Starship Troopers (1997) Rated R Starring: Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, and Denise Richards Rating: out of

Starship Troopers, which is based on Robert Heinlein's classic book, tells the story of two recent recruits into the Earth's intergalactic military force. Rico (Casper Van Dien) joins merely because his girlfriend, Carmen (Denise Richards), is joining up. Rico, however, doesn't have the smarts to get into the ranks any higher than Mobile Infantry while Carmen gets to pilot starships.

It appears that a race of bug-like creatures have been hurling meteors at Earth for some time and the threat of war looms over Earth. When the bugs launch an all-out attack on the new recruits' hometown of Buenos Aires, there is little choice but to turn all attention towards one goal: Destroying the bugs.

Now, I never read the original book, so I can't compare the book to the movie. However, that doesn't seem necessary considering the problems that the movie has on its own. The most obvious place to start would be to attack the really juvenile scenes involving the love interests between the recruits or the obvious concentration on the special effects over the storyline. But those are too obvious and, frankly, I expected the special effects-over-storyline problem anyway.

The true problem, for me, is that for an hour and a half, the movie gradually builds momentum. We learn about the characters and we see the training they go through to get where they are in the military ranks. We learn the weaknesses of the bugs. We see that the bugs may be more intelligent than previously thought. Then, we get approximately 30 minutes of action with a dash of sex and nudity and then the movie abruptly stops. It doesn't really wrap things up. It just ends.

I had no problem with the movie's sex, ultraviolence or excessive gore. (Director Paul Verhoeven, who brought the world Robocop and Showgirls, is known for these traits and I expected them.) I had no real problem suffering through the gung-ho/rah-rah military stuff in the second act. But, I did have a problem throwing down my money for a movie that doesn't end with an actual conclusion. It's as if the movie company simply ran out of film and told Paul Verhoeven to make an ending out of the footage he shot.

Yes, the bug effects are impressive. Yes, the military conflict scenes are spectacular. But, the movie just screeches to an unpleasant halt that really put a sour note on the whole affair. Simply and completely unsatisfactory.

Trivia: Michael Ironside, who plays the leader of the Roughnecks infantry unit, commanded the doomed Seaquest DSV for NBC following Roy Scheider's departure from the series. (Source: The Internet Movie Database)