WARNING: I blow a fair amount of the movie here, so if you don't want to lose some of the surprise, see it before reading this...
Now, I am a Heinlein fan. I collect his books with a passion. I have a first edition hard back copy of "Red Planet", and have read most of his novels at least three times. I have read "Grumbles from the Grave" several times, "Tramp Royale" about his world journey, and even managed to find copies of "-All you zombies." and "Beyond this Horizon" which was NOT easy. Is safe to say that he is my favorite author.
Additionally, of his books, "Starship Troopers" is my absolute favorite (yes, more than "A Stranger in a Strange Land" which I've read four times) I have read Troopers over a dozen times by my estimate and would like to say this:
The movie "Starship Troopers" was a hideous rendition. While it was initially far more accurate to the book than I expected it to be, after roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of the movie has elapsed it begins a slow decline until it becomes little more than a poorly-thought parody of the novel. Despite my every effort to like the movie, I did nothing but laugh for a good 20 minutes straight after seeing it. Some of it WAS very good. I was rather impressed at the inclusion of History and Moral Philosophy, although they changed "Carthage" to "Hiroshima" Which was hopefully more in response to the fact that most Americans probably do not know what Carthage was, but remember Hiroshima than to some statement about America's moral justifiability of the bombing. (which is an entirely different story not to be discussed here.) The training sequence as well was reasonably faithful, although they eliminated the ENTIRE justification for limited force and the use of ground troops in the space age, which is key to understanding the damn story! I was terribly disappointed to find that the Arachnids were reduced to being semi-intelligent, but non-tool-using aliens. Their ground-to-space defense weaponry consisted of six legged insects the size of my dorm with serious lower digestive tract ailments. We're not going to discuss the physics or evolutionary biology of THAT one. Genengineering isn't an answer, non-tool-using, remember?
Does this mean you shouldn't go see it? No, still see it. Sci-Fi movies ALWAYS need support or they'll stop being made, it's not like the genre gets any respect from the general public anyway. Large portions of it ARE rather good, but other sections are so ridiculously overdone as to make the entire movie a farce. That's my opinion.
-Matt; Who is so upset by all this that he is giving up valuable sleeptime at college in favor of a rabid rant.
P.S: Although Captain Zot was right about the T&A. A tad gratuitous, perhaps, but hey...