It's not in the Verhooven series. It was done by a Japanese team, with Casper Van Dien producing it. They put in all the things missing from the books like Power armor, etc.
I found "Invasion" to be one of the prettier yet soulless extravaganza's in memory .
In contrast, the now dated CG series "Roughnecks" provided a much more emotionally satisfying story telling (especially the latter story arcs) , and that too had Verhooven as an exec. producer .
The bugs aren't intelligent enough to throw an asteroid across the galaxy faster than the speed of light to impact the Earth.
It's hinted multiple times during the movie that the humans don't acknowledge sentience in the bugs at all.
How then can a race without astrophysics nor faster than light motricity represent a danger for the advanced human civilization in Starship Troopers?
It doesn't.
It's a false flag.
In fact, the federation destroyed Buenos Aires with an asteroid so it can gain enough popular support to launch a massive invasion of the planet Klendathu.
The federation is already heavily invested in the Klendathu star system with an operational starbase and a group of mormons who built an outpost on planet P.
Since the beggining of the movie you enter the propaganda machine like a dumb sheeple and actually believe that the bugs are the enemy.
The true reasons behind the offensive on Klendathu remain a mystery however one must realize the true danger in the movie: PROPAGANDA.
Feel free to comment in the section below on your thoughts about the movie, the propaganda and the bugs.
=/\= Cheers
Hey not a bad theory at all.
You ever read the book ? There's lots of stuff left out in the movie. It was a fascinating read.
Edit: Sry I see you said you never read it.
A few years after the movie came out I picked up a copy. So that was quite a while ago, but looking back on it now, I see it as sort of a sci-fi play on The Art of War.
Though I don't often re-read books, this is one I had always wanted to revisit as an adult.
You'd probably find it a refreshing read. It was amazing how different it was from what I expected(being that I'd already seen the movie, and expect something similar).
Mustrum mentioned the film was a parody of the book.. and that seems to make the most sense to me.
As is left leaning text, versus the intentionally right leaning film.
Seems like a pretty interesting production decision if true.
Guess ill have to re read, and rewatch em. Now I have a reason thanks.
[img][/img]
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,671Community Moderator
edited May 2015
I never read the book, but I heard that the war was actually a 3 way, and the bugs had technology and plasma based weaponry.
Anyways... satire asside, the Arachnids have a form of intelligence that is different from humans. The fact that humans discounted it is because they only see them as bugs comparable to the ones native to Earth. There were actually several instances of Arachnids using tactics, which indicates intelligence.
1: Setting an ambush at the outpost on P. The bugs could have just swarmed over the Roughnecks in the canyon where there was little cover and no tower guns, easy mindless slaughter. Instead, they waited until they were pretty much in a box with no where to go.
2: Use of Artillery. The Plasma Bugs are capable of shooting down capital ships in orbit, and most likely knocking asteroids out of position. That alone indicates some form of intelligence as they would need to not only know where the target is, but now much power to put into the shot to reach said target.
3: Strategic ellimination of enemy assets. In the canyon on P, a flying Bug took out the guy with the radio, cutting off the Roughnecks entirely from command. It could be argued that he was just a convenient target due to having gotten up on a rock and making him more visible, but he was also the communications guy of the unit, and he was the ONLY one taken out by the Bug. The Bug didn't swoop back down to attack them again.
4: Recognition of hostile assets. The Brain Bug recognized that Rico was holding a Nuke which could have killed them all. Identifying weapon types indicates intelligence, and the fact the Brain Bug didn't provoke Rico could show a fear of death.
Although not technologically advanced like their novel counterparts, the movie Arachnids are intelligent. I'd compare them a bit to the Zerg from StarCraft.
I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
Personally I like both the book (read it first multiple times) and the movie. To me a movie has only 1 requirement "Does it make me forget the time?" if the answer to that question is yes then it is a good movie.
I found "Invasion" to be one of the prettier yet soulless extravaganza's in memory .
In contrast, the now dated CG series "Roughnecks" provided a much more emotionally satisfying story telling (especially the latter story arcs) , and that too had Verhooven as an exec. producer .
... make mine Marverrrr, I mean Roughnecks ...
I agree with the old Roughnecks episodes. Great show, too bad they never finished the run. But if you watch the extra credits on invasion, whole reason why they did it was because the live action movies never had half of what invasion did.
Though you are right Roughnecks had the better story.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
Like other posters know, Verhooven (sp) didn't really read Starship Troopers because he didn't need to; the movie was already (ironically) titled "Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine"; it was retrofit to become more Starship Troopers-like (from the Wiki Page):
"The movie started life as a script called Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine.[3] When similarities, especially the "bugs" were pointed out between this and the novel Starship Troopers, plans were made to license the rights to the book and tweak character names and circumstances to match. "
No wonder why the movie blew and yet the book was great. It's a short, easy read. But Starship Troopers with no Mechanized Combat armor and no Skinnies = ****e. I do like Verhoooven's social satire though.
Personally I like both the book (read it first multiple times) and the movie. To me a movie has only 1 requirement "Does it make me forget the time?" if the answer to that question is yes then it is a good movie.
Watching 'Top gun' in a cinema in central London back when it was released would qualify as a 'good movie' by that rule... I fell asleep in my seat about 20 mins in...
<center><font size="+5"><b>Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day... Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life...</b></size></center>
The book is, in some circles, regarded as one of the best "how to" books on leadership ever written. And I think the movie music by Basil Poldouris is incredible. The movie has its moments, but it and the novel really have more not in common.
But Starship Troopers is not a great example of a 'false flag' operation, namely because Paul Verhoeven is usually more subtle with that kind of thing. If a false flag operation was part of the plot, he'd have spelled it out for us.
1. The beginning of the movie states that Klendathu is on the other side of the Milky Way from Earth. Even at luminal speeds, you are talking about 25,000 years to get from Earth to Klendathu. (Their Federation had FTL because of course they did.)
2. The Klendathu in the movie were non-space faring. As described, a shooter on the planet, a moving station, would have had to hit a moving target, orbiting around a moving target to avoid anything along that 25k light year path to hit another moving target.
3. Rue Mclanahan in the class room stated that the Bugs blindly sent their spores on rocks into space. So either she was lying about the blindly part, or the Federation scientists found Klendathu rocks not on any planetary trajectory.
4. Here's the clincher for me; Carmen changes course on the Robert Young from Zander's preset one. Her course is more efficient. And shortly after being found out, it hits the meteorite heading to Earth. It knocks out communication, and interestingly, Zander is able to say that "it came from bug space" without checking any instruments. Almost like he knew it was supposed to have come from bug space.
Also, Cracked did an article about how Starship Troopers was a satire on the War on Terror.
Plus, Verhooven was a child in TRIBBLE-occupied Netherlands, so he is very anti-fascist, which this movie is also.
As for his 'military' themes, they strongly suggest somebody who served in a military, far from combat, in command of a mail boat, ferrying bags across a harbour. Concepts such as an officer complaining that enlisted personnel didn't salute properly in the middle of losing a major fire fight.
His service was in reality as a graduate of Annapolis, then as a radio operator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (and he took an incident that happened during that time, when he had to try, using a loop antenna, to figure out where his best friend's plane was while it was running out of fuel, and used that as the basis for a short story about finding a blind piano prodigy lost on the surface of the Moon), and then a couple of years aboard the destroyer USS Roper before being discharged with tuberculosis.
And if that bit about the martinet officer seems improbable to you, I humbly submit you haven't met enough junior officers. They usually mellow out by the time they get to O-3 or so, but nobody's more tender about getting the respect "due" him than a newly-minted butterbar.
Wow, this is so strange. A thread that is NOT about Star Trek or Star Trek Online, including various RL political comments, yet 5 pages and counting in the STO discussion board. I guess anything is up for discussion here now.
And if that bit about the martinet officer seems improbable to you, I humbly submit you haven't met enough junior officers. They usually mellow out by the time they get to O-3 or so, but nobody's more tender about getting the respect "due" him than a newly-minted butterbar.
Hehehe... Must be a United Rebel Colonies Navy thing, I'm more used to Royal Navy, maybe we teach ours better manners, or our CPO's are just better at bending the Lt's into shape.
<center><font size="+5"><b>Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day... Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life...</b></size></center>
1. The beginning of the movie states that Klendathu is on the other side of the Milky Way from Earth. Even at luminal speeds, you are talking about 25,000 years to get from Earth to Klendathu. (Their Federation had FTL because of course they did.)
You're reading too much into a satire. The technical aspects and logistics of this is irrelevant.
2. The Klendathu in the movie were non-space faring. As described, a shooter on the planet, a moving station, would have had to hit a moving target, orbiting around a moving target to avoid anything along that 25k light year path to hit another moving target.
Again, you are reading too much into a satire. All of this is irrelevant and intentionally ignored.
3. Rue Mclanahan in the class room stated that the Bugs blindly sent their spores on rocks into space. So either she was lying about the blindly part, or the Federation scientists found Klendathu rocks not on any planetary trajectory.
Again, not really relevant.
4. Here's the clincher for me; Carmen changes course on the Robert Young from Zander's preset one. Her course is more efficient. And shortly after being found out, it hits the meteorite heading to Earth. It knocks out communication, and interestingly, Zander is able to say that "it came from bug space" without checking any instruments. Almost like he knew it was supposed to have come from bug space.
You're reading too much into a satire. That being said, maybe he's just that good of a navigator. Plot holes are intentionally scattered throughout the movie because part of the satire is the pervasive ignorance that infects blind nationalism.
Also, Cracked did an article about how Starship Troopers was a satire on the War on Terror.
I'm not sure how it can be a satire on something that happened several years after the movie's release. At the very least it's a very tragic case of life imitating art.
Wow, this is so strange. A thread that is NOT about Star Trek or Star Trek Online, including various RL political comments, yet 5 pages and counting in the STO discussion board. I guess anything is up for discussion here now.
Fine, I'll add the needed STO content :
Anyone notice that if you fly the Fed Intel ship bundle , and you put the 4 short & stocky engines on the Eclipse , it vaguely resembles the ships used in Starship Troopers movie ?
Sure, the Eclipse's primary hull is much thinner & sleeker, but the general basis -- short stocky engines + long is primary hull is there .
... ta-daa ...
edit: now to go back to sulking about no decent merchandize being available for Starship Troopers ... .:(
Hehehe... Must be a United Rebel Colonies Navy thing, I'm more used to Royal Navy, maybe we teach ours better manners, or our CPO's are just better at bending the Lt's into shape.
I don't know, I've met some Royal Arm Leftenants who had that same stick up their butts.
I think my favorite TRIBBLE up on the part of the team making this movie was...
When they are going to try and avoid the rock with the Roger Young, and she smashes the glass covering the controls, and then waits for his countdown before activating them. Thus putting the ship (at the kinds of speeds they were moving) at least 10Km closer to the thing to avoid hitting, before changing course. Whereas if she had altered course as soon as the controls were uncovered, they probably would have missed the rock entirely.
Even with it's glaring mistakes, etc, I enjoy this movie, and have it on DVD. I also LOVE the book, and have a very early edition of it that I do read every so often.
I never read the book, but I heard that the war was actually a 3 way, and the bugs had technology and plasma based weaponry.
Anyways... satire asside, the Arachnids have a form of intelligence that is different from humans. The fact that humans discounted it is because they only see them as bugs comparable to the ones native to Earth. There were actually several instances of Arachnids using tactics, which indicates intelligence.
1: Setting an ambush at the outpost on P. The bugs could have just swarmed over the Roughnecks in the canyon where there was little cover and no tower guns, easy mindless slaughter. Instead, they waited until they were pretty much in a box with no where to go.
2: Use of Artillery. The Plasma Bugs are capable of shooting down capital ships in orbit, and most likely knocking asteroids out of position. That alone indicates some form of intelligence as they would need to not only know where the target is, but now much power to put into the shot to reach said target.
3: Strategic ellimination of enemy assets. In the canyon on P, a flying Bug took out the guy with the radio, cutting off the Roughnecks entirely from command. It could be argued that he was just a convenient target due to having gotten up on a rock and making him more visible, but he was also the communications guy of the unit, and he was the ONLY one taken out by the Bug. The Bug didn't swoop back down to attack them again.
4: Recognition of hostile assets. The Brain Bug recognized that Rico was holding a Nuke which could have killed them all. Identifying weapon types indicates intelligence, and the fact the Brain Bug didn't provoke Rico could show a fear of death.
Although not technologically advanced like their novel counterparts, the movie Arachnids are intelligent. I'd compare them a bit to the Zerg from StarCraft.
Yeah, to me it's an example of what fighting a truely alien enemy is like. You don't understand WHY they do things the way they do because you can't think like them. You also have a partial understanding of their capabilities in combat that are based solely on observation.
Heinlein loved to examine the thought processes of the aliens he wrote. His Rama books are a good example there.
Yeah, to me it's an example of what fighting a truely alien enemy is like. You don't understand WHY they do things the way they do because you can't think like them. You also have a partial understanding of their capabilities in combat that are based solely on observation.
Heinlein loved to examine the thought processes of the aliens he wrote. His Rama books are a good example there.
Rama was Clarke. Heinlein didn't examine alien thought processes at all - he rarely wrote aliens in the first place. On the other hand, when he did, he tried to make them alien - in Methuselah's Children mere exposure to the masters of the Jockaira was enough to make a normal human catatonic for a while, then amnesiac about the event itself (Ford never could explain what it was he saw that day), for instance. His Klendathu were alien as well - all they shared in common with humans was a desire to live on worlds with a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere and a fair amount of liquid water. The Klendathu were also, apparently, violently xenophobic, which seems reasonable for beings that have hive-minds - humans were from outside the hive, and thus dangerous and needing elimination. (The war started in the book when the Bugs smeared a Terran Federation research station, and really got under way when they destroyed Pluto Station and nuked Buenos Aires.)
Voerhoeven didn't read the book, which violates the first rule of good parody or satire-that is, knowing enough about what you're parodying or satirizing to be effective.
If he were actually trying to parody or satire the book, you would be right. But I don't think he was. I think he was simply using the basic story of the book as a platform to parody or satire various RL issues.
I think it closer to say he was making HIS movie, and using Heinlein's book's name and reputation to sell his movie-you know, so that it would draw a decent audience-which it probably would not, had he NOT had the "Starship Troopers" name to exploit.
Eh, maybe a little. But honestly, he had already made a name for himself with Robocop, Total Recall, and Basic Instinct, so it's not like he was some new director that needed a well known brand to get people's attention. Furthermore, while the book certainly had it's fans prior to the movie, I think it is pretty safe to say many more people became aware of the book because of the movie than were motivated to see the movie because they had read the book.
So yes, he was borrowing from existing source material to tell the story he wanted, although I don't think he was really doing it because he needed it's brand name to get people's attention.
To OP:
Thats a fantastic interpretation, but it's an interpretation. It's why I love the movie because depending on how you view it you can come out thinking it means an entirely different thing which to me is the hallmark of a great movie.
Your absolutely right that in many ways the propaganda shown in film is meant to effect the audience watching as well. I also agree the Arachnids aren't evil as portrayed constantly throughout the movie and they are demonized through propaganda.
I think however the point of the humans continually denying the intelligence of the insects is arrogance. They are clearly sentient or at least some of them are hence their ability to adapt weapons organically against the Terran. A good example are the bugs that can shoot plasma capable of going into orbit and wrecking a starship. The brain bugs are able to suck out humans minds. They are even on multiple planets throughout their star system so clearly they have interstellar travel. Why then are chucking asteroids so implausible?
At the end of the day the Arachnids had to be enough of a threat to merit a war, otherwise theres enough space in the galaxy to coexist. My interpretation of the movie has always been how propaganda can be used to exacerbate a conflict that actually happened to serve the purpose of politics like the Boston Massacre or so many other events throughout history. I believe the arachnids did attack but they had good reasons too.
Rama was Clarke. Heinlein didn't examine alien thought processes at all - he rarely wrote aliens in the first place. On the other hand, when he did, he tried to make them alien - in Methuselah's Children mere exposure to the masters of the Jockaira was enough to make a normal human catatonic for a while, then amnesiac about the event itself (Ford never could explain what it was he saw that day), for instance. His Klendathu were alien as well - all they shared in common with humans was a desire to live on worlds with a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere and a fair amount of liquid water. The Klendathu were also, apparently, violently xenophobic, which seems reasonable for beings that have hive-minds - humans were from outside the hive, and thus dangerous and needing elimination. (The war started in the book when the Bugs smeared a Terran Federation research station, and really got under way when they destroyed Pluto Station and nuked Buenos Aires.)
Ooops... Yeah that's a good example of what I was going for though.
Eh, maybe a little. But honestly, he had already made a name for himself with Robocop, Total Recall, and Basic Instinct, so it's not like he was some new director that needed a well known brand to get people's attention. Furthermore, while the book certainly had it's fans prior to the movie, I think it is pretty safe to say many more people became aware of the book because of the movie than were motivated to see the movie because they had read the book.
So yes, he was borrowing from existing source material to tell the story he wanted, although I don't think he was really doing it because he needed it's brand name to get people's attention.
Or to put it another way, he told a story in the same setting, but not one that was an adaptation of an existing work from that setting.
Comments
I found "Invasion" to be one of the prettier yet soulless extravaganza's in memory .
In contrast, the now dated CG series "Roughnecks" provided a much more emotionally satisfying story telling (especially the latter story arcs) , and that too had Verhooven as an exec. producer .
... make mine Marverrrr, I mean Roughnecks ...
I love the book, i think its 1 of the best sci-fi story's.
Hey not a bad theory at all.
You ever read the book ? There's lots of stuff left out in the movie. It was a fascinating read.
Edit: Sry I see you said you never read it.
A few years after the movie came out I picked up a copy. So that was quite a while ago, but looking back on it now, I see it as sort of a sci-fi play on The Art of War.
Though I don't often re-read books, this is one I had always wanted to revisit as an adult.
You'd probably find it a refreshing read. It was amazing how different it was from what I expected(being that I'd already seen the movie, and expect something similar).
Mustrum mentioned the film was a parody of the book.. and that seems to make the most sense to me.
As is left leaning text, versus the intentionally right leaning film.
Seems like a pretty interesting production decision if true.
Guess ill have to re read, and rewatch em. Now I have a reason thanks.
Anyways... satire asside, the Arachnids have a form of intelligence that is different from humans. The fact that humans discounted it is because they only see them as bugs comparable to the ones native to Earth. There were actually several instances of Arachnids using tactics, which indicates intelligence.
1: Setting an ambush at the outpost on P. The bugs could have just swarmed over the Roughnecks in the canyon where there was little cover and no tower guns, easy mindless slaughter. Instead, they waited until they were pretty much in a box with no where to go.
2: Use of Artillery. The Plasma Bugs are capable of shooting down capital ships in orbit, and most likely knocking asteroids out of position. That alone indicates some form of intelligence as they would need to not only know where the target is, but now much power to put into the shot to reach said target.
3: Strategic ellimination of enemy assets. In the canyon on P, a flying Bug took out the guy with the radio, cutting off the Roughnecks entirely from command. It could be argued that he was just a convenient target due to having gotten up on a rock and making him more visible, but he was also the communications guy of the unit, and he was the ONLY one taken out by the Bug. The Bug didn't swoop back down to attack them again.
4: Recognition of hostile assets. The Brain Bug recognized that Rico was holding a Nuke which could have killed them all. Identifying weapon types indicates intelligence, and the fact the Brain Bug didn't provoke Rico could show a fear of death.
Although not technologically advanced like their novel counterparts, the movie Arachnids are intelligent. I'd compare them a bit to the Zerg from StarCraft.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
I agree with the old Roughnecks episodes. Great show, too bad they never finished the run. But if you watch the extra credits on invasion, whole reason why they did it was because the live action movies never had half of what invasion did.
Though you are right Roughnecks had the better story.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
"The movie started life as a script called Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine.[3] When similarities, especially the "bugs" were pointed out between this and the novel Starship Troopers, plans were made to license the rights to the book and tweak character names and circumstances to match. "
No wonder why the movie blew and yet the book was great. It's a short, easy read. But Starship Troopers with no Mechanized Combat armor and no Skinnies = ****e. I do like Verhoooven's social satire though.
Watching 'Top gun' in a cinema in central London back when it was released would qualify as a 'good movie' by that rule... I fell asleep in my seat about 20 mins in...
Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life...</b></size></center>
1. The beginning of the movie states that Klendathu is on the other side of the Milky Way from Earth. Even at luminal speeds, you are talking about 25,000 years to get from Earth to Klendathu. (Their Federation had FTL because of course they did.)
2. The Klendathu in the movie were non-space faring. As described, a shooter on the planet, a moving station, would have had to hit a moving target, orbiting around a moving target to avoid anything along that 25k light year path to hit another moving target.
3. Rue Mclanahan in the class room stated that the Bugs blindly sent their spores on rocks into space. So either she was lying about the blindly part, or the Federation scientists found Klendathu rocks not on any planetary trajectory.
4. Here's the clincher for me; Carmen changes course on the Robert Young from Zander's preset one. Her course is more efficient. And shortly after being found out, it hits the meteorite heading to Earth. It knocks out communication, and interestingly, Zander is able to say that "it came from bug space" without checking any instruments. Almost like he knew it was supposed to have come from bug space.
Also, Cracked did an article about how Starship Troopers was a satire on the War on Terror.
Plus, Verhooven was a child in TRIBBLE-occupied Netherlands, so he is very anti-fascist, which this movie is also.
And if that bit about the martinet officer seems improbable to you, I humbly submit you haven't met enough junior officers. They usually mellow out by the time they get to O-3 or so, but nobody's more tender about getting the respect "due" him than a newly-minted butterbar.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Hehehe... Must be a United Rebel Colonies Navy thing, I'm more used to Royal Navy, maybe we teach ours better manners, or our CPO's are just better at bending the Lt's into shape.
Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life...</b></size></center>
You're reading too much into a satire. The technical aspects and logistics of this is irrelevant.
Again, you are reading too much into a satire. All of this is irrelevant and intentionally ignored.
Again, not really relevant.
You're reading too much into a satire. That being said, maybe he's just that good of a navigator. Plot holes are intentionally scattered throughout the movie because part of the satire is the pervasive ignorance that infects blind nationalism.
I'm not sure how it can be a satire on something that happened several years after the movie's release. At the very least it's a very tragic case of life imitating art.
Fine, I'll add the needed STO content :
Anyone notice that if you fly the Fed Intel ship bundle , and you put the 4 short & stocky engines on the Eclipse , it vaguely resembles the ships used in Starship Troopers movie ?
Sure, the Eclipse's primary hull is much thinner & sleeker, but the general basis -- short stocky engines + long is primary hull is there .
... ta-daa ...
edit: now to go back to sulking about no decent merchandize being available for Starship Troopers ... .:(
edit 2 : but hey, here's the audio book on the youtubes .
I don't know, I've met some Royal Arm Leftenants who had that same stick up their butts.
When they are going to try and avoid the rock with the Roger Young, and she smashes the glass covering the controls, and then waits for his countdown before activating them. Thus putting the ship (at the kinds of speeds they were moving) at least 10Km closer to the thing to avoid hitting, before changing course. Whereas if she had altered course as soon as the controls were uncovered, they probably would have missed the rock entirely.
Even with it's glaring mistakes, etc, I enjoy this movie, and have it on DVD. I also LOVE the book, and have a very early edition of it that I do read every so often.
We come in peace, SHOOT TO KILL!
Heinlein loved to examine the thought processes of the aliens he wrote. His Rama books are a good example there.
My character Tsin'xing
... something to listen to as I play STO ...
If he were actually trying to parody or satire the book, you would be right. But I don't think he was. I think he was simply using the basic story of the book as a platform to parody or satire various RL issues.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Eh, maybe a little. But honestly, he had already made a name for himself with Robocop, Total Recall, and Basic Instinct, so it's not like he was some new director that needed a well known brand to get people's attention. Furthermore, while the book certainly had it's fans prior to the movie, I think it is pretty safe to say many more people became aware of the book because of the movie than were motivated to see the movie because they had read the book.
So yes, he was borrowing from existing source material to tell the story he wanted, although I don't think he was really doing it because he needed it's brand name to get people's attention.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Thats a fantastic interpretation, but it's an interpretation. It's why I love the movie because depending on how you view it you can come out thinking it means an entirely different thing which to me is the hallmark of a great movie.
Your absolutely right that in many ways the propaganda shown in film is meant to effect the audience watching as well. I also agree the Arachnids aren't evil as portrayed constantly throughout the movie and they are demonized through propaganda.
I think however the point of the humans continually denying the intelligence of the insects is arrogance. They are clearly sentient or at least some of them are hence their ability to adapt weapons organically against the Terran. A good example are the bugs that can shoot plasma capable of going into orbit and wrecking a starship. The brain bugs are able to suck out humans minds. They are even on multiple planets throughout their star system so clearly they have interstellar travel. Why then are chucking asteroids so implausible?
At the end of the day the Arachnids had to be enough of a threat to merit a war, otherwise theres enough space in the galaxy to coexist. My interpretation of the movie has always been how propaganda can be used to exacerbate a conflict that actually happened to serve the purpose of politics like the Boston Massacre or so many other events throughout history. I believe the arachnids did attack but they had good reasons too.
My character Tsin'xing