Hi all. I realize this isn't a book, so please bear with my somewhat
off-topic-ness, but I just have to rant about this big hunk of crap (pardon
my language, but frankly, I'd like to call it a lot worse).
For any who intend to see it, I would recommend not paying full price.
Otherwise, on with my rant.
<<<<spoiler alert>>>>>>
First a disclaimer: I have not read the book, and I do realize that some of
these problems may only be with the treatment of the story by the makers of
the movie, and not any actual fault of the book itself, but right now I'm in
no real hurry to read the book, so if the book does any of this better, I
will bow to those who have read it.
Okay. Here goes:
1.) Not only was it very anti-feminist, it wasn't even good sci-fi.
2.) I'm very very tired of movies which go along with the old slasher-flick
rule of "Sex Equals Death." The only female character who survives the movie
is the young woman who declines having sex with anyone (at least where we can
see it). The woman who is the same age who decides to have sex (where we can
see), dies as soon as possible. Of course she's given the "dignity" of first
pulling off this big tactical win, but she dies pretty well right after. AND
her dying words are something to the effect of "At least I got to have you,"
to the rich, white, brawn-over-brains hero of the whole thing, whose heart
actually belongs to the other woman.
3.) A woman supposedly in an equal opportunity military outfit, upon being
asked if she'll take a certain command, replies with "I'm your girl."
Puh-lease!!!!
4.) Back to the "...not even good sci-fi" thing: A society that can come up
with faster-than-light travel and can simply *mend* flesh by basically
"knitting" it back together, somehow cannot come up with energy weapons,
energy shields, or even decent armor. *Everything* gets through this
armor!!! *And* they cannot build a fortification! They actually build a
compound with the structural supports for the outer walls on the outside!
(This is one of those that a friend reports was treated much better in the
book.)
5.) By the end of the movie, I felt like I'd been watching Nazi propaganda.
I saw a "Making of Starship Troopers" thing in which they said (sorry about
the "they", I don't remember who exactly had been talking at the time, but
"they" in this instance refers to the makers of the movie) that they'd been
trying to copy the old WWII newsreels and that sort of thing, but they also
brought along some frightening SS-looking uniforms for some of the good guys
which made me, at least, distinctly uncomfortable.
6.) Final point: I've recently been re-reading _Backlash_ by Susan Faludi,
and I'm reminded by Starship Troopers of the phenomenon in the fifties in
which suddenly all the movies were Westerns or war movies, effectively
shutting women completely off the screen. This movie doesn't shut women off
the screen, but it does leave most women out of the theater. Both the "war"
storyline, as well as the violence on the screen (I've been watching sci-fi
since childhood, so I'm kind of used to a bit of ooky-ness, and this had me
about ready to walk out of the theater), will make most women avoid it
altogether.
7.) And finally, on a purely stylistic note: I have a very difficult time
with any movie that decides it can depict the future by showing today's
fashions, only shiny and with go-go boots. For a group of movie-makers who
were so careful that their bugs looked good and realistic, they didn't care
much if the non-bug portions of the movie were even remotely realistic.
Okay, well, that's the basics of my rant. I just had to get this off my
chest, and hopefully give fair warning to anyone who was considering spending
real money on this. To be completely honest, I probably would have waited
for the video (if I saw it at all), but I was coerced by my dearest
boyfriend, who has a strange thing for bug movies. That's love for ya, I
guess. To his credit, he was deeply disappointed by it as well.
Well, thanks for listening (whatever) to my rant, and please forgive any
typos, I started this at 4am after seeing a midnight showing (thank goodness
I didn't pay full price for this thing!), and spending over an hour over
sodas (no product placement here!) commiserating with said boyfriend over how
bad it was.
Barbara Benesch
BJBenesch@aol.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:07:05 PDT