On top of the excellent special effects, Verhoeven humor, and action the film also features a great score by Basil Poledouris. This is the guy who basically invented the music for high fantasy, and his science fiction score here is almost as good as his classic Conan the Barbarian soundtrack. Going into Starship Troopers, you need to know that you will be viewing a Paul Verhoeven flick, and there are a couple things that come along with that.
But compared to his other films, this one ranks right up there with Robocop as one of his best. According to the packaging, it says that the disc was mastered in high definition, and while the image is a bit sharper and clearer in parts than the original DVD that had a damn pretty picture , there is also more grain and noise from time to time.
Despite that, as with the recent Memento Limited Edition, this DVD features much better colors and detail than the original release. It's still not perfect due to the grain, but this is probably the best we're going to get so we'd better enjoy it.
The Audio Since the disc is packed with two commentary tracks and a isolated score with commentary , there was only enough room to fit a Dolby Digital 5. Featuring thunderous bass and excellent room-filling surround sound during the action scenes, the soundtrack on the disc is still a treat for the senses and is only topped by a few select Dolby mixes. The Extras On disc one of the set you'll find the old commentary from the old DVD that features Paul Verhoeven and writer Ed Neumeier, but there are also two new commentary tracks.
The first is an isolated score track with comments by composer Basil Poledouris, which is a real treat, while the second is a new commentary track featuring Paul Verhoeven, Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, and Neil Patrick Harris.
This is a real fun commentary track, as most that feature the cast and director are. All four of them are really open in sharing their memories of the production of the film including some fun revelations. One includes Casper Van Dien explaining why he felt that they deserved to defeat Titanic in the effects Oscar race. Another is Neil Patrick Harris remembering when they went to Italy for the press tour and being asked to do the Nazi salute due to the way he is dressed in the movie.
Moving on to disc two you'll find the old making of featurette, the effects test reel, screen tests, and the deleted scenes from the original release along with a whole bunch of new features. Before diving into those, I just want to say that those deleted scenes are better left out of the film. I saw the movie with them included, and they begun to turn it into a Melrose Place backstabbing love story, which isn't what Starship Troopers is. Featuring both new, and recorded, interviews the special takes a somewhat retrospective look at the production of the movie.
It shows how they wanted to use all of the ideas from the book such as the power armor , as well as explaining to people the idea behind the movie and why everything is so fascist in it. Each featurette runs a few minutes, and you're able to view them alone or all at once as one long feature.
The raw footage plays, while in a tiny window the final scene can be seen. Specific sequences are: "Fednet Klendathu", "Censored! Some of the environments are pretty cool, and some of them are quite large. Some of the humor is effective.
But these parts aren't enough to stitch together the whole, and there isn't any particular reason I'd recommend Starship Troopers, as much as I liked the film. Was this article informative? YES NO. In This Article. Release Date. What did you think? Have you seen Starship Troopers?
In contrast, consider Aliens , a film that shares many similarities with Starship Troopers. Both films feature characters who mostly cannot be considered more than stereotypes. However, the execution of these roles differs radically. Aliens contained nary a less-than-terrific performance. You think people'd still be saying, "Game over, man! Case closed, man, case closed! While I think much of the success of Aliens came about simply because James Cameron's a better director than Verhoeven, I truly believe that the characters also had a lot to do with it.
Simply, the characters in Aliens were fun and fascinating. The people in Starship Troopers look better naked, but that's about it. When the Marines in Aliens went down, you felt something, you cared, you missed them.
When some died in Starship Troopers , I really couldn't have cared less. Despite all its faults, Starship Troopers remains fairly watchable and entertaining. It certainly packs a lot of action into its minutes, and Verhoeven does know how to make those scenes work. Many dislike the very graphic violence and gore in this film and many of his others , but that doesn't bother me.
The main problem with all the blood and guts is that they again diminish his message. While he may want to communicate some idea of the nasty nature of warfare, it's all so over the top that it becomes more comic than upsetting. Nonetheless, the battle sequences are fairly vivid and exciting. I certainly can't find any fault with the visual effects; the computer-animated bugs are top-notch, and the level of realism brought to them helps the audience find their world to be very realistic and believable.
Really, the battle scenes are the only parts of the movie that make the experience worthwhile. Starship Troopers has its moments, but overall it fails to offer a thrilling and compelling experience. Much of the picture looked fantastic, but some niggling concerns kept it from becoming reference level. Sharpness looked immaculate. The image consistently appeared crisp and detailed.
I saw virtually no examples of softness or fuzziness during this distinct and accurate presentation. Colors appeared excellent. The football game and the dance sequence early in the film offered simply astonishing hues that were intense and flawless. Black levels also came across as deep and dense, while shadow detail was clear and appropriately opaque. The only area in which Troopers lost points related to print flaws. While these never appeared heavy, they did seem too prevalent for such a recent movie.
Light grain cropped up at times, and I also noticed occasional examples of specks, grit, nicks, and spots. I also found the Dolby Digital 5. As one might expect from this sort of film, it offered a very active soundfield.
The track featured a lively and engaging presence throughout the flick. Music showed good stereo imaging, while effects popped up from all around the spectrum.
Those elements moved cleanly from channel to channel, and they blended together very well. The surrounds contributed a high level of material, especially throughout the many action sequences. The rear speakers added a lot of unique audio and helped to create a vivid and engaging experience. Audio quality also seemed good. Although much of it was looped, dialogue appeared crisp and natural, with no signs of edginess or problems related to intelligibility. Music was bright and distinct, and the score showed solid fidelity and range.
Effects were the stars of the show, of course, and they worked well. I thought gunfire came across as a little flat, but the rest of the mix seemed clear and clean, with virtually no distortion. Low-end response appeared excellent, as the movie pumped out lots of loud and tight bass.
Overall, the audio of Starship Troopers offered a vibrant and exciting presentation. Owners of the original DVD will want to know how its picture and sound quality compares with this new one. To my eyes and ears, they looked virtually identical.
This new two-disc release of Starship Troopers supplements the original single-platter edition. The special edition set provides two audio commentaries.
The first comes from director Paul Verhoeven and writer Ed Neumeier , both of whom were recorded together for this running, screen-specific affair. It works better than most commentaries because Verhoeven and Neumeier so strongly discuss what they tried to do.
Since they feel so many people misunderstood the movie, they take great pains to articulate their true intentions. Verhoeven spends too much of the track pointing out what visual effects were "real" and what were computer - which also contributed to my opinion that he's a very mechanical director - but even with that fault, the commentary is an excellent look at the film.
Next we find a second commentary. They all sat together for this running, screen-specific piece. It includes some useful material at times. However, the chat seems less formal and jokier. That tone can get annoying at times, mainly because the actors like to kid around and just relate what we see on screen. Verhoeven also repeats some info that appeared in the first commentary.
On the other hand, they appear nicely lively and uncensored, and they provide some fun anecdotes from the set. Each actor does an impression of Verhoeven to relate his manic attitude on the set, and it seems very amusing as well as informative.
A true isolated score for the most part, Poledouris rarely speaks over the music, which appears in Dolby Digital 5. He provides a lot of great information about his work and makes this a valuable addition to the package. DVD One concludes with a selection of Filmographies. This piece lasts 31 minutes and 55 seconds as it combines the usual mix of film clips, shots from the set, and interviews with participants. We learn about the origins of the project and the Robert Heinlein book and go through differences between the two.
We then get information about the shoot and more info about the fascist message. These elements come across particularly well since we get to compare film scenes with old propaganda.
Some of the information repeats what we get in the commentaries, but it still provides an entertaining and useful discussion. In the Know Your Foe domain, we locate five special effects featurettes. These programs run between 63 seconds and six minutes for a total of 16 minutes and 54 seconds of footage.
The pieces mix movie clips, varying stages of effects footage and pre-effects shots from the set, and interviews with participants. We hear from science fiction historian Paul Sammon, creature designer Craig Hayes, director Verhoeven, creature effects supervisor Phil Tippett, director of photography Jost Vacano, creature effects creator Alec Gillis, producer Jon Davison, human visual effects creator Kevin Yagher, and creature effects creator Tom Woodruff.
Overall, this is a nice collection of material. We learn a lot about the creation of the bugs and get good info about their development. The Starships of Starship Troopers provides a quick three minute and 25 second featurette.
It includes movie clips, some good behind the scenes images, and interviews with Verhoeven, spaceship visual effects supervisor Scott E. Anderson, and Jost Vacano.
Each lasts between 12 seconds and eight minutes, 35 seconds for a total of 28 minutes and 54 seconds of video snippets. These fill most of the frame with unfinished footage; we see either raw material from the original shoot or crude effects work. The clips mainly offer the original production audio, which is the best part; we hear Verhoeven shout at the actors and make all sorts of bizarre sound effects. Overall, I thought these snippets were a tremendous amount of fun.
Storyboard Comparisons offers a similar compilation, though it seems much less entertaining. The art takes up most of the screen, and we again see the final film in the little inset box. The three comparisons run seconds, six minutes and 50 seconds, and seconds, respectively. The Vintage Documentary offers little more than a superficial seven minute and 55 second promo reel, the kind you'd see between movies on HBO.
The behind the scenes footage provides a modicum of interesting material, but overall, this piece seems fairly useless, especially given the inclusion of the new documentary.
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