I read Robert A. Heinlein's novel in 1978. And that's what you should do. If your library doesn't have it, surf on over to IMDb's companion site, Amazon.com, and buy Heinlein's Starship Troopers.
THEN you will wonder, as I do, how in this day of visuals over plot the most haunting visual of the book never makes it into the movie.
Heinlein shows the reader scene after scene of the Troopers jumping down from space platforms to planet surfaces in their "mech" suits, part spacesuit, part tank. The sight of thousands of mech-suited Troopers dropping out of space, filling an alien sky, would give your average ground-dwelling humanoid the chills.
This is THE scene from the book. Heinlein gave it to the director on a silver platter. But do we get to see it in the movie? No! So if they can't even get Heinlein's imagery right, you know they just tossed out his philosophy, plot and characters.
True, many other SF movies are similarly mindless and superficial. But most of them weren't based on something good.
If you want the real story, read the book. And you, too, will wonder why.
THEN you will wonder, as I do, how in this day of visuals over plot the most haunting visual of the book never makes it into the movie.
Heinlein shows the reader scene after scene of the Troopers jumping down from space platforms to planet surfaces in their "mech" suits, part spacesuit, part tank. The sight of thousands of mech-suited Troopers dropping out of space, filling an alien sky, would give your average ground-dwelling humanoid the chills.
This is THE scene from the book. Heinlein gave it to the director on a silver platter. But do we get to see it in the movie? No! So if they can't even get Heinlein's imagery right, you know they just tossed out his philosophy, plot and characters.
True, many other SF movies are similarly mindless and superficial. But most of them weren't based on something good.
If you want the real story, read the book. And you, too, will wonder why.