But no amount of satire is going to make Atlas Shrugged an interesting story. Starship Troopers had that plus lots of action. Kind of like Robocop. And Total Recall.
Oh yea. I read the book before I ever saw the movie and really wondered why they even used the name of the book as the title. Kinda like the “I Robot” movie did.
I’m with you there, I really disliked the movie the first time I saw it. Where is my powered armor, my personal nuke, where are the skinnies? Took a while but once I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb, so to speak, it really grew on me. It helped that there were folks like Michael Ironside and Clancy Brown holding things up.
I never realized I wanted this until I saw it written out.
Hollywood, get on this!
Isn’t that the current republican government?
They’re playing it totally straight; they just don’t realize how bathetic they look from the outside…
Absolutely the same for me. Hated it on first viewing because the weapons were so stupid for a society with FTL travel, and the missing Powered Armor was IMO one of the best parts of book.
But if you get passed that and treat it like a dumb fun action movie, it’s actually pretty decent.
Teenage 1996 me: AWESOMETHATWASOGOODDIDYOUSEETHEBITWHENTHENEWSGUYGOTRIPPEDINHALFOMG
My movie tastes haven’t really changed and still judge a film on sfx, explosions, bodycount and chases. I enjoy watching ST when its repeated.
Saw this for the first time (yeah, I know, I know) yesterday, with some friends. Imagine a MST 3K viewing party with a bunch of Ph.D.s making the commentary; it was a hoot.
The movie is dreadful, but oh so fun. I like Verhoeven in general; his Soldier of Orange remains an amazing flick and his mainstream action stuff is solid. I’ve heard that the Starship Troopers movie was actually made at least partly before they secured the rights to the name or something like that, and I’d believe it, as there is a lot of variance from the book.
As an action film, it’s kind of goofy fun, though I think in 2017 the effects don’t hold up well except in a few spots, and the sheer idiocy of some of the stuff (helmets that blind their wearers, guns with unlimited A-Team ammo, atmospheric entry vehicles that are anti-aerodymanic boxes, really hokey Roark’s Drift/Helm’s Deep siege scenes, nukes that can be safely delivered from ten feet, etc.) is almost too much to take even with a fistful of over-buttered popcorn. And the acting…well, some of the folks are pretty good, but the dialog in general is (probably deliberately) terrible.
What I love about it is my own sense that Verhoeven is viciously mocking the fascist elements of Heinlein’s book (Neil Patrick Harris in full-on Obergruppenfuhrer regalia is priceless), as well as the sort of media stuff lampooned in many other movies like RoboCop and Total Recall, and the way the movie shamelessly steals from pretty much every war and sci-fi epic you can think of, but in a deliberately cheesy way.
I’m glad I saw it, but I do wonder if some actually see it as a “straight” action flick, rather than what I feel it is, a deliciously self-parodic social commentary piece.
Bizarrely many, at least in America. Europeans nearly all seem to recognise it as a satire, but there’s a surprisingly large amount of opposition to the glaringly obvious proposition that it’s taking the piss among Americans. Mars Attacks prompts a similar response, I’ve found.
I doubt that. Not that you can’t dig up the occasional uncritical idiot who might think so, but I’ve never come across anyone who seriously thought the movie was a straight ahead hero worshipping action flick.
Verhoven plays the joke pretty straight in both Starship Troopers and Robocop. Both movies are criticisms of the action/sci-fi genre and whatever subject Verhoven wanted to skewer, (our approval of violence and justice in Robocop, and our love of military fascism in Troopers) while also being decently good action flicks. To the untrained, or immature, it’s pretty easy to miss the joke and think the movies are sincere. People routinely hold Watchmen’s Rorschach up as a kickass hero, so that’s what you’re dealing with generally. There’s not much you can do about that. That said, how successfully Verhoven walked that line is certainly debatable.
Mars Attacks though? I don’t think I’ve ever encountered anyone that missed the joke. I’ve met plenty that just plain didn’t like the movie’s humor, but everyone got what Burton was trying to do.
My thoughts exactly. Especially 3 - which is why Robocop is 100x better.
Also no suits.
Well, any time one wonders about Verhoeven’s choices, just think, Showgirls.
I do think a lot of people missed the point of the film. I felt that way when I first saw it years ago and I still feel that way now.
I knew as a teenager that it was obviously making fun of a militaristic society, but I had no idea it was a satire of the book itself. I even read the book later and probably didn’t make the connection, but I’m pretty dense when it comes to literary themes.
Whoever disliked Showgirls above, you really missed the point. Showgirls is the most glorious piece of trash ever made.
Also Starship Troopers is excellent.
I didn’t say I disliked it, I merely pointed out that any questions about Verhoeven have to take it into account! He’s a very, um, flexible guy when it comes to artistic choices!
Naw, that’s his Turkish Delight movie, which is just crazy. And has Rutger Hauer running around naked instead of the gal who can’t act whom everyone has forgotten.
Starship Troopers is fantastic. Nonsensical and goofy, but also so wonderful.
His recent movie Elle is an excellent drama involving rape and making video games.
Verhoeven’s movies are always a bit of a glorious mess.