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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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Video Error Present in This Edition
FYI - From Joshua Zyber at High-Def Digest (I have not confirmed this myself. I'm waiting for word on the resolution of this before buying my copy):
"A bizarre editing problem has been discovered on the Sony Blu-ray. Thanks to reader Tim for sending in the following description of the issue, which I can verify is also present on my copy:"
"At 1:31.43 - 1:31.49, a bug climbs into the base and gets shot to pieces by the troopers, followed by a shot of Michael Ironside and Jake Busey shooting rounds into some (off-screen) bugs. After that, Casper Van Dien screams to Michael Ironside that help is on the way. Then at 1:32.00 - 1:32.06, exactly the same footage with the bug getting blown to pieces and the shot with Ironside and Busey is repeated! This time Ironside can be heard (not seen) saying, "Fall back into the compound. Fall back!" Also missing this second time is the sound of the guns tearing up the bug. I remember that on the DVD version, after the shot with Casper Van Dien and Dina Meyer, Michael Ironside says (and was seen on screen too) the "Fall back" line and then jumps off the barricade. All of this is missing on the Blu-Ray version."
"Indeed, I checked the Superbit DVD and the UK Blu-ray edition and both are edited differently, with Ironside voicing his line on camera and then jumping off the barricade. The repeated footage on the new disc is a strange anomaly and must be the result of an error in the source materials that Sony used for their transfer. For what it's worth, the problem lasts only six seconds, and the scene is edited so quickly that I didn't even notice until it was specifically pointed out to me."
Rating: 
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Bug Wars! Details for new Blu-ray due out August 5th, 2008, early video/sound reviews
It's humans versus giant space bugs! In the 23rd century, humans live on a crowded, militaristic Earth with fascist overtones. Three friends from high school join the military and serve in a war against grotesque insect-like aliens. We see war propaganda, training for war, sci-fi warfare (mostly not so different from current warfare), gung-ho attitudes set against the human (and bug) costs of war, and some romance. The action is well done, with impressive special effects, the plot compelling enough, the cast good-looking, the mood ironic/tongue-in-cheek mixed with realistic/gritty violence, and there's more, though the value of the "more" is debatable.
Director Paul Verhoeven had a serious purpose in mind, to show that "war makes fascists of us all," and it's clear he is satirizing militarism. But the film is such fun as a popcorn movie and sticks so close to a typical war movie plot, with a basically triumphant outcome, that the intended moral is undercut, or at least its cogency made less apparent. There's much in the film to make us uncomfortable about war/militarism, but there's as much or more that invites us to merely enjoy it, cheer it on, or otherwise see it as attractive, it seems to me. The lesson we can take from that is rather muddy. Shows war propaganda works, I suppose, but doesn't show that's a bad thing. (The "Put Yourself in the Film: Join the Fight!" feature described below seems to encourage us to participate in the war as fun.)
Among those who wish to take the film seriously, it also suffers from comparisons to the Heinlein classic novel it was uncomfortably married to. Verhoeven had limited interest in being true to the book, which he didn't even finish reading (though the screenwriter did). It's probably best to approach the movie initially without much of the baggage that would come from either a serious purpose or the book, and then if you can get more out of it from those connections (as some do), all the better.
The new Blu-ray edition will be released on August 5th. It will carry over special features from previous releases and add a few new ones. The new ones, exclusive to the Blu-ray release:
-- "FedNet Mode," described as "bonus view picture-in-picture with enhanced graphics," includes pop-up video, text and graphics that go into more detail about the movie, characters and story
-- BD-Live feature "Put Yourself in the Film: Join the Fight!," which allows you to insert yourself, or rather your uploaded image (internet connection to your player required), into some scenes from the movie
-- "Recruitment Test" trivia challenge
-- Blu Wizard, which allows easy, customizable access to features
The features carried over from older releases:
-- audio commentary by director Paul Verhoeven and screenwriter Ed Neumeier
-- audio commentary by Verhoeven and stars Dina Meyer, Casper Van Dien and Neil Patrick Harris
-- "Death from Above" documentary about the movie and its production, including interviews about what the filmmakers intended and how it was received (30 minutes)
-- "The Making of Starship Troopers" (7 minutes)
-- "The Spaceships from Starship Troopers" (4 minutes)
-- Special Effects Comparisons: 8 sequences showing the raw footage with the final version superimposed in picture-in-picture format
-- Storyboard Comparisons: 3 sequences showing original storyboards with the final movie versions superimposed picture-in-picture
-- Bug test film ("Don't Look Now"), with introduction by Verhoeven
-- "Know Your Foe," a five-part text and video clip featurette on each of the major types of bugs (Warrior, Tanker, Hopper, Plasma and Brain)
-- Scene Deconstructions: 2 scenes with commentary by Verhoeven
-- behind-the-scenes footage
-- 5 deleted scenes
-- screen tests
There isn't any mention of the isolated score audio track with comments by composer Basil Poledouris that was included on the 2-disc standard DVD Special Edition.
Video/sound: Amazon has waited so long to put up this page (July 31st) that I've already been looking over the early professional reviews to see about video and sound quality, so I'll pass along what I've found for anyone else interested. The reviews are generally quite positive, with some dissent. The consensus is that most of the movie is very sharp, clear, with realistic color. Grain and loss of detail are said to be problems in some scenes. One review complains that the high-def makes the special effects look awful, though it gives an overall 8/10 to the video. The sound is generally reported to be very good if not always spectacular, with a strong use of surround effects. The one dissenting review says the sound is like a bad TV movie(!), calling it "flat." Sounds like a good bet to me, overall. The video is 1080p (movie and new extras only) 1.85:1 widescreen, the audio TrueHD 5.1 (in English or French), with optional subtitles in English, English SDH, French or Spanish.
Not really a five-star movie for me, but I think the outstanding extras and the good transfer quality are worth bumping it up to five overall for an excellent package.
This release coincides with the release of Starship Troopers: Marauder (=Starship Troopers 3). As Starship Troopers 2 was in 2004, it will be released direct-to-DVD (which judging from the reviews means just what you'd expect). The Amazon page for ST3 on Blu-ray is here, the whole trilogy here.
![: Starship Troopers (+ BD Live) [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zjnTKLh6L._SL160_.jpg)
