It's A Good Day To Die! New Starship Troopers Trailer!

[Zontar]

By Verhoeven's own admission, it is a stealth parody.

He has a very odd definition of "stealth" given that would be spotted on a radar a thousand miles away.

OT: I've enjoyed all the movies (and even the show) so far, so I'm looking forward to this. After Invasion and seeing this, I think it was a smart move for them to shift to animation given that the budgets these movies work on now are too small to do much in live action, and this looks like it'll be the most faithful movie to date in the series.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

When I was first sent this I thought it was a game at first.. They need to make this into a game.

Of course I will watch this, but IT NEEDS TO BE A GAME

 

[Anti-American Eagle]

I never got the rave for Starship Troopers. It's supposed to be satire I guess? But it plays out exactly like the thing it's parodying?

By Verhoeven's own admission, it is a stealth parody. It plays sort of straight with most of the plot beats and you can absolutely watch it as a silly action movie. But all that shit that goes on, like why they have live fire ranges in the middle of their drill yard, why soldiers hand out live ammunition to kids, the way people start stomping Earth bugs etc. are all intentional. As are the stupid tactics, the jingoism and the casting choices that makes the entire main cast seem like a propaganda effort (Van Dien sure has a strong cheek line). By the time the final battle of the movie rolls around it even goes into overdrive to show you how the new soldiers are teenagers, which is essentially the movie telling us how stupid and wasteful the entire thing is. Oh, and NPH's actual Wehrmacht uniform, in case you feel the nazi allegory wasn't subtle enough.

The entire movie plays its' action movie beats straight, but the subtext is all about how Heinlein's Federation is a stupid idea that enables jingoism and fascists and that fascism is a terrible political system to live in. The fact that the movie isn't in your face with its' satire and parody, to the point that even most movie critics missed it when it was released, is what makes it appealing to me.

In what world was it subtle? In what world was it stealth?

Oh right... to people who were told it was fascist by people who were told it was fascist by people who were told it was fascist-...

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I can't watch the video, so I'll just ask if the movie is following the original book. It would be interesting if the main character was Filipino (at least to me).

 

[Hawki]

The original book played it straight, the film of the book played it as biting satire, which was lost on the sequels that then continued to play it straight

I feel that's kind of underselling the third film, which returns to the satire of the first film. It does its satire far more on the nose than Verhoven's film, but still does it. Even the second film presents a very cynical take on the Federation.

Invasion seems to play it straight though, and as far as I can tell, so does Traitor of Mars.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

...Animated Starship Troopers movie, you say? Colour me very interested. I didn't... hate the live-action ones after the first one (2nd movie was garbage, 3rd one was cheesy enough to be ok), but the animated series was fucking awesome back in the day.

Granted, gonna have to catch it digitally since, well, Australia, but still keen as hell.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

So, Johnny Rico has become Snake?

Meh, whatever, I'll give it a go when it comes around.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

By Verhoeven's own admission, it is a stealth parody.

He has a very odd definition of "stealth" given that would be spotted on a radar a thousand miles away.

To be fair, it was released in '97, and back then it was very subtle since a lot of it's film techniques and narrative choices were common elements in non-parody films. Nowadays it's as stealthy as writing your name in nuclear bombs, but when it first came out it was very easy to miss the satire and just think it was a B-rate action movie with an odd choice in politics.

Which technically means it was really successful, then? When you're satire's so subtle people think you're playing it straight...

[sub]Also fuck I'm old, '97 was 20 god damn years ago, I remember seeing it in the bloody cinema...[/sub]

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

When I was first sent this I thought it was a game at first.. They need to make this into a game.

Of course I will watch this, but IT NEEDS TO BE A GAME

Don't tell anyone I told you this, but it's called 'Helldivers' ...and it's as close a game has gotten to the spirit of the film so far.

 

[Bobular]

Yeah, saw the first one on a shelf and had to buy it strait away. This too will be an instant buy for me as I loved the first one.

Also the 21st is my Brother's birthday, so if there is a showing anywhere near me we'll probably go to that as he's a massive fan, the original Starship Troopers book is one of the few books he's read more than once (it got to the stage where it would have been cheaper to buy a copy rather than go out to the library to keep renting it every few months at one point).

 

[Cycloptomese]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12583551/1/Starship-Troopers-Ghosts-of-Mars

Now that I've got that shameless plug out of the way, I'll start by saying that I've only seen films 1-3, and never saw Invasion. What made the first film great (in addition to other things) was its use of sattire on militarism, satire that film 2 abandoned and film 3 brought back to some degree, albeit not as effectively. Invasion and now this film seem to be straight-up action films. And sure, the first film is a good action film, but it at least had some more to it than that.

Also a bit anime-ish, and no, I'm not talking about the OVA. I know the suits there are more in keeping with the novel, and Marauder mechs were introduced in the third film, but, well, yeah. And how the heck is Dizzy still around?

Seriously, how the heck is Dizzy still around? I'm curious about this as well.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

You know, Starship Troopers always was kind of the definition of a typical "movie my dad likes", which also includes most other action movies Paul Verhoeven made. And I've seen it with him once and... I don't get it. I mean, I get the joke, militarism is stupid, haha, what I don't get is the appeal. It's just too much of bland space marines fighting bland bugs in bland environments. I thought those propaganda newsreels were kinda cute but Robocop did them better.

If I want to see a dumb action movie parodying a fascist society and its messed up idea of masculinity and heroism I'm just gonna watch 300 again.

The only thing funny about it now is that it couldn't be made today... because half of it's potential audience would dislike it for making fun of fascism and the other half would accuse it of promoting fascism.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

That... doesn't look bad actually, we even have Solid Snake. Just hope we don't get the tongue in cheek of the first movie.

Aww come on, the tongue-in-cheek was the best part! The movie is so absurd and such a parody of Fascism and war movies.

My problem with it is that it's directly based on a novel and shares the name but exists to undermine it. It just feels wrong morally, especially as this is how most audience will know the work for the exact opposite reason.

Yeah but ask yourself if the novel really deserves to be taken seriously? I mean look at Batman for example. People think Adam West's Batman and the Schumacher are some great stain on the totes serious legacy of a rich man in a bat costume fighting clowns and people who self identify as penguins. How serious should we be taking then, and is the comedic/satirical approach really that different from the straight-laced approach?

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

When I was first sent this I thought it was a game at first.. They need to make this into a game.

Of course I will watch this, but IT NEEDS TO BE A GAME

Don't tell anyone I told you this, but it's called 'Helldivers' ...and it's as close a game has gotten to the spirit of the film so far.

I was playing the actual Starship Troopers game. Good Times!

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

You know, Starship Troopers always was kind of the definition of a typical "movie my dad likes", which also includes most other action movies Paul Verhoeven made. And I've seen it with him once and... I don't get it. I mean, I get the joke, militarism is stupid, haha, what I don't get is the appeal. It's just too much of bland space marines fighting bland bugs in bland environments. I thought those propaganda newsreels were kinda cute but Robocop did them better.

If I want to see a dumb action movie parodying a fascist society and its messed up idea of masculinity and heroism I'm just gonna watch 300 again.

The only thing funny about it now is that it couldn't be made today... because half of it's potential audience would dislike it for making fun of fascism and the other half would accuse it of promoting fascism.

That's the point. The first movie takes so many deviations from the book precisely because unlike Heinlein Verhoeven had seen war firsthand as a young child (and survived the misery of the Dutch occupation), and he was making a critique of American militarism as presented in books about the nature of what it means to be a soldier and moral worth of soldiery that Heinlein presented. The idea that the soldier (and Heinlein's federation) is found in the idea that each and every soldier values simply the evasion of war's desolation. That the moral worth of a soldier was that they fight to keep war's desolation from their homeland. That if you simply had enough soldiers they would, collectively, realize why war must never be fought.

Which is, of course, disproven just by looking at the Great War. Apparently having massive standing armies does little but create the justifications to use it.

By presenting the movie as a massive tropish collage of various aspects of American militarism, he directly draws the insane satirization of the inherent propaganda that comes from the romanticisation of war at a distance. That war makes fascists of us all, and a culture of strength is capable of reducing its people to nothing but a uniform. You know, how like some Dutch turned stag on their own people, and how otherwise affable people can become monsters through systems of authority ala the Milgram experiment.

But you're right, mostly. When the movie came out people accused it as making fun of both the book and fascism, and the other half of people called it a dumb action move (didn't see it as a celebration of fascism, because how could you?). Spectacular action without a cohesive, deep narrative. So it was panned by critics to begin with, before suddenly their hippocampuses decided to function again and remember it was the same guy that made Robocop and Total Recall and maybe there was layers underneath layers... of course he did make Showgirls so maybe you can forgive them?

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

When I was first sent this I thought it was a game at first.. They need to make this into a game.

Of course I will watch this, but IT NEEDS TO BE A GAME

Don't tell anyone I told you this, but it's called 'Helldivers' ...and it's as close a game has gotten to the spirit of the film so far.

I was playing the actual Starship Troopers game. Good Times!

That game looks terrible though, why would you impose that upon somebody else? :O Some things are best forgotten.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

When I was first sent this I thought it was a game at first.. They need to make this into a game.

Of course I will watch this, but IT NEEDS TO BE A GAME

Don't tell anyone I told you this, but it's called 'Helldivers' ...and it's as close a game has gotten to the spirit of the film so far.

I was playing the actual Starship Troopers game. Good Times!

That game looks terrible though, why would you impose that upon somebody else? :O Some things are best forgotten.

Aww, its not so bad. Didn't age well sure, but as a piece of forgotten gaming history, I don't mind it. Besides one of the few 90s era games I can remember where you wake up naked next to a lady type on a battleship before putting on power armor to shoot aliens.
And at the end of the day, is that not what Starship Troopers is all about?!

 

[Scarim Coral]

All I know is that this is a sequel to the first film, Invasion and from what I've seen from the reviews, it gotten average/ medium scores at best.