Starship Troopers - 2/5

This is one of those rare movies that is great, but not good. Much of the visuals hold up surprisingly well due to competent direction from Paul Verhoeven. The sets, costuming, and casting are all B-Grade, almost TV Soap level clean low-budget, but the action setpieces largely make up for it. The director is on record stating the film is a satire, but apart from the newsreel inserts this movie simply makes a good case for the war against the bugs and forgets to rebut it.

Content warning: Gore, nudity

Closest comparison: It’s like Dune by way of Blade: House of Chthon.

Setting: Sci-Fi
Plot: War
Tone: Action

Blue Steel (1990) - 1/5

This movie epitomizes the exasperation of characters doing stupid things. The main character keeps not giving her superiors the vital information that she knows, which would entirely clear up the situation, and which she wants to give them. The film provides no explanation at all but keeps repeating the killer’s inexplicable escape and the main character’s inexplicable silence again and again for the entire runtime.

Closest comparison: It’s like Halloween (1978) by way of Fallen (1998).

Setting: Police Procedural
Plot: Homicide
Tone: Stalker

Invincible (Amazon, 2021) - 3/5

This show takes the Spider-Man high school drama, combines it with a broader Avengers-style narrative, and wraps it all up in the gore that is much more realistic to the physics at work. The story isn’t as clever as it thinks it is, but it keeps the audience sufficiently curious and pays it off decently well in the end. It certainly lags in the middle and a few of the main side characters are insufferable, but they’re not a big enough part to ruin it completely. If you can stomach the extreme gore, it’s a fascinating watch.

Content warning: extreme violence, extreme blood, extreme gore

Closest comparison: It’s like Spider-Man by way of Kick-Ass with a Dexter (2006) plot woven in.

Setting: Marvel-Adjacent Super Heroes
Plot: Super Hero Origin
Tone: Brutal Action