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From: Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com>
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Subject: Re: Microid's 2024 Empire of the Ants demo came out yesterday!
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2024 22:37:15 -0400
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Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter  "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

>On Wed, 23 Oct 2024 04:01:23 -0400, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:
>
>>Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> looked up from reading the
>>entrails of the porn spammer to utter  "The Augury is good, the signs
>>say:
>>
>>>On 10/22/2024 2:54 AM, Xocyll wrote:
>>>> Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> looked up from reading the
>>>> entrails of the porn spammer to utter  "The Augury is good, the signs
>>>> say:
>>>> 
>>>>> On 10/21/2024 1:11 PM, Ant wrote:
>>>>>> Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>>>>>>> On 10/21/2024 7:15 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>>>>>>>> On Mon, 21 Oct 2024 06:32:49 -0400, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>> Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> looked up from reading the
>>>>>>>>> entrails of the porn spammer to utter  "The Augury is good, the signs
>>>>>>>>> say:
>>>>>>>>>> On 10/20/2024 7:48 PM, Ant wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> I like the movie. I don't like to read. :P
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> The movie had been written and was already in pre-production when the
>>>>>>>>>> producers found out the movie rights to the book were for sale.  So they
>>>>>>>>>> bought those rights so they could use the book's title.
>>>>>>>>>> No joke.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Title and bolted on a few names from the book, and a couple of themes
>>>>>>>>> (the whole service thing.)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> But everything else was a mockery - assault rifles with an apparent
>>>>>>>>> range of 10 feet, forcing the soldiers to shoot point blank at something
>>>>>>>>> that can cut them in half with a swipe.   Um yeah, sure.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> And the whole psi corp stuff in SS uniforms, no wonder the film is
>>>>>>>>> nicknamed Nazi Germany 90210.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Oh yeah, and the chick flying the ship dodging an asteroid coming in
>>>>>>>>> FTL, yeah, these guys can't even spell science much less know any.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> And don't forget the complete and utter lack of powered battle armor,
>>>>>>>> something the book is most famous for popularizing.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> "Starship Troopers" without powered armor is Star Wars without
>>>>>>>> lightsabers. I mean, sure you _could_... but why?*
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> In fairness, a lot of the other stuff mentioned above (the fascism,
>>>>>>>> the shitty science, the psi stuff) was part and parcel of the book
>>>>>>>> too, albeit not so central to the narrative. I'll forgive that... even
>>>>>>>> if I didn't necessarily enjoy it. But the lack of powered armor?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Actually the political stuff in the movie is almost the polar opposite
>>>>>>> of the book.  Heinlein wrote a war story about service, as in western
>>>>>>> democracy type "service".  The citizenship criteria in the book was
>>>>>>> _ANY_ kind of service.  Being assigned as a park ranger planting trees
>>>>>>> was service and could grant citizenship.  He strongly emphasized that
>>>>>>> non-citizens were not an underclass.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The "Nazis BAAAAD!" parts of the movie were ALL Verhoeven, things that
>>>>>>> he added deliberately.  He's admitted that in interviews.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Ah. Someone needs to reboot Starship Troopers movies. Maybe a TV series instead?
>>>>>
>>>>> There was an animated series (have the DVDs) and a series of animated
>>>>> movies in addition to the two sequels to Verhoeven's movie.
>>>> 
>>>> Four Sequels.
>>>> 
>>>Oh for fornication's sake.  I've seen 2 and 3, when did 4 and 5 come out?
>>
>>The whole mess
>>Starship troopers (1997)
>>Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004 DTV)
>>Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (2008 DTV)
>>Starship Troopers: Invasion (2012 Animated)
>>Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars (2017 Animated)
>>
>>I have not seen 4 and 5, but 2 and 3 were dreck.
>>
>
>4 & 5 were pretty bad too, but because they were animated, I gave them
>more of a pass. They were more obviously aimed at the younger-set, so
>the shallow characters, story and dialogue seemed more appropriate.
>The visuals were okay.
>
>I wouldn't go out of my way to re-watch them, though. Frankly, the
>entire movie franchise is pretty terrible.
>
>(IMHO, obviously. It's all subjective. If you like the movies, good
>for you; I'm glad you had more fun with them than I did!)
>
I read Heinlein's book 20+ years before the movie came out so I had more
WTF's than popcorn watching it.

Just objectively though, assault rifles with them getting point blank
range made exactly zero sense, so enjoyment was simply not possible.

And of course NO FUCKING POWER ARMOR!

Xocyll