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

[Kami]

Patiently waiting for Bjoern's comparison......................

 

[Patrick G]

Kevin, are you anywhere near me?

 

[Brajesh Upadhyay]

Patiently waiting for Bjoern's comparison

Me too At first, the picture quality looked grainier (compared to original DVD) to me too, but upon second viewing, I do notice more depth/details. I'm using RP91 (progressive out) & TW40X81 TV.

 

[CaptDS9E]

Im a big fan of this film. Love using it as a demo to show people DVD. I watched the SE last night and overall the picture is better. I noticed a little more grain at the start of that classroom scene, but after that first minute the colors look better and depper. I didnt think it was possible but it is.

Capt

 

[Stephen_Dar]

This is a very interesting thread. I never expected this innocuous little film to attract so much attention. Surprised to find a lot of us here ... think alike (creepy eh? But not surprising maybe?).

First, I haven't seen the SE but I own the original DVD (which is a cheapie by the way, great value), but based on the list of features in the SE I have no interest in owning it. Now, some here who seem to know what they're talking about have suggested the new version was mastered at higher resolution. If true, that seems a bit appealing, but on the other hand my feeling now is that until HD DVD (or I buy an HDTV and an HD VHS machine) any "gain" in resolution will add up to not much of anything. HD so blows DVD away that I just don't want to chase tiny differences like superbit. Truth is, while VHS was a travesty, DVD isn't much better, and we're all being led by the nose here from one crappy low res medium to the next (this is all in comparison to the source film of course). Course, I still love DVD and will collect for a while, while hoping HD DVD comes sooner rather than later.

On the subject of Heinlein's books, I read lots of em in high school, kept some around since then, and it's fascinating to see how many others here find his attitude changes over time as intriguing as I do. When I first heard Heinlein described in an article as "right wing" I too went "Huh?" because I was thinking back on books like Number of the Beast or Stranger in a Strange Land, where Heinlein essentially foreshadowed the entire California cult/groupie/free sex phenomenon. His work clearly transitioned with the times from the short "juvy" fiction of the 30s and 40s into more complex but still conventionally plotted sci-fi stories in the 50s. Then, in the 60s he goes off the deep end once the beat poets had opened things up, permitting adult situations to be described in novels. In fact, he lost me real fast as his books lost any conventional structure - Stranger is hard enough to follow, but Number of the Beast just became a waste of time, and I lost interest in reading any of his later stuff. In this time sequence, ST actually always seemed out of place to me. My theory-he had a last hurrah (before going senile in the 60s!) with a short piece inspired by his own long lost military career (getting that stuff out of his system as it were before the coming wave of funk). This short piece wasn't really a sci fi story at all, it was just a bit about what military training is all about for young people, and he placed it in the future cause he was known for sci fi. Then he probably put it aside, later coming back to it and slapping on the flimsy story about a bug war, but he clearly (to me) had no idea where to go from there, so the second half of the story just repeats the first half. It's a very slack, disorganized book if you ask me, not something that could possibly be translated literally to film because half of it is a bizarre political rant.

Given this, I think Verhoeven's choice to make a film that openly mocks the book was interesting, but above all it confused the hell out of the audience (including me). You go in expecting some sort of literal interpretation of the novel, not an attack on it. Of course, it works better as an attack I think, but I just wish he'd warned us! I also agree with folks here that the digital bugs in ST are still the best CGI I've seen in film, but I do wonder how many scenes were actually very good puppets. In my view, as much as I love sci fi, I find all movie CGI pretty unconvincing unless its integrated very well by an expert director (and that occurs less than 5% of the time).

 

[Patrick Sun]

I think Verhoeven gets good reactions from his actors acting with CGI monsters is because he's out there with big sticks scaring the hell out of the actors, screaming his head off. He even jumped in the shower scene butt nekkid with the rest of the actors. The man is nuttily brilliant.

Now if he'd just fine some good material to direct...

 

[Joe Schwartz]

Is there anything from the first-edition DVD that's missing from the new Special Edition?

 

[Dave H]

Truth is, while VHS was a travesty, DVD isn't much better, and we're all being led by the nose here from one crappy low res medium to the next (this is all in comparison to the source film of course).

While VHS and DVD are not Hi-def, I think you are way off saying there isn't much of a difference between the two. DVD has almost twice as much resolution and other video/audio benefits over VHS.

 

[Kenny Goldin]

Like otehrs, the SE just isn't "special" enough for me to upgrade. Gimmie an Upgrade like Memento got, and I'd be all over it, but this is just a release for the ABSOLUTE die-hard fans of the film (which I ALMOST am) or those who never picked up the original. If they would have included a DTS track, I would have picked it up (I know, I know...DTS and a good DD track don't sound too different, OK but I like putting more discs on my special, standalone DTS rack )

 

[Joe Schwartz]

I'm a sucker for a good commentary track, and the one on the original DVD is one of my favorites, especially when:

Verhoeven yells to imitate one of the bugs (or as he pronounces it, "burks").

If the new cast commentary is as entertaining, I'll pick up the Special Edition.

 

[MaxY]

I just watched this and I think that Robert George pretty much called it on the transfer.

It seemed a touch grainier but ended up looking more filmlike.

I thought it was a slight improvment over the previous disc which was very good.

Max

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Is there anything from the first-edition DVD that's missing from the new Special Edition?

The booklet, but that's it - everything else appears...

 

[Tom-G]

So what's the verdict with this Special Edition? Is it worth the 20+ bucks to upgrade? For now, I've decided to stay with the orginal release. I'm one who enjoys the extras, but I'm more concerned with the movie presentation itself.

If this SE had a dts track, I would be a little more tempted to make the jump, but I'm quite impressed with the sound and picture on the non-SE.

 

[Felix Martinez]

So what's the verdict with this Special Edition? Is it worth the 20+ bucks to upgrade? For now, I've decided to stay with the orginal release. I'm one who enjoys the extras, but I'm more concerned with the movie presentation itself.

I did notice a visible difference (for the better) on my 92 inch screen. That and the new extras was worth the upgrade for me. On smaller TVs, I'm not sure how much of a difference you'll see.
Felix
Visit my CineFlexx
http://members.aol.com/beautymarkstudio/Home.html

 

[Matt_Marlow]

Truth is, while VHS was a travesty, DVD isn't much better, and we're all being led by the nose here from one crappy low res medium to the next (this is all in comparison to the source film of course).

That's completely ridiculous. The difference between VHS and anamorphic DVD on my 65" HDTV is like night & day. In fact, I notice a bigger difference between VHS and DVD than I do between DVD and HD (I have 2 channels on Dish Network. Hopefully when I get a D-VHS player the difference will be more noticeable). Also, to my eyes most DVDs look as good as film--I don't care about numbers or stats--and HDTV looks slightly better than film.

As for the comparison between Starship Troopers SE and the original, I totally agree with Robert George. Film grain is slightly more noticeable, but fine detail, like the pores in the actors' faces, is improved quite a bit. Is it worth upgrading? I'd say so if you really love the movie--the 'Death From Above' documentary is pretty interesting--or have a large display.

 

[Yee-Ming]

My theory-he had a last hurrah (before going senile in the 60s!) with a short piece inspired by his own long lost military career (getting that stuff out of his system as it were before the coming wave of funk). This short piece wasn't really a sci fi story at all, it was just a bit about what military training is all about for young people, and he placed it in the future cause he was known for sci fi. Then he probably put it aside, later coming back to it and slapping on the flimsy story about a bug war, but he clearly (to me) had no idea where to go from there, so the second half of the story just repeats the first half. It's a very slack, disorganized book if you ask me, not something that could possibly be translated literally to film because half of it is a bizarre political rant.

actually, if memory serves, didn't he write Starship Troopers right at the beginning of his career? it was one of his first books, and he actually wrote it for the "juvenile" market, i.e. teens, not for adults, and he was practically a teen, or in his 20s, when he wrote ST.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Pretty slim pickins for a supposed SE.

Now that I've finally finished with the set, I have to STRONGLY disagree with these sentiments. The new Troopers blows away the old one in regard to supplements. Picture and sound seem the same to me, but the new package adds a ton of great stuff. Some of it looks like fluff from the outside, but once you dive into this sucker, it quickly becomes apparent how deep it really is.

Unquestionably, CTS have produced some bogus re-release "special editions" with little useful new content. (Cough - Sixth Day - cough.) Starship Troopers is a definite exception. I'm very impressed with this set. I almost gave it an "A+" for extras, which - unlike SOME sites - I almost never do...

 

[Paul.S]

Bump.

The booklet, but that's it - everything else appears...

Thx for mentioning this, Colin. That 8-pager is not bad as far as booklets go. I'll just pull it out before selling the original release and getting the SE, which is now down to around $13 on Amazon Marketplace.
-p

 

[Kevin M]

Man, it must be near Halloween...all these dead threads rising from the grave and such.

 

[Adam_WM]

Spoooooooooooky.