Starship Troopers Blu-ray Review & Comments

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Starship Troopers, no matter the terrible acting style, is still a great watch almost ten years on. Obviously Verhoeven has a bee in his bonnet about getting certain themes across to the viewer. In Robocop the reduction of personal freedoms by overblown corporations, here the reduction of personal freedoms by the state. At times it's not as in your face or as satirically funny as Robocop but it still gets the point across. Underlying we have the menace of a society mobilising only for expansion and war. To serve the military in such a way has no other purpose and Verhoeven is not so subtlety trying to tell us to watch out for this. One day it's bugs, who knows who or what it might be next. Even without the supplied directors commentary backing all of this up it can be easily seen from moments in the film where phrases like "To ensure that Human civilisation, not insect dominates this galaxy now and forever" or the fact that most of the military wear costumes WWII Nazis tailors would have been proud of! Interspersed with propaganda adverts Verhoeven has suitably shown us a society on the march towards fascism, control and destruction.

Transfer wise you're not going to get much better than this. Certainly it's by no means perfect but those minor glitches are nothing if not fleeting. Sound wise, perhaps a little more exposure to the rears but apart from that I cannot fault it.

I was a little let down by the extras. Yes there's one or two but nothing there of substance, no real meat telling you something you didn't already know about this film or the movie industry as a whole. It's a travesty that the directors commentary wasn't included.

Watchers of Starship Troopers tend to fall into the love it or hate it camps. Most in the latter can't get by the Pinocchio acting technique. They are right of course, some of the acting at times doesn't get any worse than this. Does this enhance what is ultimately a B-Movie though, or just me sticking up for it? For my own part the themes, story, visual spectacle and utter mayhem in this film appeals. A lover of 50s Sci-Fi B-Movies and this has to be the best one of its genre from the 90's. It's always worth another watch and definitely worth an upgrade to Blu-Ray purely for those glorious visuals.
Read the full review...
 
Hi,

I can't see from the review what region it is?
Will it play on a region A machine?

Brian
 
It's UK, but is region free so will play on a US/Reg A machine.

Was going to wait for the US release in the hope of a few more extras but that seems to have been shelved indeffinately :rolleyes:

Will have to put this as another on my wanted list :eek:

A handy post here by pjclark1 with a HD/SD comparison and some screenshots.

Good review :smashin:
 
hi,

Thanks for that ... I'll go and get a copy.

Brian
 
I got mine in Gamestation the other day for £19.99. Works fine on my US PS3.
 
Good review, because it made me think :smashin:

I never really thought about it before, but I feel the plasticky, false acting is one of the reasons I like this film :confused:
I normally hate that type of acting, but here, it actually works well, IMO.
The ads always make me laugh :)
And you're right, it is a visual masterpiece :thumbsup:
 
Just noticed ASDA online are doing this for £16.97 with free delivery. Cheapest I've seen it anywhere so far.
 
I'd agree that the propaganda aspect is much more akin to the Nazi era - eg children being encouraged to play with guns, than the 50s Red paranoia.

Its a great film though as the director shows yet again his, for want of a better word, aesthetic when it comes to SF. I've always felt that SF/Future fantasy is the easiest genre to do badly and one of the hardest to do well. In Robocop, Total Recall, and Starship Troopers, the aesthetic works superbly well. In fact I'd put those three up with Brazil and Blade Runner in terms of creating a unifying and convincing look. The 5th Element for me is an example of how not to do this sort of film.

I'm going to rent this release, as I'm hopeful the eventual US release will have the directors commentary.
 
Thanks for your comments on Troopers.

I do love 5th element though, got some great scenes in it, visually gobsmacking on BluRay ( remastered ), intense chuckles, rock opera, costumes to die for. Hey the script leaves a lot to be desired but who cares lol :devil:

KH
 
I viewed my UK release Starship Troopers BD last night. I can confirm it works on my Region A (US) PS3 fine.

I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent transfer and resolution, as this is an old movie now. Great film too :thumbsup:

Image quality is among the best on BD in my opinion. Not up to Apocalypto standards of course, and only a little below Casino Royale.

2/3 of the way through, on the space station, the resolution takes a nose dive for about 30 seconds, with lots of grain, especially on faces when in front of the background blue screen space shot. A few other glitches elsewhere too, but generally very :smashin:

Best bit is the first grenade in the fire bug scene :eek:

Only disappointment is the lack of an English DTS soundtrack (only DTS for French and Spanish!) :mad:
 

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