Early Review: Starship Soldiers Vs. Starship Troopers

I’ve been reading the novel ‘Starship Soldiers’ or what it is known as by many, ‘Starship Troopers’ written by Robert Heinlein. The futuristic novel published in 1959 follows the life of Juan Rico in views of flash backs after he graduates from high school and enlists in the Terran Mobile Infantry.

I have only read up to Chapter VIII (Chapter 8 ) so far and it is much, much, more different than the movie, ‘Starship Troopers’ which was released in 1997 starring Denise Richards, Neil Patrick Harris, and Casper Van Dien. First off, this book explores the deep and unknown reality that war veterans face after a war and how the government screws them over. The book even explores political themes and how politics always affects everyone and everything. I am not at the part yet where they start fighting the war with the bugs but from what I have been reading so far, it does not even seem like they will be fighting bugs, just super tall and skinny humanoid beings. The movie is all about action and explosions. Everyone has a gun and is shooting at a bug. Blood, guts, gore, napalm, body parts, and bugs. That is pretty much what the movie is about.

The major differences that occur between the movie and the book are the major scenes that you see in the movie. Most of the memorable scenes from the movie always end up in someone being killed or injured. The first discrepancy between the book and the movie is that ‘Dizzy’ is not female but he is male and dies in the first chapter due to mortal wounds, not due to an insect leg impaling her through the chest. There are also the MI capsules that all the soldiers are launched out of. In the movie, all the soldiers are carried down to the planet in supply ships but in the book, every soldier is launched out of the base ship from orbit while in a capsule waiting to crash land onto the planet to start fighting.

What I find very interesting about the scenes that Heinlein wrote about is whenever there is a conflict of man vs. man he writes at least two pages of political and philosophical ideals that represent the situation and also as well diffuses and gives each problem closure.

Very memorable scenes in the book are the same memorable scenes in the movie but instead of shooting, there is a major explanation diffusing the situation. The scene where ‘Ace’ complains to drill instructor Zim that why they need knives, Heinlein explains philosophically in three pages why one man should be skilled in knives and why one should have one. It does not even end up with Zim throwing the knife at Ace’s hand like in the movie. Another scene where Zim breaks the arm of a recruit, Heinlin writes a logical and political description of the rules of fighting and in which ways to fight someone. The biggest scene so far in the book is when a soldier disobeys Zim’s orders and actually hits the drill instructor which by law is punished by flogging and also being relieved of his duties. The entire chapter deals with how and why to never hit your superior and why the superior, Zim let his guard down and let the recruit sock him in the eye. This scene leads to Rico’s flogging which many remember that he got one of his subordinates killed by taking off his helmet. In the novel, the Mobile Infantry uses power suits which basically turns the human operator into a super freak. Rico was in charge of his company in a drill and he shoots a missile to prevent the attackers from killing his teammates. Unfortunately, he did not really think about his decision and could have actually possibly killed his own teammates and he was given five lashes due to negligence.

If you ever get to read this book and expect a plethora of explosions and insect body parts flying all over the place, think again. This novel was nothing like I expected it to be, which makes me very disappointed in how the movie turned out. The movie barely explored the themes presented in the book written by Heinlein and if you are not into philosophy and politics, this book will have you asking yourself, ‘what the hell did I just read?’ It can get so boring that you will forget what you just read. The movie, ‘Starship Troopers’ is nothing like the novel, ‘Starship Soldiers’ so if you are one of the fans who loved the movie, you probably will not like the book and find it too boring to read.

I on the other hand am actually going to mission this novel out and hope that they actually do fight some bugs!

Why the Movie ‘I am Legend’ Sucked Update

Times have been hectic as of now, and I have not written my explanation to why I thought the movie sucked. Don’t worry, I should be able to do that after this weekend or in early August. I just have too much to do right now as my explanation will take up a lot of time that I dearly need as of right now so yeaaaa…I shall write about this later.

Why the Movie, ‘I am Legend’ Sucked

We all know why the movie sucked – Mostly due to the horrendous ending. The whole entire movie was building up to the ending and everyone wanted to see what Will Smith would do once he found the cure and how he would fight off those vampire-like human beings once and for all. In the end, he sacrifices himself to make sure the cure survives so that the woman and her son would bring it to the last colonies. The ending was done well, but the whole scenario and the outcome made it just terrible. The alternate ending (original, but many of the test audiences didn’t like it) had him actually surviving and letting the captured vampire-like human being go. The last scene has Will’s character, the mother, and the mother’s son driving off into the distance to reach the last colonies. I do not understand why they chose to have the movie end like the way it ended. Why not actually follow the book for once and have it end like it should have. Many people do not even know this movie is based on a book of the same name written by Richard Matheson. I’ve seen comparisons to the movie and the book goes deeper into the whole context of civilizations and the hunter being the hunted type of deal. AND Matheson’s ending is so much better and puts the title of the book/movie into context. The movie distorted the meaning of the title and many people were coming out of the theaters asking each other what the hell was the point of the title? Well, I would have been asking myself that too, even though the fact is the main character becomes a legend/hero for finding the cure; its stupid, everyone agrees.

I rented out the book a few days ago and I’m about to read the book to see how much better it is compared to the movie. I know there are key differences between the works but they do not confuse the consumer of anything about the plot…except the ending…and except for the fact that some of the vampires actually can talk and are aware. So I am going to read this book and see why the movie was so bad.

Harry Potter

Guess what? What? no really WHAT?
j.k Rowling is going to kill off two people in her next Harry Potter book. Didn't everyone know that already? It was big on the news today and I'm like, ya, I've known that since the last book came out. It was in the newspaper too and the analysis was that she was going to kill off Dumbledore. Oh wait, didn't that already happen? LOL. No they thought about killing off professor McGonagal…yeah whatever her last name is and either Hermione or Ron, or both. We'll see. Since its going to be the last book of the series, obviously there has to be a tragedy in it. Hey maybe her plot is like 'Titus and Andronicus,' dam that Shakespeare was sick. Basically the only thing you have to know about the play is that Titus Andronicus, the protagonist, a general for the Roman army slaughtered the goths and had his men rape and kill the goth queen's daughters and sons. The queen takes revenge and overpowers him from the throne and he in turn pretends to go mad and returns to the land of the goths and secretly kills the queen's remainging daughters, slices them up, and serves them in a pie to the queen. Sickening. So anyways, back to Harry Potter…yeah its going to be a tragedy and now the series is going to have those million different covers and also limited and special editions and box sets to come with. Like whatever, and I can't want to see the series on sparknotes. Dam lol, its become a global phenomenom like Dan Brown and his books and there are already summaries on the books. Geez, I will laugh at a kid trying to do an English ISP on Harry Potter books. They are soooooo long, they won't have time to read it. Plus, if they can't read it in time, they are just stupid like me when i tried to the 'Grapes of Wrath' that was a bad choice of ISP work, but interestingly, I got an 80% on it…KICK ASH! I mean like, Harry Potter is a suspenseful book that is 'unputdownable' so seriously, if they can't read it in less than a weak, they either are not fans of it or are just very stupid kids. Actually no, they are just stupid trying to read those behemoth-like novels. LOl Well ya whatever LOL Oh man, I write a alot of shit in my entires, like what the hell man. I have so much to say and vent it out on LJ. Oh man, oooo ya that reminds me, i gotta do an entry on DOTA! LOL ya right. maybe tommorow. [8[|]

Harry Potter and the Parodies I Made

I was going to watch Harry Potter today, but then all the shows were sold out, so I did not even bother to try to get a ticket. Everyone I know is enthiused to see that movie. Its just Harry Potter, its nothing big. I'll tell you one book that is big, 'The DaVinci Code' that is one messed up freakin' suspenseful peace of crap (and so are Dan Brown's other books). But anyways, if I were to go, I would go with someone who would not dress up like Harry Potter *cough cough* …Eva. I remember when I was part of the fan based phenomenon…back when I was in Grade 6. Seriously, I was like the first person in my class to read the book. I brought the books to school and everyone saw me read it and I showed it to them and immediately, they could not put it down. Ha, luckily my mom picked it up for me. I did not want to read it in the first place, but I was like hey, “The cover looks good. Ya I'll get it.” Few months later and everyone was reading Harry Potter. It was all good for me because I had the box set (haha suckers). When the Goblet of Fire came out I read it but then that was when I was in Grade 7 and I stopped reading books by then. It took my all of summer to read the first eight chapters of that book. Then I actually started to read the book and finished it about ten months later. Shit, I have to read the fifth and the sixth book. I just stopped reading Harry Potter. What is wrong with me? Oh yeah, I'm not interested in Harry Potter anymore. I guess I have had too much of that character and his friends. Its not that I don't like it, its just that I grew out of it like that time when I watched 'D2: The Ducks are Back' I watched that like six times straight everyday for about two weeks…and then I got bored of it. I don't get why everyone is so into the book. What is it about a special famous boy, the only survivor of Lord Voldemort? Oh yeah thats why! It all starts out with that and now J.K. Rowling has put more twists and turns into each of her book in order to prolong the series because:
1. Fans want more Harry Potter.
2. She needs/wants more money (she is a single mother you know).
3. She loves to write.
But whatever, all authors are like that in some sort of way.

Anyways, back to Harry Pothead, I mean, Harry Potter. I saw the previews for the movie and by golly, they look amazing. Especially the dragon stage in the tournament. I also saw it in HIGH DEFINITION…HOLY SHIT that was amazing! You should see the trailer for 'King Kong' that detail on the beast is just BEAST! Oh I will see Harry Potter when I download that dam Movie. The quality may not be that great, but whatever, if its good enough to actually see the movie, then its good enough for me.

What is so funny about the whole entire thing is that the last book that Joanne (if I spelt her name right) will write one last Harry Potter book and that will be over. That book will be the size of freakin' two Dictionaries. Somehow she will make another surprising twist in order to prolong the series. Maybe she will write adventures of Harry after Hogwarts or maybe Harry will finally kill Voldermort or Voldermort will kill Harry. Eventually, blow in the hole, Harry has a son because he got it on with someone and that kid will be looking for revenge and then a whole NEW series of Harry's son.

Here are some titles I made up while I was high:

1. Harry Potter's Son and the Alchemist's Rock
2. Harry Potter's Son and the House of Dirty Secrets
3. Harry Potter's Son and the ex-prisoner of the place formerly known as Azkaban because the prisoners escaped and it was shut down
4. Harry Potter's Son and the Goblet of Water
5. Harry Potter's Son and the Disorderly albatross
6. Harry Potter's Son and the Full Blood Princess

Oh, those are slick Harry Potter Titles lol.

Well whatever, I have to go study for my Chemistry Quiz on Monday. I need a freakin 90% to get back up to 80% in the course. I'm not doing so well in Chemistry.