{"id":96,"date":"2003-06-13T22:44:22","date_gmt":"2003-06-14T03:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=96"},"modified":"2003-06-13T22:44:22","modified_gmt":"2003-06-14T03:44:22","slug":"roughnecks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/06\/13\/roughnecks.html","title":{"rendered":"Roughnecks"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Finally finished the last of the (published) Roughnecks: Starship Troopers<\/i><\/a> DVDs. <\/p>\n

Lying somewhere between the original Heinlein book <\/a>and the near-camp movie<\/a>, these CGI animation episodes — 96 minutes per disc — are good, clean, bug-hunting fun. There’s a decent amount of character interplay, and plenty of bug-blasting. I think RAH would be pleased.<\/p>\n

The Klendathu Campaign<\/a> is the weaker of this pair, with Razak’s Roughnecks bringing the war to the Bug homeworld of Klendathu. Various complications — including the snarky Lt. Zander turning into a human\/bug hybrid — ensue. <\/p>\n

<\/a>There’s an episode gap before the second disc, The Homeworld Campaign<\/a>. That disc opens up with the war apparently over, but it turns out the bugs have managed to embed themselves on Earth. Plenty of action follows, along with some tragic losses and decent character growth. It’s ironic that a “juvenile” animated series would show more heart and sophistication than a Hollywood film from the same source — particularly with Paul Verhoeven as the executive producer.<\/p>\n

Alas, this is the end of the series as produced. Three final episodes were never finished, though the success of the DVDs may dictate whether that happens. While there are times when the episodes show the limitations (especially on a time and money budget) of computer animation, particularly when it comes to showing human movement, there are some brilliant instances that show you just how far such animation has come. The Roughnecks <\/i>series is a satisfying set of discs for Heinlein fans and folks who enjoyed the film, as well as sf fans and CGI afficionados. I heartily recommend it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finally finished the last of the (published) Roughnecks: Starship Troopers DVDs. Lying somewhere between the original Heinlein book and the near-camp movie, these CGI animation episodes — 96 minutes per…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13043,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/08\/10\/brilliant_but_cancelled.html","url_meta":{"origin":96,"position":0},"title":"Brilliant but Cancelled","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 10-Aug-08 2:35pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Wired lists their Top Ten Brilliant but Canceled SF TV Series\u00a0(though their \"SF\" seems to include heavy dollops of Fantasy, too): Firefly: Well, duh. Aside from the brilliantly flexible premise,...","rel":"","context":"In "Babylon 5"","block_context":{"text":"Babylon 5","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/media-tv-babylon-5"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131922,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/03\/starship-troopers-the-reboot-coming-eventually-to-a-theater-near-you.html","url_meta":{"origin":96,"position":1},"title":""Starship Troopers: The Reboot," coming eventually to a theater near you","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 3-Nov-16 4:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I enjoy a lot of aspects of Paul Verhoeven's version of this story, between its cheesy melodrama and its biting satire about militarism and propaganda, but I can understand the desire to actually do something that tries to take Heinlein's 1959 novel seriously.The problem is, I'm not sure you can.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2581,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/06\/02\/wild_about_harr.html","url_meta":{"origin":96,"position":2},"title":"Wild about Harry","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 2-Jun-02 7:12am","format":false,"excerpt":"Watched the Harry Potter DVD this weekend. And, y'know what? It wasn't bad. I had a memory of the film as a largely sterile, faithful-but-heartless rendition of the book. But...","rel":"","context":"In "Harry Potter"","block_context":{"text":"Harry Potter","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/harry-potter"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41466,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/20\/movie-review-starship-troopers-1997.html","url_meta":{"origin":96,"position":3},"title":"Movie Review: "Starship Troopers" (1997)","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 20-Mar-14 10:52am","format":false,"excerpt":"Father\/daughter movie week was a bit tight this week, due to other evening commitments, but I finally got Starship Troopers up on the screen (if nothing else than to explain why I occasionally say at at appropriate moments, \"Bugs, Mr. Rico! Zillions of 'em!\" thought that line is actually from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10832,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/06\/20\/comfort_media.html","url_meta":{"origin":96,"position":4},"title":"Comfort media","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 20-Jun-07 8:07pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Re-reading\/watching a number of things this week. Reading Friday at work.\u00a0 One of my favorite later Heinlein novels.\u00a0 Improbable coincidences, politics on its sleeve, polemical setting, and incredibly sexy, independent,...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":448,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/04\/11\/size_matters.html","url_meta":{"origin":96,"position":5},"title":"Size matters","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 11-Apr-03 7:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Cool. Check out the comparitive sizes of various scifi and anime space craft and creatures, alongside some real world comparisons. 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