Starship Troopers (1997)

Plot of Starship Troopers: A bunch of college kids join up in a variety of military organisations, the ones who join the infantry engaging in the usual boot camp activities, the one with telekinetic capabilities joins the officers and one young woman, Carmen, becomes a space pilot. The boot camp takes place and is visibly more violent than usual. The infantry are then sent out to deal with an alien race who are sort of insects, armed with stabbing and cutting extremities. They are out there because the bugs have attacked Buenos Aires where the parents of Jonny Rico, one of the group had lived. Out on the alien planet the young solders are put in more and more dangerous situations always having to face massed armies of arachnids with firearms of limited capability.  Things come to a head when the space ship containing Carmen is hit by a missile and she and her co-pilot end up on the planet, in the lair of the fabled “Brain Bug”.  But what next?

Content: There is one scene which involves sex and a bit of nudity, somewhat overshadowed by the shower scene, where the young men and women shower together, but seem to be engaged in political discussion. The boot camp has moments of violence which are a bit shocking, then out on the alien planet the guys are faced with legions of arachnids, their one weapon seeming to have limited effect. When overwhelmed by the army of aliens they are dismembered so there are often bodies lying about with limbs missing and worse. There are occasional news items bombastically celebrating the humans limited success.

A View: This is the second time I have reviewed this film since my first effort did not seem to do it justice. Of course since my first viewing I have been reading stuff about the film which indicates that its first negative reviews might have been wrong. The cast was chosen for its looks rather than its acting ability, and apparently their weapon of choice a rapid fire machine gun was selected because more likely ordnance such as very large aerial bombs, or heavily armoured tracked vehicles, would have been too much of an advantage for the humans. So maybe a watch if you start off knowing that it is a sort of Nazi satire. Fun Fact: One of the very good looking young women with limited acting ability was Denise Richards. She went on to be the Bond Girl in The World is Not Enough, winning both the Razzie and the Stinker for Worst Supporting Actress.