On the bounce

by Will on January 3, 2010

io9 has an interesting post on the appeal of Starship Troopers.

Tagged as: Robert Heinlein, science fiction, Starship Troopers

Will writes from Washington, D.C. (well, Arlington, Virginia). You can reach him at willblogcorrespondence at gmail dot com.

{ 7 comments }

1 Sonny Bunch January 4, 2010 at 2:00 pm

Damn. I was hoping that was about the movie Starship Troopers, which remains one of my favorite movies of the ’90s.

2 Will January 4, 2010 at 2:02 pm

Dude, seriously?

3 Sonny Bunch January 4, 2010 at 2:11 pm

I mean, it’s not one of the “best” movies of the 90s. But it’s an incredibly interesting one, all the moreso because of the reaction to it afterwards.

4 Will January 4, 2010 at 2:16 pm

I remember watching it and feeling a crushing sense of disappointment afterward. I think Verhoeven admitted he didn’t actually finish reading the book, which strikes me as a complete waste of great source material.

5 Sonny Bunch January 4, 2010 at 2:19 pm

Oh, yeah, it’s nothing like the book. Hence my disappointment you linked to a story about the book, not the movie.

6 Scott January 4, 2010 at 2:31 pm

I didn’t think the book as literature was all that great as it was so similar to the to other 50′s fiction but I did think the the philosophical part was interesting. As for the movie, it was entertainment and Dina Myers was hot.

7 greginak January 4, 2010 at 3:05 pm

Funny, the movie was on while I was at the gym yesterday. Didn’t listen to it although I watched a bit. It’s not like the dialogue mattered. There were some cool effects but as has been noted, its not particularly like the book, other than space marines and bugs. I could enjoy as mindless sci fi except that the movie is just really dumb even on its own terms. They have crappy bland actors, guns they don’t seem to know how to aim and in the future they have forgotten about things like guided missiles, air cover, tactics. Just dumb.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman is often seen as a response to troopers and was a better book. Of course it is not a ra ra juvenile fantasy.

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