Starship Troopers - new DVD editon!? (1 Viewer)

[HenrikTull]

Got my copy today, haven't seen it through yet, but thought I would give you the rundown. Must first point out that I've never owned the first edition, so I can't compare the two.
First off, what meets you is a cardboard box exactly like the Almost Famous: Bootleg Edition (different coverart of course )
The menus before you get to select anything on disc 1 last for God knows how long, but are thankfully skippable... now, unto the movie!
When the Columbia logo first appeared I couldn't believe how much grain there was. Thankfully, it's pretty much just here that you'll find it. My instincts tell me this is the exact same transfer as the first edition, so for you who have seen that transfer, except pretty much the same...
Now... the audio. A Columbia first, (I think) no 2.0 soundtrack is present AND the 5.1 soundtrack is encoded at 384kbps AND (!!) unfortunatly is (I assume of course) the same soundtrack from the first edition. This means of course LFE sent to the center channel. :frowning:
The new doc on disc 2 lasts about 30 minutes and is like the Artisan docs of Basic Instinct and Total Recall. Lots of information and no EPK style. Pretty darn good.

 

[JasonKZ]

Thanks for the info!!! I am still surprised you are the first one...

 

[Dalton]

I love this movie! It seems that there is little reason to get this one if you already have the first release. NO DTS:frowning: that sucks. I was really hoping they would give this film the SB treatment.:frowning:

 

[JohnRice]

I agree. Pretty slim pickins for a supposed SE. Even though the original being a single layer is a bit suspect, the image seems perfectly good, if not exceptional. Honestly, I would have bought the new version simply if it had DTS. As it is, they won't be getting my money, and to be honest, if I was planning to buy it for the first time, I would probably just save my $$ and get the standard edition.

 

[HenrikTull]

Thanks for the info!!! I am still surprised you are the first one...

You and me both.
What's even more puzzling is that the Dolby 5.1 track is encoded at 384kbps, while the isolated score is encoded at 448kbps. Even the trailer is 448kbps and anamorphic.
New to this is edition is a commentary track with the cast and crew which is excellent. Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer and Neil Patrick Harris participate along with Paul Verhoven and have quite a few laughs, including mocking Verhovens accent. Funny.

 

[Feng]

Am I the only one who think that the CGI insects in Starship Troopers look more realistic than those CGI monsters in Star Wars Episode I and II?
Also the only thing I am disappointed by Starship Troopers is that Ibanez didn't join Rico in the boot camp so we can not see Denise Richards in the co-ed shower scene.

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

I've always said that SST is the only movie that's gotten CGI beasties perfectly so far.

Or course, it helps that they're insects, and thusly supposed to move like CGI tends to....but even interactions with the environment, light and shadow, perfect.

 

[Joe Wong]

I also think ST has the most seamless integration of CGI to date, especially in the daylight scenes. CGI often tends to look "off" due to its saturated hues when compared to the surroundings (this problem is mitigated for dark scenes), but ST looked great!

Joe

 

[Jeff Kleist]

That's because many of the beasties were actually puppets.
Also, those bugs are much easier to animate than actual characters
I really do hope they make a sequel without the blasphemy, I love ST as a verhovan movie, so long as I forget it's called Starship Troopers
Do they mention anywhere that the first 15 minutes are directly ripped from the Sunrise anime version of ST from the mid-80's? None of those scenes exist in the book (prom, football game) but are virtually identical to the anime made 10 years before the movie

 

[Skoobooz]

I really do hope they make a sequel without the blasphemy, I love ST as a verhovan movie, so long as I forget it's called Starship Troopers

Huh?

 

[JohnRice]

Jeremy,

At first I had the same reaction, but what I think Jeff is saying is that it is a fun movie, but has very little to do with the Heinlein novel it is supposedly based on. Other than maybe one or two incidents and a few character names, some who don't have the slightest resemblence to the ones in the novel, there is virtually no connection between the two. I mean, in the novel, Diz is a MAN and is only in a couple pages. Carmen is someone Rico doesn't really know that well and is also barely in the book. Rico and Carl are best buddies, but Carl just goes off and gets killed, so HE is barely in the book. I can only think of two and possibly three characters who were moderately the same. Zim was almost exactly the same and Rico was fairly the same. The situations were almost entirely different, though.

 

[Lewis Besze]

Where was this estabilished that the center actually has LFE content?You mean that is low bass,or low bass that is exlusive to the LFE channel and accidentlty got mixed into the center as well?

All main channels can hold info of 20hz or even below,[see Super Speedway,10hz in the center ch.]it's BM's job to redirect it to the appropriate speakerwhich reproduce it best.

ST has some "digital clipping" in the front 3 channels on some occasions,but that's more likely on the original sdtk,or was incorrectly mastered,so the mixing and encoding shouldn't have anything to with it.

 

[Jussi Tarvainen]

At first I had the same reaction, but what I think Jeff is saying is that it is a fun movie, but has very little to do with the Heinlein novel it is supposedly based on.

That's true, but what's interesting is that the film criticizes what Heinlein wrote about in all earnesty. Heinlein was very right-wing whereas Verhoeven's film clearly parodies the fascist, militaristic "gung ho" mentality.

Strangely enough, the new SE has a blurb on the cover that praises the film as a "gung ho sci-fi epic" - obviously a case of a critic missing (part of) the point. But to be fair, Columbia has always marketed this film as nothing but a straighforward action flick.

The film is also, as the director pointed out in a recent interview, frighteningly accurate in today's world in portraying the American attitude towards war, e.g. the bombing of caves.

 

[JohnRice]

Heinlein was very right-wing

Heinlein, as I understand, was actually a Libertarian, which is hardly Right-Wing. His books definitely do NOT express the philosophy of a conservative, or a traditional Liberal for that matter.

In that sense, Verhoeven and Heinlein are both criticizing much the same thing, Heinlein is just much more subtle about it.

 

[Jussi Tarvainen]

Heinlein may have been a Libertarian towards the beginning of his career, but his writing soon became increasingly right-wing. It's commonly thought that he was a conservative.

Here's a quote from a web essay on Heinlein:

"Furthermore, although a flaming liberal during the war, Heinlein became a rock-ribbed far-right conservative immediately afterward. This happened at just the time he changed wives from a liberal woman, Leslyn, to a rock-ribbed far-right conservative woman, Virginia... I used to brood about it in puzzlement (of course, I never would have dreamed of asking Heinlein - I'm sure he would have refused to answer, and would have done so with the uttermost hostility), and I did come to one conclusion. I would never marry anyone who did not generally agree with my political, social, and philosophical view of life."

 

[MikeF]

Incidentally, the far-right and libertarians have much more in common than the latter would probably like to admit.

 

[JohnRice]

Thanks for the quotes Jussi. Interesting. I have Tramp Royale, which was very late in his life I believe, but have not read it.

Mike,

I was thinking the same thing as I wrote my last post and actually changed the wording a bit.

Still, we are getting into a touchy area here, as far as HTF is concerned, so we need to be careful.

 

[Matt_Marlow]

Heinlein may have been a Libertarian towards the beginning of his career, but his writing soon became increasingly right-wing. It's commonly thought that he was a conservative.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Heinlein's most libertarian novel (and one of the most libertarian novels of all time) was written AFTER Starship Troopers, so it was actually fairly late in his career. Not to mention the fact that "later" novels like Stranger in a Strange Land and Time Enough For Love were increasingly less conservative. Early novels of his that were called "juveniles" and even slightly later ones like The Puppet Masters (written before Starship Troopers) seem more conservative than his later work. The movie Starship Troopers, though I still love it, is about the worst interpretation of Heinlein's beliefs humanly possible.

At least that's what I think from having read several of his novels.

 

[JasonKZ]

some interesting opinions....well...back to the topic of the actual DVD....it was released today and STILL no official reviews..what is the deal?

 

[Justin Doring]

"Heinlein, as I understand, was actually a Libertarian, which is hardly Right-Wing."
You might want to research the Libertarian political philosphy. We Libertarians are as far to the right as one can be.
Oh, and about 99.9% of the population doesn't understand Starship Troopers. "This movie had terrible acting!" :rolleyes