While I've only read a few of his books, I have enjoyed anything I have read from Heinlein, and at the top of that list is Starship Troopers. I cannot state this for certain, but it is my opinion that this book was he true beginning of "Mechs" in science fiction.
There were two important aspects of the book that I don't feel the movie did a good enough job: the politics and the mechs.
The movie talked a little bit about "citizenship", but it really didn't go over the politics behind the citizenship that were in the book. That was a huge part of the book in my opinion, but I may be a tad bit biased since I agreed with it so much. Basically there was no harm in not being a citizen, but if you wanted to be involved in the leadership of the planet in any respect you needed to be a citizen and you didn't have a choice in your term of service. You served in the best capacity you were needed. I'm simplifying (probably) here, but the whole idea of the world politic was that the group most likely to form an armed rebellion were those who were in the military. Not the military itself, but those who had served. By placing those people in charge and making citizenship a reward for service it basically put the government in the hands of those who were willing to work for it....and the people.
The mechs, well the whole war revolved around this big mobile armor suits. Without the mechs, there just isn't any way of even bothering to follow the book for the film. They had no problem using CGI for the bugs, but nothing for the mechs? The whole concept of the battles and the war had to be changed at such a fundamental level that the movie should not have been called Starship Troopers.
I look forward to this reboot....cannot wait to see the new movie (don't even get me started about any of the subsequent Starship Trooper sequels.....)
No comments:
Post a Comment