The actual mechanics of war take a back seat to over-the-top computer-generated violence, satirical takes on wartime propaganda, and the transformation of TV's Doogie Hauser (Neil Patrick Harris) into a trenchcoated SS officer. Where the film fails is not in its mordant sense of humor, or its audacious morphing of Heinlein's original intentions, but in its inability to stage a gripping combat sequence (bad news in a war movie) and its lack of interest in making its characters feel like anything more than cardboard cutouts. Stridently superficial and too tongue-in-cheek for its own good, Starship Troopers spins its wheels happily when it should be grinding its teeth.

Starship Troopers isn't exactly stupid -- like RoboCop, it's inspired by comic-book melodrama, and it does have its moments. Pet Verhoevenisms like the coed locker room make an encore appearance, and, in its most blackly humorous moments, Starship Troopers does illustrate the absurdity of war and the dehumanizing effects of a military campaign. For me, the movie actually improved on DVD, where the extensive computer-generated imagery (CGI) blends more seamlessly into the picture.

Incredibly, Verhoeven's heavy-handed satire was lost on not just viewers but some critics, as well, who condemned Starship Troopers as a fascist film. For Verhoeven, who grew up in Fascist-occupied Holland, such accusations must seem not just unbearably moronic, but stupefyingly insensitive. The DVD from Columbia Tri-Star Home Video includes a running commentary from Verhoeven and Neumeier where they address those misconceptions and banter amusingly about world history in general and the American political system in particular. Nicely conversational and occasionally revealing, the track still suffers from a lack of focus. While the RoboCop commentary is edited together from separate sessions with each of the principals, the Starship Troopers track is a freewheeling gabfest, with nothing to keep Verhoeven's tendency toward rambling in check. (If they had gotten one of the FX gurus to sit down and contribute, it could have broken things up a bit.) It is, however, more entertaining in many ways than the film itself and as such can be recommended.

The DVD also includes one of those useless studio-sponsored promotional "documentaries" that's made up largely of footage from the movie and fatuous interviews with the stars and director. Five wisely deleted scenes that seem to be leftovers from a test screening offer a bit more character development, but may best be appreciated by Denise Richards fans, who get a glimpse of her in her underwear (and would be better off buying Wild Things, anyway). Also included in the kitchen-sink package are a theatrical trailer, some storyboards, CGI tests for the bug-fight sequences, and screen tests for Caspar van Dien and Richards. Some of this material is kind of interesting, and you get a lot of it, but on the whole it feels like shovelware. During the film itself, the disc's image and sound quality are beyond reproach.