The Book is Better than the Movie

The verdict:

The book wins easily. Don’t get me wrong. The movie is a fun romp, but the book is a fabulous tale that makes the reader think. This one isn’t even hard to judge. The movie is fun and exciting, but nothing spectacular. The book is amazing, thought provoking, and interesting.

Starship Troopers is a 1997 movie that was loosely based on the book Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. I was a teenager when this movie came out, and I remember it fondly. It was a delightfully fun movie that I thoroughly enjoyed, nothing particularly special but entertaining. I would enjoy it still, but then I read the book. Once you’ve read the book or if you happened to read it before the movie came out it makes you view the movie differently. Generally, I read books before the movie comes out, but I wasn’t aware of this one until years later. I had read other Heinlein books and stumbled onto Starship Troopers.

Starship troopers (the movie) is about Johnny Rico a reluctant soldier who follows a girl into service. There are training shenanigans and Johnny becomes a soldier the training montage lets the viewer meet the characters but is also an interesting part of the movie. The training is also a significant part of the book and I think the training in the book may be more interesting than in the movie. My biggest complaint is that they are simply grunt soldiers and the movie makes that clear over and over. “Fleet does the flying and MI does the dying,” is this constant theme. In the book however, the soldiers are awesome, and you never get that vibe. They have these cool suits that make them super soldiers. Rico is jumping over building, burning things, and shooting nukes all at the same time. If the movie had given us even half as cool soldiers, I would have liked it more.

Now, I get why the movie was different, they usually are. The book follows Juan Rico as he goes from soldier to officer, it is a military coming of age story. The reader experiences the bug war through Juan Rico’s eyes. While I loved the book, I can see why this wouldn’t translate perfectly into a movie. The movie SPOILER ALERT- is about Johnny (not Jaun) Rico who goes up in the ranks through heroics and instead of going for the brain bug saves the girl! He’s a hero, someone else captures the brain bug and everyone wins, except for the bugs. Sounds like a good story, right?

Overall, the movie was a fun army movie with big bugs, guns, gruesome deaths, and awesome action scenes. If I had never read the book, I might watch it if it came on tv. I might even seek it out on Netflix or whatever service has it if I were in the mood for a fun army romp with giant bugs. Once I read the book though, the movie just makes me a little sad. All I can think about are the awesome super suits and how cool the soldiers are in the book. Plus, the plot of the movie leaves something to be desired. The whole follows his love to war is a little trite, and in the book, they aren’t even a thing. They are friends, Juan and Carmen but they are not in love and she isn’t why he joins. They do meet later in the book for a dinner, and she does become a pilot but other than that the whole romance is a movie magic affair. As a teenager I liked it, but as an adult it is not nearly as enjoyable. Furthermore, the story of the book is amazing. You would think a soldier’s story might be boring, but Robert Heinlein knows how to capture a reader’s imagination. If you want something interesting to read check out Starship Troopers, you won’t be disappointed!