Today I want to talk about one of my favorite books of all time. A SciFi masterpiece written by my favorite author Robert A. Heinlen. Starship Troopers.
Starship Troopers is a lot of things. A simple SciFi story is not one of them. It deals with many things. Such as social responsibility, Communism, military service, and military history. There are many allusions to actual historic military figures and occurrences. All of these themes are skillfully interwoven into an entertaining and fascinating story.
I have read Starship Troopers at least 6 times. I love it. Even though it wasn't my first introduction to the story. No that came from the 1997 movie of the same name. The movie directed by Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Total Recall) had very little to do with the book. While it did have some of the same characters and many similar plot elements it was a very different beast. The movie was very much an action film. Which was somewhat of a departure from the source material. Even with the differences it suffered from some of the same criticisms as the book. Mainly in it's supposed promotion of militarism or even fascism.
The movie was not a huge success. As such a sequel took some time to arrive, and when it did it left much to be desired. "Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation" was released direct-to-video in 2004. None of the original cast appeared. The movie is your basic siege movie, a group of people hold up someplace while something or someone tries to kill them. Luckily the movie didn't aspire to much. It is what it is, and as such is enjoyable in its own right.
"Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation" was a much lesser movie than the first, and yet was followed by a sequel much quicker. A mere four years later on August 5, 2008 "Starship Troopers 3: Marauder" was released directly to DVD. While the first movie was a bombastic action movie and the second a somewhat corny but fun flick, the third movie was not very good. For some reason the makers of the movie decided to add a religious subplot to the movie. Having religious freedom be a large part of the movie. The phrase ham-fisted comes to mind. I found the movie thoroughly unlikable. Not even the return Casper Van Dien as Johnnie Rico could make it any better, and the inclusion of power armor , which had been hotly anticipated, also failed to save this movie. Let's hope the next movie the next movie "Starship Troopers: Invasion" will be better.
As with most SciFi classics Starship Troopers was also given the animated treatment. "Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles" was a CGI series based on both the book and first movie. It debuted in 1999 and ran for 36 episodes with 4 clip shows. I didn't watch much of the show, but from what I saw it was worth a look. "Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles" was not the only animated adaption of Starship Troopers. In fact it wasn't even the first.
That honor goes to the Japanese Anime "Uchu No Senshi" which translates to "Soldiers of Space". A six part anime OVA (Original Video Animation) from 1988. There isn't much I can say about the anime. I never saw it. It is very hard to find, but the simple fact that it exists show just how influential Starship Troopers was.
Along with the movies and TV shows Starship Trooper has lent itself to a number of games. Including Video Games, Board Games, RPGs, and even a miniatures game. None of which I ever played. Form me the book and the first movie where all I needed. They where and are two of my favorite pieces of SciFi.
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Wikipedia
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Starship Troopers: Invasion Offical Site
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