From the director of such great satirical science fiction films as Robocop and Total Recall, Starship Troopers is about Earth’s fighting elite protecting the planet from an infestation of alien bugs. It starred a bunch of young and impossibly pretty people, predicted that we’d all be living in a Utopian society, and posited that fanatical nationalism would help us win the war on bug terrorism.
When it premiered in 1997, the public had already had their fill of science fiction films involving extra-terrestrial invaders with Men in Black and Independence Day. They didn’t warm to Starship Troopers, despite the fact that it has to this day some of the most amazing CGI aliens on screen. We’re not going to discuss the minutiae of bug CGI, however, but rather the aspects of the film that didn’t age gracefully, like the weak plot, and the made-for-TV acting stylings of Casper Van Dien. Below are 10 things about Starship Troopers that haven’t aged well, because apes can’t live forever.
Updated by Kayleena Pierce-Bohen on July 17th, 2020: It’s never a bad time to revisit Paul Verhoeven’s satirical masterpiece about fascism and a big bug problem. In recent years, rumors have surfaced that Sony is looking to reboot its infamously maligned ’90s sci-fi blockbuster, which perhaps now more than ever serves as a topical cautionary tale.
THE SUPERFICIAL STORY
Many people went into Starship Troopers just wanting a big loud action movie with a little humor, ala Independence Day. Well, they got that in spades with bugs exploding all over the place, starships, high-tech weapons of destruction, and corny dialogue.
Though the film was meant to be a satire on fascist propaganda and a totalitarian regime, it doesn’t answer the questions about war its satire raises. At its core, the story centers around a bunch of shiny soap opera actors who sign up for military service and end up blowing up bugs. Sci-fi fans used to nuanced series like Altered Carbon or films like Interstellar may not appreciate its simplicity.
THE 90210 OF WAR MOVIES IN SPACE
There sure are a lot of beautiful people in blockbusters - they provide big box office draw as well as help immerse audiences into the fantasy of the film. A movie like Starship Troopers is no exception, which is why we have people like Casper Van Dien and Denise Richards.
The movie was criticized at the time for its glossy leads, who seemed altogether too perfect looking to be believable in their gritty roles (yes, the future has pretty people, but so many? And in the military?). With that said, the film answers what would happen if the cast of 90210 were involved in space wars.
THE ’90s VISION OF THE FUTURE
Here’s the deal. Starship Troopers takes place in the 23rd Century, as confirmed by the director in the DVD commentary. That’s practically Star Trek territory. Yet people are walking around with missing limbs, and when they get outfitted with a prosthetic one, while they have the technology to make it simulate human flesh, it’s a robot arm.
Now, sci-fi films can only show a future as advanced as the era in which they’re made. It’s why the scoreboard of their space football game still uses LEDs instead of holograms, or why there are people using pencils in a classroom despite the fact that even now, most things are already done using a computer. For that reason, the movie looks dated.
THE VIOLENT NATIONALISM
One of the standout features of the film is its hypertrophied nationalism. It’s taken to an almost violent extreme, where propaganda to join the military is everywhere. Once enlisted, you’re expected to be bursting with as much pride in your country and your planet as a bug that landed on a grenade.
Due to the fact that this sense of nationalism is everywhere in the film, it doesn’t help it age gracefully. As movie-going audiences get more discerning, this sort of jingoism can be disturbing when it takes over an entire movie. That, and there are people out there that still don’t realize it is meant as satire.
THE ACTING
It’s been pondered what a reboot of this movie would look like with more competent actors in it. Even the biggest blockbusters have quality acting these days, just look at Robert Downey Jr’s performance in Iron Man.
Casper Van Dien goes through the entire film without really demonstrating much of a personality, and Denise Richards as Carmen doesn’t fare any better. It appears the only actors having fun and not taking themselves too seriously are Michael Ironside, Neil Patrick Harris, and Dina Meyer, who all turn in memorable performances.
THE GLORIFICATION OF WAR
With the advent of social media in a post 9/11 world, we all see a lot more violence and conflicts around the world than ever before. We see the ramifications of war and genocide play out in real-time. Much like the state of the nation after the Vietnam War, Americans are not as predisposed to glorify war without also commenting on its repercussions.
If taken at face value, Starship Troopers glorifies war. The thrill of battle seems to be what the military of the future lives for, and all the citizens who volunteer to serve in it. As any veteran will tell you after their first tour, war is nothing to celebrate but something to learn from.
THE IDEALIZED GOVERNMENT
The citizens of Earth live in a Utopian society in Starship Troopers, and the government is idealized because it’s bolstered by citizen service and steered by elected officials with military backgrounds. Everyone “does their part” and the collective society benefits.
Perhaps it’s because people are more jaded and cynical today, but this sort of society seems corny and impossible to achieve. Not since Star Trek’s Federation of Planets has everyone gotten along so well, with no political in-fighting, racism, or sexism. There was a reason humanity rejected the first Matrix.
THE IN-YOUR-FACE SATIRE
Unless you were really young, blind, infirm, or a Brain Bug sucked out your grey matter, you understood that Starship Troopers was a satire when it was released. In fact, it is so in your face that it might get overbearing on repeat viewings.
There are endless propaganda videos playing the background for military recruitment. There’s Neil Patrick Harris in a Gestapo uniform. There are kids taking bullets like they’re candy. The entire film plays out like a propaganda film for the characters of the Starship Troopers universe.
THE SCRIPT
Though we know the film was based on the book by the same name, the film satirizes the up-level fascism philosophy that the book glorified. Verhoeven is noted for having only gotten a few chapters into the book before throwing it down in disgust, as he’d lived in Nazi-occupied Holland in the ’30s, and decided his film would deride the book’s message.
So if at times the cheesy dialogue from the film seems more in common with the ideas expressed in the book, that’s because Verhoeven originally had a film idea called “Bug Hunt” which he wrote a script for, and then Frankenstein-ed it to fit the Starship Troopers storyline.
THE CGI DEATH SCENES
In all fairness, for 1997, Starship Troopers’ CGI is pretty great. It’s some of the best CGI of the era, and it’s clearly where all the 100 million dollar budget went. The bugs are incredibly realistic for homicidal extra-terrestrials, even in the scenes where there’s hundreds of them.
The CGI of some of the death scenes, however, is where things gets funky. People don’t just sort of “explode” the way they do when they get torn into by a bug. That, and some sequences with the Brain Bug making a snack of Doogie Houser.
LACK OF DIVERSITY
There’s a surprising lack of diversity among the main cast, especially for a film contributing to the science fiction genre. Even the space marines in Aliens represented a variety of ethnicities, all central to moving the plot forward.
In the book on which the film is based, Juan “Johnnie” Rico is a Filippino man and raised in South America, which should have given the casting director of the film an opportunity to cast a person of color in a leading role.
THE FILM QUALITY
Unlike Star Wars: Episode I- The Phantom Menace, which was made at the same time and shot digitally, Starship Troopers was shot on film, and as a result looks dated when seen on current televisions.
With the switch to 4k by a large majority of viewers, especially fans of sci-fi, not every film is going to display with crystal clear picture quality, even after being remastered. Starship Troopers is one of those films that looks a little grainy on a rewatch.
THE ILLOGICAL TACTICS
While the film is satirical, and therefore the questionable tactics of its military forces can be somewhat understood through that lens, there are certain illogical maneuvers that require the most devoted suspension of disbelief from a more astute action fan.
From squadrons bunching up as tight as possible without any scouts to putting the support structure of forts on the outside of the walls, nearly every action the military takes against the bugs is head-scratching. John Wick watching audiences these days are sophisticated enough to count the number of rounds in a gun, futuristic or not.
THE AGE OF THE ACTORS
Despite staring at Casper Van Dien and Denise Richards sitting in desks, it’s difficult for viewers to wrap their heads around the fact that these actors were quite a way out of their teenage years when they took the roles.
It would be easy to excuse some of their choices in the film, like Carmen stringing Johnny along only to dump him once their relationship is long distance, if they could believably be seen as teenagers, but rationalizing immature behavior from characters who look like they’re in their ’30s is too difficult.
ITS LENGTHY FRANCHISE
It’s a nearly universally acknowledged truth that films in a franchise have diminishing returns on plot, performances, and presentation. Only a few notable films have spawned franchises whose quality continues to endure.
Starship Troopers spawned five films, an animated series, and several video games, but none of them managed to top their progenitor. Even Caspier Van Dien, appearing in the third and fifth films, couldn’t elevate their material, which varied wildly in cohesiveness.
