STARSHIP TROOPERS Is Getting A Reboot, But Is That A Good Idea?

So Columbia is running with a Starship Troopers reboot.  "Would you like to know more?"

LOL... Fans of the old film will get that.

OK, the 1997 film Starship Troopers, which has a 7.2 on IMDb (WHAA?), and a 63% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, was actually quite the disaster of a film. It felt like Star Trek but with more gore. And the acting of some of the talent was horrendous. And to be upfront, I don't hate the film. If it's on TV and there's nothing else I need to watch, I won't run from it. But it pushes my patience with my tolerance for shoddy acting.

By no fault of his own, I think this film ruined Casper Van Dien's career as he played the love-spurned Johnny Rico, while Denise Richards looking like a cardboard standup trying to talk, completely destroyed her image in my eyes, as any kind of acting talent.

Starship Troopers (Books, Movies) on Amazon

But Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Clancy Brown and Michael Ironside more or less saved the film for me. (Did they lose bets and have to be in this film?  MEDIIIIIC!!!  <- Again, fans of the old film will get that.)

The film felt like the first episode of a TV series, where no one knew how to portray their characters and it felt pretty stiff. All under the directorship of Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, RobotCop, Basic Instinct).


The thing is, Verhoeven had a decent track record (Or not horrible) of films until this one. So I'm not sure what the hell happened. My guess is that he was forced to go a certain, stylistic direction by higher up studio execs from TriStar or Touchstone Pictures.

And this film was based on the book of the same name, by Robert A. Heinlein . And let me tell you, comparing this film to the book is a crime, because they totally skipped the meat of the story in the book to make this popcorn space flick and it was a disappointment. Much like The Expanse on Syfy is to the actual Expanse book series.

But now, I caught a piece over on Comicbook.com, saying that Columbia is looking to remake Starship Troopers, and I suddenly had some hope that they will finally, or at least, maybe, get the story right for once, with some kind of level of acting that will help it not flounder in the dust of the cosmos.

Or will it?

For one, the reboot is written by the same guys who just wrote the Baywatch reboot (Due out in May of 2017) while the producers will be the same gang who were behind the Total Recall reboot. Did you see that watered down redo of a film?

And that's when I got disappointed and stopped hoping. Just like that.

So we will be getting a reboot from a production team that just came off some other reboot projects. And to be honest, if Total Recall is any indication, where it barely veered from the course of the original material, I'm starting to worry.

At this point, I will not hold my breath, but I am willing to be surprised. Hopefully.

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