I absolutely loved the first one, for a few reasons. Entertainment value was great. The story was pretty good too, not the everyman reluctant hero that you see in everything else but an idiot-king. I also loved the production motifs, like when the teacher and schoolkids were stomping on the bugs, and the "would you like to know more?" line... really good at redefining the full reality and not just taping a story onto my existence. The production quality was very bad in some places but was also very good in some places too, and I even used the DVD as reference material when setting up audio-video systems--the space battles had very high video resolution (you can see reflections of faces in the consoles), and the ground campaign had excellent audio (check the scene with the bombing run and crank up the volume). One of my favorite movies ever.
I have never seen any of the others, not even a trailer. I heard they were crap and I didnt want to ruin my attachment to the first one.
The Honor Harrington series is indeed quite good. The first three definitely so.
"You see what your knowledge tells you you're seeing. ... how, what you think the universe is, and how you react to that in everything you do, depends on what you know. And when that knowledge changes, for you, the universe changes. And that is as true for the whole of society as that is for the individual. We all are what we know, today. What we knew yesterday, was different; and so were we."
- James Burke, The Day the Universe Changed (1985)
I did a comparison / contrast between Haldeman (The Forever War) and Heinlein (Starship Troopers) in college for an English class. It's not that The Forever War is a better book, it's that they present two different approaches to soldiers. Juan Rico is the soldier as imagined by Kipling - William Mandella (note the last name being a play upon Mandala, the circle) isn't a student, he's conscripted and doesn't fit the bill as regular cannon fodder.
Of course, this also relates to Heinlein having been a volunteer for the Navy (an Annapolis graduate) between WW1 and WW2, albeit kicked out when he picked up TB, while Haldeman was drafted for Vietnam and wounded there.
I could go on about this - my paper was only 60 pages long, and yes, I got an A on it - but I won't.
And Matt is exactly correct - go forth and have fun with Honor Harrington. Granted, about the time you get to the latest books, you'll not be having as much fun - but the space warfare up through about the 10th or so book in the series is all good!
(11-21-2013, 12:53 PM)Jihadjoe Wrote: Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.
I used to read expanded universe, and quite liked the Han Solo Adventures amongst others... but enough about books. Not that they're bad or anything, its just that they take forever to read, and for that reason I've stopped reading most fiction a long time ago.
(04-15-2013, 10:50 PM)Ursus Wrote: I absolutely loved the first one, for a few reasons. Entertainment value was great. The story was pretty good too, not the everyman reluctant hero that you see in everything else but an idiot-king. I also loved the production motifs, like when the teacher and schoolkids were stomping on the bugs, and the "would you like to know more?" line... really good at redefining the full reality and not just taping a story onto my existence. The production quality was very bad in some places but was also very good in some places too, and I even used the DVD as reference material when setting up audio-video systems--the space battles had very high video resolution (you can see reflections of faces in the consoles), and the ground campaign had excellent audio (check the scene with the bombing run and crank up the volume). One of my favorite movies ever.
I have never seen any of the others, not even a trailer. I heard they were crap and I didnt want to ruin my attachment to the first one.
The second movie wasn't all that bad, except that it was more of a horror movie than anything else. I liked the third movie, and while it isn't big budget and isn't paul verhoven, I still liked the composition of the thing (and the soundtrack)
soundtracksoundtracsoundtrack
No atmosphere? GTFO.
The propeller is the greatest invention of all time.
Dude, its pretty cool that Starship Troopers captured your imagination so young. I can dig your overall fanboy love for the franchise, but one day when you've had more experience with the genre, you'll look back & recognize it all for what it really is.
Personally I'm a uber-major fan of all things Silent Hill, but I don't delude myself into thinking that Silent Hill is the pinnacle of the horror genre in comparison to obviously superior offerings
(04-16-2013, 06:25 AM)Marburg Wrote: Dude, its pretty cool that Starship Troopers captured your imagination so young. I can dig your overall fanboy love for the franchise, but one day when you've had more experience with the genre, you'll look back & recognize it all for what it really is.
True. I remember in my young days when I though Battlefield Earth is a good movie
ST 1 was the best movie, the rest of them went downhill at 45 degree angle. The worst one, in my opinion, was the 2nd one. The entire flick was filmed in the pavilion. I also enjoy space sci-fi and there are no movies made, which can compare to Star Wars.
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