Another thing that really annoyed me about the movies (and, I suppose, about this new adaption) is how they completely tossed out the rather interesting weapon selection Heinlein had (flamethrowers, pocket nukes, a wide variety of bombs, etc.) for fuckin' assault rifles. At least this new thing looks like it is getting the armor closer to right.
You do have to admit, putting any number of live actors into convincing looking powered-armor suits on a movie screen in 1997 would have been quite the undertaking. And in case you didn't notice, they did have "pocket nukes", what do you think those bazookas were?
Why an animated adaptation might skimp on such things, I have no idea.
Oh, I agree that they couldn't have done live-action powered armor then. Or now, really. Hence why that adaption was in some ways a bad idea, and why animation has much more potential. Unless I'm remembering incorrectly, though, the only actual use of a tacnuke was as an improvised demolition charge. And possibly once during Bughouse? But either way, it was treated as a 'special' weapon, while in the novel if they were approved for a mission at all, there were typically two or three for every Marauder suit.
The bugs in the novel proper were very interesting opponent. Despite how they've been popularized, the bugs had DEW, space ships, and faster then light travel.
The skinnies, from what I got we're not on the same level of technology that the Federation are or the bugs are.
Although that talking bomb is awesome.
Agreed on all counts with the Bugs. That was sort of the point of the book; they were a high-tech race that still operated with hive-minds, and that was screwing with the Federation scientists. In the movie, they weren't even as advanced as the Zerg, with nothing but claws and those bioplasma things. I for one would like to see their DEW, as well as at least
some sort of mention of tunnelling and frying bacon.
The impression I got from the Skinny section was that (and I think it was actually stated outright) that the raid was just that-a (kill me for saying this) 'shock and awe' raid, conducted by a small unit, on their homeworld, where they weren't expecting combat. I'd agree that they probably weren't quite as advanced as the Federation or Bugs, but there wasn't too substantial of a gap.
Of course, there are plenty of other things to complain about the movie for: replacing drop pods with those flying boxes, replacing the whole ideal of the 'everyone fights, supersoldier' vision of the MI with 'a bunch of people standing in a line like WWI in SPEHSS', so on and so forth.
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Topic: Starship Troopers 4: Invasion (Read 6770 times)