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Mike Wilder (20 KP) rated Starship Troopers (1997) in Movies

May 30, 2018  
Starship Troopers (1997)
Starship Troopers (1997)
1997 | Action, Sci-Fi
8
7.7 (54 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
It is a great film and in the category of action Sci-Fi one of the best.
Contains spoilers, click to show
Starship Troopers is a great Science Fiction movie. It is based on a book by Robert A. Heinlein. In the future, mankind is exploring the universe and encroach upon the territory of alien bugs and war begins. The insects are only responding to a threat of their territory and are trying to fight off the invaders. The clever use of insects as the aliens makes this film stand apart from other space movies.

The cast is great. It is made up of great actors, many of who at the time were relatively unknown including Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Jake Busey and Denise Richards, mixed with established stars like Clancy Brown, Neil Patrick Harris and Michael Ironside, taking minor roles. The star of the movie is hard to choose between Dina Meyer, Casper Van Dien (both of who suffered injuries while making this, Casper broke a rib and Dina suffered a concussion) and the bugs! However I am going to have to say the bugs are the stars. The use of real and CGI in this film is great. The bugs are a formidable foe and a very creative one. They are numerous and relentless. Cleverly the use of different species of bugs makes for some great surprises.

The battles are epic and bloody. This is not a film for the squeamish, every battle is like a futuristic opening scene to Saving Private Ryan. People die in horrific ways, bodies and limbs are ripped apart and even main characters don't always survive, something I always appreciate in a film as it keeps the viewer guessing.

But it is not all about war, there is a good amount of comedy and even romance in this movie. It is a great film and in the category of action Sci-Fi one of the best.
  
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LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Starship Troopers (1997) in Movies

Sep 22, 2020  
Starship Troopers (1997)
Starship Troopers (1997)
1997 | Action, Sci-Fi
10
7.7 (54 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Do you know what? Starship Troopers is a 5 star film and there's nothing anyone can say to convince me otherwise.
It's 90s sci-fi at its absolute best.

It has a great cast - Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown, Dina Meyer, Neil Patrick-Harris, Jake Busey - none of them feel replaceable.
It has special effects that genuinely still.homd up over 20 years later, and also a fuck tonne of genuinely horrific practical effects - some of the violence in Starship Troopers is next level, in true Paul Verhoeven style.
It has a corny yet airtight script, it's suitably cheesy when it wants to be, and wonderfully satirical throughout.
It's also got a top tier score courtesy of Basil Poledouris.

I saw this film when I was in my early teens, a few years after it released and it has always stuck with me since. Starship Troopers is perfection, fight me.
(4)   
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Blazing Minds (92 KP) rated Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars (2017) in Movies

Nov 1, 2021 (Updated Nov 3, 2021)  
Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars (2017)
Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars (2017)
2017 | Action, Animation, Sci-Fi
8
5.7 (9 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Can it really be 20 years since Starship Troopers hit the big screens here in the UK? Well, it is indeed and after two live-action sequels and an animated movie, the fifth movie sticks with the CGI format and director Shinji Aramaki returns to the helm after Invasion, to bring us Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars and it’s not only Shinji that returns to the franchise, Casper Van Dien and Dina Meyer return to reprise their roles from the 1997 movie.

I know I can hear you saying, “hang on, Dizzy died in the first movie“, well yes she did, but Dizzy Flores has been brought back in such a wonderful way that ties this movie in very nicely to the original movies timeline.

The all-new military adventure has been penned by Ed Neumeier, who wrote the screenplay for the 1997 movie and also the brilliant Robocop, so with such a great team for this fifth outing, my hopes were up that this movie would be very much like the original movie, rather the sequels that were spawned from it.

The film takes place 20 years after the battle of Klendathu, now Rico (Casper Van Dien) has been demoted and is training the “Lost Patrol” at a station at Mars, but as always those pesky bugs are making their mark, the Federation fleet is too far away to help, so it’s down to Rico and his Troopers to keep the bugs at bay.

Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars is far from the previous movie from Shinji Aramaki, Invasion. Instead of being set on a battlecruiser and it feeling very confined, this movie takes us down to the planet surface, giving the animators to bring back the sheer hoards of bugs that we first saw in the 1997 live-action movie and boy are these bugs nicely done.
  
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LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Saw III (2006) in Movies

Oct 8, 2020  
Saw III (2006)
Saw III (2006)
2006 | Horror, Mystery
4
6.6 (18 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The first Saw film is genuinely great. The second I can tolerate. Saw III however is where the franchise started to lose me.

At this point, it's still not as convoluted as the series eventually gets, but it's here where you can clearly see the cracks start to appear, where every entry going forwards tries to ape what made the first film a success, whilst simultaneously becoming increasingly mean spirited - it's the first entry that really hints at the gore and viscera being more important than a decent plot.

The main positive of Saw III is the sheer amount of Tobin Bell we're treated to. Even on his death bed, Jigsaw is still appropriately sinister, and it's hard to see the role belonging to any other actor.
It's also nice to see Dina Meyer back for another turn, but her role here is all too brief.
Unfortunately, everyone else I can take or leave. Shawnee Smith returns as Jigsaws' apprentice, and her character is just so damn unlikable with no redeemable features, and is a far cry from her more compelling teacher, who always had a reason for doing what he did.
Then there's Jeff (Slow Ass Motherfuckin' Jeff to some) played by Angus Macfadyen. Honestly, I struggle to recall a protagonist in a horror movie that is quite as useless as this guy. He's insufferable to the point of sheer frustration.
Everyone else is just hugely forgettable, even Costas Mandylor who would go on to have a bigger role in the series moving forward.
The mixture of these non characters makes for a boring narrative, that ends up relying on gore for any worth.

The various Jigsaw traps seen in these films become more ambitious, theatrical, and disgusting as the franchise waddles along, and that's not necessarily a good thing. With each film, the more minimalist approach to the first film seems further and further out of reach.
As I mentioned, some of the deaths in Saw III are just plain mean spirited. Gore in horror movies really works when the film still manages to be entertaining, something that the bleak Saw III just isn't.

It's still not a terrible film, but honestly, the series just nosedives from here on out in my opinion, and this third entry is the jumping point.
(1)   
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Darren (1599 KP) rated Starship Troopers (1997) in Movies

Jul 7, 2019 (Updated Nov 25, 2019)  
Starship Troopers (1997)
Starship Troopers (1997)
1997 | Action, Sci-Fi
9
7.7 (54 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Verdict: Instant Classic

Story: Starship Troopers starts in a world where humans are not at war with a bug planet across the galaxy, students and young people are expected to join the federal service to become citizens. Johnny Rico (Can Dien), Dizzy (Meyer), Carl (Harris) and Carmen (Richards) all have their sights set on enlisting, Johnny and Dizzy are mobile infantry, while Carmen has bigger sights of being a pilot and Carl has his sights set on military intelligence, with his mind reading ability.
While Rico is going through his training and constant battles with the flashy Ace (Busey) battling for squad leader, Carmen is flourishing in the flight academy, but this is just training, now they must go into combat against the giant deadly bugs.

Thoughts on Starship Troopers

Characters – Johnny Rico comes from a wealthy family that want to send him to Harvard, but he has other plans, he wants to become a citizen, which means he must join the military, here he excels in training until a mistakes sees him disgraced. He loses his family and will remaining fighting under a new squad leader, proving himself as one of the best soldiers in the infantry. Dizzy has spent her school life crushing over Rico, she follows him to mobile infantry, proving herself as one of the best soldiers. Carmen is the girlfriend of Johnny’s through school, she has set her sights on becoming a pilot in the Starfleet, something her grades could make easy for her, she proves an asset to the fleet rising up the ranks with ease. Ace is the rival of Rico’s in training, they both want squad leader and with the rivalry they become brothers in arms.
Performances – Casper Van Dien in the leading role makes himself remember forever with his character, this will define his career without question. Dina Meyer shines too, while this cast is fantastic and understands just what movie they are in. Denise Richard has been criticised before, but here she works in the modern future world and Jake Busey add more comedy as times to his role.
Story – The story here takes us to the future where humans are waged in a war with bugs from across the galaxy, we see how the soldiers and pilots are dealing with the increasing threat they are going to be facing. This story does present itself in a satirical look at the military behaviour and how it can become a propaganda machine forcing young people into joining under false promises, it also shows how humans will always look to conquer another area no matter how outnumbered or out of place they are in their invasion behaviour. Plenty of this story over accentuates the idea of what is going on, which will add moments of comedy.
Action/Sci-Fi – The action in the film is war style military attacks with laser bullets flying literally everywhere and the bugs ripping bodies apart. The sci-fi side of the film shows us just how far the human race has come with transportation across the galaxy, despite not giving them the brains when it comes to war.
Settings – The world created is fantastic with Earth looking futuristic without being all that different, while the bug planet feels like a battleground.
Special Effects – The effects in the film are also flawless, with a mix of practical and CGI which barely look like they have dated even after being over 20 years old.

Scene of the Movie – The first battle shows the scale of the war.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Nothing really.
Final Thoughts – This is one of the best sci-fi films you will see, it is wildly over the top and doesn’t miss a beat with style that knows just what the film is meant to be.

Overall: Fun, Brilliant and Entertaining.