I thought it was a very good, possibly great movie. It looked great, the characters were flawed but funny in their own way. The actors were good. The special effects were above par and the story was pretty exciting with a decent amount of action and bloody gore.
In a nutshell, Starship Troopers is a way above average Sci-Fi/Action flick with enough excitement to keep our attention from beginning to end!
It was a satire of a popular book. Fans of the book probably wanted to see a faithful adaptation of the book.
I thought it was a poor war movie. The soldiers for the most part seemed to be cannon fodder who could hardly be bothered to use the sights on their rifles. Sending ground troops in without air support is stupid. Lots of goofy crap in the movie.
I saw the film several times before I read the book. I'm a big fan of Heinlein but I have to admit on this occasion the book was a bit of a disappointment - probably worth reading again though just to be sure.
You may be right and I've always really liked the film. But I've read and enjoyed a lot, actually probably most, of his stories over the years and I was expecting to like this one too.
As a movie itself, it is great. It's an awesome satire on the dangerousness of humans.
I like at the end where the psych reads the lead bug's mind and says, "It's afraid" yeah not because it lost but because it's afraid of humans.
However, I read the book and as the previous poster said, it was nothing like the book. So, the movie took the book and made a mockery of it. That is pretty insulting to the source material.
So, it's a great movie by itself but horrible based on the name of the book.
You see it all the time with movies based on a book or play and when they change something for the movie people think that the movie is how the source material is.
SAW IT AT THE THEATER WHEN IT CAME OUT...I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL..DUDE NAMED LUCAS IN MY ANIMAL HEALTH CLASS ALSO LOVED IT...WE SPENT THAT WHOLE SEMESTER EXCHANGING LINES AND DISCUSSING THE AWESOMENESS OF STARSHIP TROOPERS,AND WHAT AN ASSHOLE XANDER WAS.
I loved the movie and still do today. I remember the reviews being harsh in that they thought the characters where a bunch of Ken and Barbies going to war. In other words all the actors were too pretty for the movie.
The satire was overly exaggerated. It made the movie looked cheap. If this was made in a totally clear manner that it's a satire (like, say Team America muppet dolls style) it would do fine.
Robocop was also a satire, but it keeps the seriousness, good acting (Peter Weller acting was totally convincing!) and high production value. Robocop looked like a real theatrical movie. Starship Troopers looked like a low-budget TV movie, with wooden and goofy acting, cheap looking special effects, etc. That's what people don't like about Starship Troopers, not the satire
The effects were great at the time and mostly hold up today! The casting and acting was intentional. You seem to prove Zinger's point here: it was far too intelligent for certain audiences.