly lighting up the screen with his charisma. While no performance in Starship Troopers is a disaster like Elizabeth Berkley in Showgirls a few years earlier, absent strong direction, Denise Richards is unfortunately in Dr. Christmas Jones mode and is out-acted by her costars, the bugs and the spaceship set.
The Ugly
The Ugly: The bugs. Man, those are some ugly bugs.
In Conclusion
In Conclusion: Paul Verhoeven has been a favorite of mine since I caught Flesh+Blood on late night cable. (If you have never seen it, Flesh+Blood is Game of Thrones before Game of Thrones. But grittier with more violence and sex somehow.)
Add on a filmography that includes RoboCop, Total Recall and Basic Instinct and you have a director who knows how to make a movie sing. So it is not with faint praise I think Starship Troopers may be his best work. (I go back and forth between it and RoboCop). It holds up even better today than when it came out. Similar to Idiocracy, “Starship Troopers” is aging like a fine wine.
