I watched Starship Troopers the other night on Netflix. Haven’t read the book.
It is a silly movie, which is fine. Clearly aimed at teens. It seems that in the future you don’t graduate from high school until you’re 25. It is a bit hard to believe Earth can send hundreds of troopers to an alien planet, but not a single armored people carrier or artillery.
No matter how many times the aliens attack the same way, no one ever figures out they should set up their Mobile Infantry in such a way that the troopers behind the six people in the front can shoot at the critters. However, it does set them up for some gruesome death scenes.
From the Wikipedia entry:
“I wanted to do a big, silly, jingoistic, xenophobic, let’s-go-out-and-kill-the-enemy movie, and I had settled on the idea that it should be against insects … I wanted to make a war movie, but I also wanted to make a teenage romance movie.”
Consider it, goal accomplished!