Starship Troopers

The first time I saw this, I really hated it. I can't remember what it was that so irked me, but I suspect that it was the exaggerated lack of depth to the whole film - the blatant artificiality - which really got my goat. Several years on (it must be approaching 10 years on by now), my take on the film is rather more sympathetic, and I quite enjoyed its ridiculousness. But, like all Verhoeven films, it tries to have it both ways in parodying our cultural preoccupations with violence, sex and excess, while at the same time seeking to exploit viewers' reactions to the spectacle of these images (surely it can't be an entirely 'straight' fascist/militarism-is-god film...can it?). I don't know - possibly the latter is unavoidable for a film-maker seeking to work in the former vein, but it still makes for vaguely unpleasant viewing.