Why did Starship Troopers bomb?

[Traditional_Ale]

So I finally saw Starship Troopers (the first one) for the first time the other day and again today and I can't believe how freaking awesome I think it is. Seriously, how did it bomb? Its a perfect satire. But more than that for me, having been formerly a Starcraft player, thought the whole movie was a parody of Starcraft, and in that regard it was simply amazing.

I am so sorry to everyone involved in this film that it wasn't a sucess, cause it was freaking wicked.

[T@T]

I think the first one actually did very well in the theaters, the next one totally sucked. I think they might have made a third, not sure.

In the end the only memory I have is that the very pretty Dina Meyer needed a boob job in the worst way.

[Hack&Lube]

I loved Starship Troopers as well but if you really look at it, it doesn't seem like that good a movie and at the time, audiences didn't understand the satire.

It was also totally not true to the original Starship Troopers (a 50s era novel).

It's a great flick with cool designs and a fun cast but they turned it into what was more 90210 in Space meets Starcraft than the kind of movie that can make millions in the theatres. It's a B sci-fi of the 90s. Paul Verhoeven is still great though. It's too bad he didn't have a bigger budget and that CG technology was too behind at the time to really capture what Starship Troopers is. For instance, the mobile infanty of Starship Troopers aren't just guys running around in paintball armor, they are actually supposed to be wearing full powered armor suits (imagine crossing the exo lifter from Aliens with the powered armor from District 9).

It's unfortunate given Denise Richards appearance in Wild Things that Dina Meyer...nevermind.

The Starship Troopers Universe (facist government of Earth, citizenship gained through military service, etc.) would have been amazing under someone like James Cameron.

Verhoeven is still good but he admits that sci-fi is not his thing (even though he did Robocop) and the whole thing with funny commercials and propaganda news etc. went a little overboard in that style and audiences didn't seem to get it.

[dj_patm]

I just liked the boobs. Boobs are awesome.

It bombed cause it was too serious to be funny and too funny to be serious (by funny I mean, exaggerated, cheesy-on-purpose... etc)

[Blaster86]

Any movie with a Busey is a great movie in my books!

[Super Nintendo Chalmers]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Verhoeven is still good but he admits that sci-fi is not his thing (even though he did Robocop) and the whole thing with funny commercials and propaganda news etc. went a little overboard in that style and audiences didn't seem to get it.

I've always thought that Starship Trooper failed in that respect where Robocop succeeded. In any case, I liked the movie, even if I have to ignore its ham-handed attempt at a "message" when I watch it.

[LockedOut]

I've watched all 3 movies even though I'm not really a big fan. First one was good though. I watched the other two out of curiousity I guess.

[Flamesfan74]

They also did a 30 min CG cartoon a few years ago. It wasn't too bad for the few episode I saw.

[Pastiche]

Paul Verhoeven is awesome? Does anyone remember Showgirls?

[worth]

Read the book. It's a pretty quick read, but is a million times better then the movie. The book is on the USMC, US Army and US Navy required reading list.

That being said, the movie isn't all that terrible. They could have done worse, and yes, there is a lot of good satire in the movie. It is almost overboard, but most people don't notice it really until you point it out.

[ken0042]

I seem to recall the 1st one doing well, the 2nd one bombing because none of the original cast was in it. I watched the 3rd one on Blu-Ray; but unlike the 1st I won't be watching it again.

Funny that you call it a satire TA- I had never seen it as being that; perhaps the facist gov't was a little bit- but then I also liked them showing future Earth as being something other than the Star Trek paradise.

[old-fart]

Robert A. Heinlein is one of the true masters of science fiction.

[worth]

I don't think the book was meant to be overly satirical, or even fascist. Heinlein believed in the stuff he wrote, I'm not sure if he was a fascist or not, but his book did have fascist elements to it.

However the movie came across as extreme fascism to me. The propaganda updates throughout the movie, the jackboots, the grey uniforms, the eagle logos, the physical punishment for wrongdoing (which is in the book), federal service, becoming a citizen, the intelligence gestapo with their long black trench coats, public executions etc. The ties to Nazism in the movie are overbearing, and I don't think it's exactly what Heinlein had in mind when he wrote the book.

I think the ideas in the book and the ideas in the movie are two separate things altogether. Heinlein encourages service to ones country, the movie almost mocks service by having a bunch of kids reading the propaganda then going to war.

I remember watching this movie when I was 13. It made $22 million in its first weekend in 1997, which is decent and grossed $121 million. Certainly didn't bomb.

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1997/STARS.php

[CaptainCrunch]

I liked the first one, I thought it was fairly well done, and come on, Michael Ironside is just the bomb when it comes to B movie excellence. The message in the book was slightly lost. In the movie they hinted at a almost Nazi like Society run by the veteran's who got tired of the hash that Civillians made of the government. The book was very well done and totally changed the father son dynamic, but focused more around Rico's evolution as a soldier and a leader then the war against the bugs themselves.

The second movie was terrible, a low budget carboard setted mix mash of hash. The only thing it had in common was that the woman who played the starship captain in the first one played one of the trapped marines in the second one.

The third movie actually had the power armour, but the special effects were walmart quality, and it had a whole religious explosion angle in it as the facists government run by the government became a thocracy as well as God was on the side of the humans. It did feature the return of Johnny Rico, but it also showed why the chick who played the Vulcan in Enterprise should get into porn because she certainly can't act. The third movie was terrible and cringe worthy and cheesy.

[Bertuzzied]

It was awesome. The first one. And it made playing starcraft way more enjoyable, even though it is the best video game ever created.

[icecube]

Off the top of my head it underperformed because... Johnny Rico is way too cool of a name for anyone to have and is therefore phony.

Also when some of the troopers are killed they are inexplicably brought back to life, yet others suffer the same fate and remain dead. This is never explained if I recall correctly.

Third, it didn't have enough boobs and extremely gory deaths to make up for the silliness factor. It needed MORE (Denise Richards? Hello!).

Oh yeah, and Casper Van Dien is not leading man material.

[Bigtime]

Starship Troopers is just plain awesome, I love it for its cheesiness and camp value. It's in my DVD collection and I make a point to watch it at least once a year.

I am always impressed by how well the CG and miniature models have held up, I think it may have been one of the last films to use models for the spaceships (like the original Star Wars) instead of CG. I've always like how the models seem to give off a much more realistic feel than computer rendered ships.

"You kill bugs good."

And you better believe I was thinking about it when I was in Buenos Aires in 2008, kept walking around thinking this is the place that the bugs waxed in the film.

Some trivia from IMDB on the film:

-Paul Verhoeven admits to never finishing the novel, claiming he read through the first few chapters and became both bored and depressed.

-Director Paul Verhoeven and cinematographer Jost Vacano shot one take of the co-ed shower scene in the nude themselves (on a dare from star Dina Meyer).

[Gozer]

It's my favourite DVD until it gets scratched or I find one that's better.

[blankall]

The movie did alright, but the budget for it was huge.

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/se...ipTroopers.php

100 million budget. It brought in 121 million worldwide and just under 55 million domestic. Personally, I thought the movie was great. The pace is perfect for an action/sci fi movie. The satire is done very well. It's a movie that I can watch over and over again.

[Prototype]

It didn't bomb... it had NPH. 'Nuff Said.