Review of Starship Troopers

Wait for the DVD

Exciting battle scenes, good special effects and some clever satire of pro-war fervor balance out uninspiring performances by twenty-something actors pretending to be idealistic high school graduates. Neal Patrick Harris is very good, and Caspar Van Dien is passable as infantryman Johnny Rico, but Denise Richards never hits one honest note as ace pilot Carmen Ibanez. Director Paul Verhoeven adds some funny satire, like he did in Robocop, but that movie had a human heart at the center of its cybernetic core; in Starship Troopers, however, the main actors are artificial and never seem to be in on the joke.