A movie that was misunderstood at the time of its release. Its balance of satire with action/sci-fi isn't too dissimilar from _Robocop_, so it was probably only a matter of time before it would get reassessed, but it's still a challenging film because it makes a lot of bold, out there choices. Generally, I think Verhoeven is generally biting off more than he can chew here. The bits of satire about the American military are easily its most entertaining asset, for me they're sharp and clever enough to carry this project to the finish line. The sci-fi movie that's build around that is fine. I enjoyed some of the attention to detail in the worldbuilding (gender neutral locker rooms) and most of the CGI holds up surprisingly well, it's certainly not as dated as _The Phantom Menace_. Still, most of the action is on the unimaginative side as the antagonist bugs make for pretty uninteresting cannon fodder. Then there's the love square that's worked in, which doesn't work because of the cheesy acting and weak characters. It's often interpreted as part of the satire, but that feels like a stretch to me as there's no real pay-off or subversion to it. Honestly, cutting out all that soap opera bs would drastically improve the film for me. The same goes for Verhoeven's stylistic stamp in the dialogue, which still reads to me as cringy and awkward from time to time. Again, he's a filmmaker that likes to take massive swings, which I very much respect, but there's a lot that holds me back from loving this.

5.5/10