Starship Troopers; mini review + screen shots

[Iron Man]

Starship Troopers (1997)

Reviewed by Andy Philipp - Denmark



Overall
A must buy


The Movie

Well this movie did not win the Oscar for best motion picture of the year, but it was not supposed too either. On the other hand, this is just damn good entertainment. The story is about how our society has evolved into an aggressive, militarist regime (I wonder if this is just entertainment, or there are some under laying thoughts to this story?) We are in war with big alien bugs and this not just in some rain forest or on a spaceship; this is real war which also makes this movie a bit different to other alien movies. This movie has everything from ridicules commercials and love to science fiction and hardcore action.

I am not a Paul Verhoeven fan but I already own Total Recall and Robocop is on its way so in a way I must be a little fan.

Starship Troopers was nominated for an Oscar for Best effects / visual effects and I always had the impression that they where very well made. So how does the CGI look in high-definition? The answer is simple.... it looks even better. This is top dollar CGI the bugs look and move very realistic.


Picture quality

The movie is presented in 16:9 so it fills up the whole screen. The PQ is generally very very good, it's sharp and clean. The scenes in daylight are very clear and bright (not overly bright) many scenes are perfect demo material. Black is black in this movie and it is very consistent, the movie has a good contrast level.

My only complaint is that 2 or 3 scenes that suffer from a little to much grain, which makes the picture a little unclear compared to the rest of the movie. We are not talking about whole scenes only short moments. Also when they are getting ready to invade the bug planet the first time, the picture gets really bad at two short moments.

Overall this picture quality is fantastic it would earn a solid four stars from me. The piture is alot better IRL than the screen shots but these are the best I could make.


Audio quality ½
As with the picture quality the audio is also very good. The subwoofer really gets to work many times through out. Voices are very clear and always easy to locate in the sound stage. I like it a lot and this is great demo material.


Extras
Sorry I did not check these out, I never do.















System used:
Pre-amp: NAD Master Series M15
Amp: NAD Master Series M25
Blu-ray: Samsung BD-P1000
Front speakers: B&W 803D
Center speaker: B&W HTM2D
Rear: B&W SCMS
Subwoofer: B&W ASW610
Projector: Optoma HD-80 1080P
Screen: Lissau 78" TAB-tension
Speaker cables: TaraLabs RSC@ Prime 500
Analogue cables: QED Silver Spiral
HDMI: Supra 12m

[Xerious]

zomg!! I WANT IT!!!

[owa]

Nice and a good job with the pics. Mine never come out very well.

Definitely looking forward to this one when it's released in the US.

[Kyot]

Yeah the quality in it is superb. The scene where Rico takes on the tanker bug by himself is pretty amazing. As well as the 'blues' when they destroy the plasma bugs shooting up at the fleet in orbit.

[Iron Man]

Originally Posted by Kyot

The scene where Rico takes on the tanker bug by himself is pretty amazing.

It's very amazing, it's beautifully made.... There is nothing worse than movies where you loose the illusion in action sequences because of bad directing, filming or CGI.

[clownface]

I have to pick that one up, nice setup by the way.

[dazbug]

We've had this for a few weeks in Aus and would agree 100% with the above review, except I would add 1/2 a star for video.

For a movie its age, the transfer is jaw dropping. Dont know when you guys get it, but its definitely worth importing if you can't wait.

As for Robocop, i was hugely dissapointed with this transfer, if only it was as good as starship troopers.