Unpopular opinions go here

[Guest 85555]

Starship Troopers suffers a bit for being a reaction to how Robocop was recieved. Robocop was a lot more subtle satirically and even today people miss what its actually doing, but back then even less people really got it.

Something about Robocop for me, it just feels like one of those perfectly made movies. If I had to compile a top ten list of films, I am sure it would be in my top five. And it is the kind of movie you can go to and keep finding things on new viewings. I was quite young when it came out, maybe 11, and I remember a friends dad taking us to see it.

The scene where he gets shot early on by Boddicker was the kind of thing that just sticks with you. I think it was the first time I had seen something like that happen to the protagonist and it depicted as the most brutal and cruel execution you can imagine. I have seen plenty of similar movies where a guy becomes something more powerful through a death or mishap, but I don't think any I have seen before or since gave the rest of the movie the weight that gave it (it just heightened everything and made the stakes feel enormous).

In terms of the satire I think it is well done. I don't know I would say it is subtle. I think one of the things I like bout Verhoeven is how unsubtle he is (with Robocop, scenes like the ED-209 going out of control leap to mind, or the commercials sprinkled throughout the movie---and the fact that both bad guys have 'Dick' in their names). But I do like how it was done in Robocop because it is threaded through the whole movie. The part that I think went over a lot of peoples heads though is the American Jesus thing (even though it is incredibly obvious in hindsight).

 

[payn]

I think the source novel is a good book. Opinions will vary of course. It definitely takes a much more right wing and militaristic view than I myself hold, but as a reader I enjoyed engaging with the ideas Heinlein had and with the story in the book (he at least presented some interesting arguments even if I didn't share his conclusions). And I liked his writing style (all other aspects of the book aside, Starship Troopers was one of those novels I had to read in one or two sittings because I just kept wanting to go further into the story). One thing I like about a lot of the older science fiction from that era is you do have a range of political and philosophical points of view spread among them. He is not my favorite science fiction writer, but I see why people like him a lot (I tend to prefer people like Clarke, Herbert, Niven and Asimov).

There were some works of Heinlein I liked, but over all I did not like his political leanings, particularly Starship Troopers. I vastly preferred P.K. Dick's examination of humanity through the cold war lens. I wont dive into politics though.

I had a friend who was a die hard Heinlein enthusiast, and that likely drove my dislike of ST even more. He was very excited about the ST movie coming out and insisted I go. We had many arguments about the novel. He made me a deal that he would pay for the ticket, and if I honestly disliked it, would not have to pay him back. Well, once the film started rolling, his smile and my frown reversed in short order. For me, it must have felt the way Jodorowsky felt when he saw Lynch's Dune. My friend was right, I paid him gladly for the ticket.

 

[Guest 85555]

There were some works of Heinlein I liked, but over all I did not like his political leanings, particularly Starship Troopers. I vastly preferred P.K. Dick's examination of humanity through the cold war lens. I wont dive into politics though.

To be clear, I don't like his politics either. It is just that won't ruin a story for me (especially if I like how they handle their politics in the story)

 

[Guest 85555]

I had a friend who was a die hard Heinlein enthusiast, and that likely drove my dislike of ST even more. He was very excited about the ST movie coming out and insisted I go. We had many arguments about the novel. He made me a deal that he would pay for the ticket, and if I honestly disliked it, would not have to pay him back. Well, once the film started rolling, his smile and my frown reversed in short order. For me, it must have felt the way Jodorowsky felt when he saw Lynch's Dune. My friend was right, I paid him gladly for the ticket.

This is one of the things that make the movie interesting to me. It is a response to Heinlein's politics in in the book. For me, good science fiction can be an ongoing conversation like that

 

[payn]

To be clear, I don't like his politics either. It is just that won't ruin a story for me (especially if I like how they handle their politics in the story)

This is one of those situations where it ruined both for me.

 

[Velderan]

You should take advantage of Amazon's black Friday streaming fire sale (many many services offered for 2 months for 2 dollars). Not saying you should use the sale for Trek, but if you want a service for cheap it’s a great offer.

Last year Peacock had a Black Friday deal where the ad supported tier was 99 cents per month for the first year. We don’t watch much on it, but you’d be hard pressed to not find 99 cents a month worth of entertainment on it. Definitely a good time of year to be watching for these deals since these companies seem content to continue to set fire to money in the pursuit of profitability.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You should take advantage of Amazon's black Friday streaming fire sale (many many services offered for 2 months for 2 dollars). Not saying you should use the sale for Trek, but if you want a service for cheap its a great offer.

Nah. Thanks for the heads up, though! Someone else here can probably use it.

 

[MGibster]

I haven’t watched any of the Trek reboot, and the little bit of the TV show that aired on broadcast TV guaranteed I wasn’t going to pay for a subscription service to continue watching it. I haven’t watched any of the subsequent Trek series either.

I gave up on Trek with Enterprise. Very first episode in fact. I only watched Strange New Worlds because they put it on YouTube a few months back and I found that I really, really enjoyed it. It had some of the best aspects of Star Trek without being smug about how much better they were than everyone else. (The characters in TNG were very smug about their superiority I thought.) But I'm not going to pay for another subscription no matter how much I like SNW.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I like the book but I also enjoy that the movie is so different from the book (and in some ways a reaction to it). I think both are amazing works of science fiction

The book was Ok. The movie's chief failing was that so much of it was so very, very, very stupid. The only reason I sat through it was because I had read the book repeatedly as a teen, and wanted to see how much they kept of it (not much).

 

[aramis erak]

I don't know if the satire is genius but it is very entertaining. I think the reason people say that about it is apparently a number of folks didn't realize it was a satire and took the message the movie was mocking literally (I honestly don't know how one could misread it though because the satire is as subtle as a sledge hammer).

Verhoeven denied it being sattire, and that's probably why most don't consider it such. Verhoeven did admit to deconstruction. He wasn't aiming for humor, or so he claims, he was aiming to make the Federation look as bad as possible. Not all satire is deconstruction, and not all deconstruction is satire. He did, in one interview, make unkind assertions about fans of the film, too.

That it was humorous as hell? if not by intent, than by carelessness or ineptitude. Perhaps even by sabotage from his subordinates.
Movies 3 and later are also fun.