Starship Troopers

Oh, well, in spite of my minor reservations, "Starship Troopers" holds one's attention, especially, as I say, in the second half, combining action, drama, thrills, high energy, and a surprising amount of humor in appropriate measure.

Video:
Of course, the sight of multiple battles with swarms of giant insects shows up Blu-ray's capabilities nicely. The Sony engineers use an MPEG-4/AVC, 1080p encode spread out over a dual-layer BD50 for maximum picture quality. Like its standard-definition counterparts, the high-def, 1.85:1 ratio transfer is bright and clear, with excellent object delineation, deep black levels, and strong contrasts and shadings. In addition to the movie's sharp focus, its hues are vivid and natural. Although facial close-ups are a tad soft, a fine film grain provides enough texture to add to the picture's realism.

But the clincher is comparing it to the Superbit edition, which I had previously thought was quite good. And I guess it is...for standard definition. But switching between the Superbit (upscaled) and the BD, the high definition refinement becomes even more apparent. The Superbit looks faded, washed out, blurred, and jaggy by comparison. The Blu-ray looks crisper, cleaner, sharper, richer, deeper, more detailed, you name it. Faces look a bit smoothed out in both editions, so nothing seems lost in the new translation.

Audio:
Although the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 sound is also pretty good, it doesn't quite match the level of the video. Even in a new lossless codec, I found it very slightly veiled and not quite so all-enveloping nor so dynamic as the best audio in recent action movies. Indeed, in the first half of the film, the major function of the rear channels is to convey nothing more than musical ambience. But wait for it. When the battles with the bugs begin in the movie's second half, all the speakers come to life and display ample range and impact.

Extras:
Although most of the extras on this Blu-ray disc come from previous editions, there are several that are exclusive to the BD. The first exclusive is a "FedNet Mode." This is a picture-in-picture affair that takes you behind the scenes with the cast and filmmakers. It frames the movie in what looks like a spaceship's computer screen and then, using a small, rectangular insert in the lower right of the main screen, permits the movie folk to talk about sundry stuff concerning the making of the movie while it's going on. The next BD exclusive is a twenty-seven-minute "Recruitment Test," containing questions that rank you for the Federation's Citizen Army. I didn't stick with it for very long. After that is an exclusive gimmick called "Blu-Wizard," which allows you to customize the way you watch the disc's bonus materials--where and when you watch them--by creating your own unique playlist. Finally, there is a BD-Live exclusive (for Profile 2.0 players), which enables you to access additional Internet items (which I did not address). Since Sony pretty much invented Blu-ray, they seem intent on offering the newest features available.

Up next are a couple of old friends; namely, the audio commentaries found on earlier editions of the movie, the first with director Verhoeven and screenwriter Ed Neumeier and the second with director Verhoeven and cast members Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, and Neil Patrick Harris.

After the commentaries we find a number of documentaries and featurettes from the past. "Death From Above" is thirty-two minutes long and the most comprehensive of the lot. "The Making of Starship Troopers," "The Spaceships of Starship Troopers," and "Bug Test Film: Don't Look Now" total about twelve minutes; "Know Your Foe" details various bug types and lasts about sixteen minutes; two "Scene Deconstructions" with director Verhoeven total about seven minutes; nine "FX Comparisons" total close to half an hour; five deleted scenes make up about ten minutes; and a couple of screen tests with Johnny and Carmen bring up the rear.

To conclude, there are sixteen scene selections (down from the twenty-eight on the Superbit edition); previews of five other Sony products; bookmarks; English and French spoken languages; English, French and Spanish subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired.

One other thing: In order to begin the film, you have to click through (or watch in their entirety) a Sony start-up logo, a trailer, a main menu, a rating screen, an FBI warning, an INTERPOL warning in English, an INTERPOL warning in other languages, a commentary disclaimer, and, geez.... Couldn't Sony just open with the movie as some other studios do?

Parting Thoughts:
"Starship Troopers" is wonderfully corny in all the right ways. The filmmakers have a great time lampooning the typical stereotypes and clichés of action movies, sci-fi moves, romantic movies, and war-movies, at the same time supplying fans of these genres all the thrills and spectacle they require.

The MPAA gave the film an R rating for intense violence, blood, gore, carnage, and brain sucking. By contrast, the small amount of nudity present is hardly an issue.

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