Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) is a rich kid from Buenos Aires, who is dating the school's pretty girl, Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards) and is best friends with Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick Harris). The three have been best friends for many years, and as their graduation approaches, they decide to join up for Federal Service, each for their own reasons. Carl, being a psychic, feels like his abilities will help out the government, while Carmen dreams of being a pilot. Rico, on the other hand, is joining the military to chase after Carmen, but his low math skills means he is slated for Mobile Infantry, by far the most dangerous branch of the military.
When Rico gets to boot camp, he finds another friend from high school is in his platoon. Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer) has had a crush on Rico for years, and while he believes she signed up for him, she insists she has her own reasons. Boot camp is rough for Rico (a lot rougher than Ibanez's flight training, especially when she falls for her partner and dumps Rico via video). But Rico quickly shows what he has and gets the rank for Squad Commander, a privilege he doesn't hold very long when a live-fire training accident leaves one of his squadmates dead. Between the loss of Carmen and his friend, Rico decides to leave boot camp, but when an attack from space wipes out his home and war is declared, he joins back up and takes to the skies.
So who attacked Earth? Apparently there exists a race of highly evolved insects known as Arachnids, and the asteroid they hurtled at Earth is one of the ways that they send their eggs to other planets. Now Rico, Dizzy and his fellow classmates will help to storm various Bug worlds trying to stop the alien forces.
One of the aspects I've always liked about Starship Troopers is the fact that it doesn't really take itself too seriously. Between the frequent propaganda ads that break into the film and the way it pokes fun at the government being portrayed in the film, you can tell it is trying to convey a message, but not in such a way as to feel preachy.
As far as Blu-ray special features, this release has a trivia test that challenges your knowledge of the Starship Troopers universe, as well as a FedNet viewing mode which puts the movie in a picture-in-picture setup that gives you various snippets of information concerning the movie; this mode also gives you access to retrospectives, commentaries and the military and political natures portrayed in the film. This disc also comes with the special features found on the DVD as well as some exclusives. These features include some documentaries on the bugs, the research that went into the film, and the various special effects comparisons (so you can watch scenes in various stages of development). Let's just say that the Blu-ray's impressive storage capabilities weren't lost on this release. If you loved the movie before, and want to see the war in high-def (something that actually up-scales pretty well), then definitely pick up this copy.
