Re: Microid's 2024 Empire of the Ants demo came out yesterday!

On 10/21/2024 7:15 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Mon, 21 Oct 2024 06:32:49 -0400, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter  "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

On 10/20/2024 7:48 PM, Ant wrote:

 

I like the movie. I don't like to read. :P

 

The movie had been written and was already in pre-production when the
producers found out the movie rights to the book were for sale.  So they
bought those rights so they could use the book's title.
No joke.

 

Title and bolted on a few names from the book, and a couple of themes
(the whole service thing.)

 

But everything else was a mockery - assault rifles with an apparent
range of 10 feet, forcing the soldiers to shoot point blank at something
that can cut them in half with a swipe.   Um yeah, sure.

 

And the whole psi corp stuff in SS uniforms, no wonder the film is
nicknamed Nazi Germany 90210.

 

Oh yeah, and the chick flying the ship dodging an asteroid coming in
FTL, yeah, these guys can't even spell science much less know any.

  And don't forget the complete and utter lack of powered battle armor,
something the book is most famous for popularizing.
 "Starship Troopers" without powered armor is Star Wars without
lightsabers. I mean, sure you _could_... but why?*
 In fairness, a lot of the other stuff mentioned above (the fascism,
the shitty science, the psi stuff) was part and parcel of the book
too, albeit not so central to the narrative. I'll forgive that... even
if I didn't necessarily enjoy it. But the lack of powered armor?
 

Actually the political stuff in the movie is almost the polar opposite of the book.  Heinlein wrote a war story about service, as in western democracy type "service".  The citizenship criteria in the book was _ANY_ kind of service.  Being assigned as a park ranger planting trees was service and could grant citizenship.  He strongly emphasized that non-citizens were not an underclass.
The "Nazis BAAAAD!" parts of the movie were ALL Verhoeven, things that he added deliberately.  He's admitted that in interviews.
--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky dirty old man.