Ask a dozen people what they think about Starship Troopers and it’s likely that at least half of them, if not more, will tell you that it’s a goofy movie. Some might even want to call it borderline racist despite the inclusion and diversity that is shown in the movie. What many people will trip on are the uniforms the intelligence officers wear, which were picked out specifically for a purpose. But a good number of those people will still tell you that they’ve seen it at least once, possibly twice, since as goofy space movies go it does have a bit of heart to it and there’s something compelling about the story even if a few killjoys are going to state that ‘colonizers’ were to blame for their own deaths and the deaths of so many others. That’s fair to be certain, as trying to take over someone else’s backyard without trying to make peace with them first or finding common ground isn’t a wise idea, especially when the ‘neighbors’ in question might think that your body looks like a nice snack. But from the style of dress to the look put forth by the government to the goal of killing and understanding the bugs in this movie, Starship Troopers is kind of a divisive flick that people still enjoy watching.
Here are a few movies that you might enjoy if you’ve seen Starship Troopers.
5. The Running Man
One thing about this movie is the propaganda and how it’s used to rewrite the narrative to make some people look better and others look like mass murderers, liars, cheaters, and even worse. It’s all a matter of who’s controlling the narrative, kind of like happened in Starship Troopers. One of the biggest differences though is that in Troopers, the propaganda was aimed at getting citizens involved to take on a real threat, while in The Running Man the propaganda was to gain ratings. Ben Richards never had a chance to tell his story before he was tossed into the game zone, but thankfully later on he had a chance to correct the narrative.
4. Edge of Tomorrow
It’s not so much like Starship Troopers in that it’s willfully encouraging soldiers to sign up to be citizens since this movie is set in a very real-world feeling much as we have now. But the aliens that manage to rout the armed forces are just about as numerous and unstoppable as the bugs in Troopers, but more so because they have the ability to see the attacks coming and as a result, they can anticipate and shift before the soldiers even know what happened. There is a bit of similarity with how Cage, played by Tom Cruise, is inducted into the infantry, but this is more or less out of necessity and punishment than anything else.
3. Soldier
This is all about the soldiers initially and has nothing to do with private citizens until Todd, played by Kurt Russell, is dropped on the garbage world and left for dead. After that, the elimination of the garbage world by the same commander that left Todd as refuse becomes a reason for Todd to get back into action, especially since at that time he’s come to care for the people that have taken him in, even after they kicked him out of their community. Once a soldier, always a soldier, and it was determined that he was too dangerous to keep around the ‘civilized’ folks that had eked out a living for so long. But when the soldiers returned he was their best defense.
2. The Fifth Element
Where Starship Troopers is tight and by the numbers, this movie is about as chaotic as it gets since Corbin Dallas is the kind of guy that would rather stay out of trouble and isn’t a fan of running into it until he has no other choice. But where Troopers is all about duty, honor, and making the world a safer place by killing giant bugs, The Fifth Element is all about saving the world from a humongous dark planet that’s intent on colliding with the earth and wiping out all life in a fiery explosion. There are a lot of differences between these two movies, but they’re both kind of goofy, so there’s for a similarity.
1. Pitch Black
The whole idea of a dangerous planet that the characters don’t really understand kind of sits as a similarity between these two, but that’s about where it ends since the closest thing the soldiers in this movie are Riddick and Johns, and the two of them can’t stand each other since Johns is a drug addicted-mercenary and Riddick is his bounty. One can’t help but pull for Riddick from the start since Johns is kind of a pain in the backside.
With the exception of at least one movie, this list is made up of slightly cheesy movies, that’s enough for a recommendation.
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