Word: starship
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After saying yes, Fox went looking for a partner to share the risk, and possible reward, of a period piece replete with effects but devoid of major stars. Partnering on big pictures is increasingly common--Braveheart and Starship Troopers were team efforts--but the pitfalls are dramatically manifest in the feuding over Titanic...
When documentation arrived, Paramount concluded that the budget was as much as $30 million off. An insider says it allowed only $300,000 for music and about $7 million for special effects. Typically, music in a big movie like Titanic can cost more than $1.5 million. As for effects, Starship Troopers or The Lost World each required more than $20 million worth. Using the threat of a lawsuit, Paramount negotiated an agreement that capped its contribution at $65 million. It was the beginning of what Mechanic describes as "a terrible relationship...
...Sony reached that nice, round number in record time (Aug. 31, beating Disney's best date--Nov. 23--by a stretch). And Sony expects to surpass the industry record of $1.22 billion, if it can scrape up the remainder on films such as Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi thriller Starship Troopers (a picture it's splitting with Disney), and As Good As It Gets, from Terms of Endearment director James L. Brooks...
...know: people don't go to see movies like Starship Troopers to be intellectually stimulated. They don't go for profundity, for acting, or for socio-political commentary. They go to see special effects, explosions, action, and carnage. And although this movie does deliver these things with not insubstantial proficiency, it also lays bare the dangers of separating these pursuits from simple quality movie-making and of relying completely on effects to stimulate audiences. Even with the advent of computer graphics and more impressive special effects than ever--indeed, because of such advances--such an approach is bound to backfire...
...makers of Starship Troopers were so enamored with themselves for creating swarms of giant bugs, big fancy space-ships, and massive explosions, and so sure the audience would be equally taken, that they neglected to try to make a passable movie. The admittedly impressive effects are not supported by any other aspect of the movie: not plot, directing, editing, characters or acting. They are presented so blandly and matter-of-factly, and so isolated from any other elements of storytelling, that they are barely enjoyable even in and of themselves...