This is one of those rare action/sci-fi movies that actually is more intelligent than it appears. At first blush, Starship Troopers seems like a combo of 90210 and Aliens. Sure, it does offer not-so-bright, eye-candy heroes and heroines, but it offers them with a purpose. Verhoeven slyly presents a story with all the trappings of a slick actioner in order to comment and subvert all the usual expectations. It's as if he wanted to make the ultimate fascist propaganda film, then comment on the film he's making. If you walk away from the film thinking...that was a dumb pro-war film glorifying violence, then you totally missed the point.
He takes those standard themes and pushes them so far/so ridiculously over-the-top that it actually becomes an indictment. The heroes are so jingoistic as to become idiots. The monsters are so inhuman that they become actual bugs. The violence is so violent that it goes from shocking to hilarious. For those who loved Verhoeven's other forays into sci-fi (Robocop and Total Recall), Starship Troopers stands as his last great film.
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