Starship Troopers (1997)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1997
	Director: Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Total Recall)
	Actors: Casper Van Dien (Sleepy Hollow), Denise Richards (Wild Things, The World is not Enough), Dina Meyer (Saw), Michael Ironside (Total Recall), Neil Patrick Harris (Gone Girl, How I met your Mother TV-series)
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 11.10.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: In a future totalitarian society, one has to enlist in the Federation Army to earn to right to be a citizen and thus vote. Against the wish of his rich parents, Johnny Rico (Van Dien) enlists as did his friends Carl (Harris) and girlfriend Carmen (Richards), at the time when Earth is at war against an alien race called Arachnids.
Review: For more background information on the Starship Troopers saga, I invite you to read the article I wrote some years ago. I am surprised that I haven't watched and reviewed this Starship Troopers since the creation of JoRafCinema as it is one of my favorite movies, but here it is now. As written in the aforementioned article, I already appreciated Paul Verhoeven for movie like Total Recall and Robocop (not on the blog either!?! I have got to get the latest Blu-ray release), and I have always loved Starship Troopers in spite of the critics, seeing it for what it was: a criticism of a totalitarian society supported by exaggerated characterization of the protagonists. I smile at the stupid rules in that society, I like the characters and have aways been impressed by the special effects and battle scenes, although I noticed this time when watching it on a HD Home Cinema that the image quality is not at the level of what one would expect from a Blu-ray. A new edition based on a new HD transfer would then be welcome, maybe for the 20th Anniversary in 2017?... Other things I like in this movie: the soundtrack by Basil Poledouris (that you can appreciate on a separate audio track on the American Special DVD Edition), the bad-ass character of Rasczak played by the unmissable Michael Ironside, and the unaltered violence displayed generously as usual by Paul Verhoeven. I was glad to see that the movie hasn't really aged yet and in spite of its simplicity still produces the same effect on me as it did when I was 17: total enthrallment!
Rating: 9 /10