STARSHIP TROOPERS / STARSHIP TROOPERS 3: MARAUDER

Dir. Paul Verhoeven USA 1997

Dir. Ed Neumeier USA 2008

"I've only got one rule. Everyone fights. No one quits. If you don't do your job, I'll kill you myself. Welcome to the Roughnecks."

I saw Starship Troopers for the first time in theatres in November of 1997 for my friend Pete Folan's twelfth birthday. My mom bought the tickets for us since it was rated R (this is back when you were allowed to do that apparently), left us at the theatre for two hours, then came back to get us. I distinctly remember leaving the theatre thinking that I had seen the greatest movie I was ever going to see. It had space marines. It had giant bugs. It had space marines and giant bugs killing the shit out of each other. It had a co-ed shower scene. I rest my twelve year old case.

Despite a well-deserved Oscar nomination for visual effects (which it lost to Titanic), the first Starship Troopers barely broke even upon release, so my desperate hopes for sequels manifested nearly a decade later in the form of two direct-to-DVD follow-ups. Following our decision to revisit the first one, my roommates and I decided to also watch the third one, which is the only sequel to feature a character from the original movie, namely Casper Van Dien's Johnny Rico. And while the third film was even worse that we were expecting, we were all delighted (yes, three mostly grown men were delighted) by the fact that the first one is just as good as we'd remembered, if not better.

When it was released in 1997, Starship Troopers was met with extremely mixed reviews. The effects, as I mentioned, were universally praised, but there seemed to be some confusion regarding what the film was trying to say and how it was saying it. While it seems clear in hindsight that the film is a ridiculous (although, surprisingly subtle when compared to the sequel) satire, the brazen sex and violence and the extremely earnest depiction of a fascist civilization must have been very off-putting to critics at the time. All of these elements, of course, went over my head when I watched it as a kid.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the film, it's based on a 1959 novel by Robert A. Heinlein, who wrote the book as a hawkish political statement regarding what he saw to be America's duty to maintain a strong nuclear program and thwart the spread of Communism. Within the context of science-fiction, the book popularized (if not invented) the concept of space marines and powered armor, which have been further explored in everything from James Cameron's Aliens to the Halo games.

The film takes the broad strokes of Heinlein's plot and twists them into a hilariously brutal satire of the ideas he was attempting to promote. In an unspecified distant future, mankind (now united under a single world government) is at war with a race of giant insects from the planet Klendathu. The film follows a group of high school friends as they graduate, enlist in various branches of the military and are exposed to the horrors of a war that they have little hope of winning. It doesn't sound too hilarious when you type it out like that, but trust me, it is.

Before I get into the more satirical elements of the film, I just wanted to point out a thought that occurred to me as I was rewatching this: The impetus for our heroes to enlist in the military is the destruction of Buenos Aires by the bugs (via asteroids; don't ask). They then find themselves in a poorly planned offensive against a cave-dwelling enemy that's smarter than they give it credit for and willing to fight beyond hope or reason in order to defend their world and culture. I'm curious to know how much of this they would have gotten away with if the film had been made in 2002 rather than 1997.

Anyway. Starship Troopers is set in a bizarrely imagined world that blends the wholesome, Leave It To Beaver values of 1950's America with the totalitarian, martial government of 1930's Germany. These two forms of opposing conservatism are linked together by a wide streak of what we would now consider liberal social policies. Racism and sexism do not seem to exist in this world (see the co-ed football teams/military/public showers) and the civilian populace, far from seeming oppressed, is full of extremely attractive, carefree folks who want to support their government and their troops. Combined with other social quirks, some surprisingly appealing (needing a license to have children), others somewhat less so (military service as a requirement for full citizenship), the world of Starship Troopers seems like a fair compromise between conservative and liberal ideals that, in reality, would probably leave neither side happy. The social utopia of the film is, of course, defined by the redirection of natural human antagonism toward an alien foe. Although the bugs are presented as incredibly vicious, sub-human monstrosities, the violently upbeat attitude of the humans toward the war almost makes you wonder if the bugs don't have a point. All of this is perfectly encapsulated in the newsfeed interludes inserted throughout the movie, in a weird precursor to our modern, internet-driven newscycle.

As a kid, I remember suffering through the first 20 or 30 minutes of this film, which seemed to me an episode of Beverly Hills 90210 set in the future. These stunningly beautiful high school kids, all played by actors in their late twenties and all very white despite living in Argentina (go globalization, I guess?), with their boring love triangles were merely obstacles on my path to blood and guts. I guess it's actually a love quadrangle, but whatever. The ludicrous pettiness of their romantic endeavors only further enhances the overall tone of the film, ensuring that we find the characters somewhat engaging, but don't feel too bad if and when they get shredded by bugs. Plus, this creates the opportunity for the supporting cast to shine in a variety of off-beat roles; Jake Busey (son of Gary) and Seth Gilliam (Carver from The Wire) as Ace Levy and Sugar Watkins, two of Johnny's squadmates (man, names in the future are awesome!), Michael Ironside as the badass, one-armed Lt. Rasczak and Neil Patrick Harris as Carl, Johnny's high school BFF turned military intelligence officer.

Any significant amount of time spent on Starship Troopers 3 would be completely wasted, so I'll keep this short. Directed by the screenwriter of the first two films, Marauder finds humanity still waging war against the bugs and finds Johnny Rico and his ex-girlfriend Lola Beck (Jolene Blalock, displaying porn star levels of thespianism) trapped on a bug infested planet where the visiting Sky Marshall has oh who gives a shit.

To start, the effects in this film look worse than any videogame I've seen in the last 5 years. Complete dogshit. This is especially sad, given that the effects of the first film still look great after 13 years. The acting is uniformly terrible, the direction barely competent and Johnny Rico and his Marauders (giant mechanized armor suits) are only in it for about 10 to 15 minutes. We are talking sub-SyFy channel quality here. Also, there's a character named Dix Hauser. That's actually pretty hilarious.

The one remotely interesting aspect of this movie is somewhat botched thanks to all the flaws that I just mentioned and heavy-handed writing, but it's worth mentioning. The film introduces the idea of an anti-war protest movement on earth, which is eventually branded as a terrorist group by the Federation. This is occuring in tandem with a revival of religious fervor, spearheaded by the new Sky Marshall (essentially the president). Religion being all but illegal in this future, the stage is set to explore some interesting issues, but the film never quite gets there. The religious characters are treated as pathetic, crazy or annoying for much of the film, but the ending (spoiler alert, if you care, which you don't) is loaded with religious imagery and people beings saved by taking leaps of faith. All of this is presented with equal amounts of ridiculousness, so it's a bit tough to tell which side the movie is taking, if any. The whole thing is pretty much a giant pile of crap.

But hey, the first one still rules.

UP NEXT: Since I somewhat enjoyed revisiting a beloved movie from my teen years and watching its terrible sequel, I think I'm going to do The Boondock Saints films next. The second one is supposed to be complete ass. And I have a feeling the first one might not hold up too well either.