by Ben Spatz
_Starship Troopers_ is to war what _Showgirls_ was to sex, and it has the same problems. Verhoeven ostensibly sets out to make a scathing critique of his subject, but then finds himself getting off on it so much that he can't maintain ironic distance. Mixed in with an implied critique of war, is a genuine love of violence and gore. This isn't the Brechtian trick of showing you violence and then indicting you for enjoying it. Verhoeven enjoys it too much for it to be that. The characters are full of indiscriminatory rage and violence, and this is what makes them heroes.
I think it's more likely that he truly wants to make a totally irresponsible movie full of violence and aggression (like a Steven Seagall movie), but he knows that if he does that, he will be attacked by anyone with any sort of political consciousness. So instead he pretends to be one of the good guys, illustrating the problem in order to fight it. This is like men who claim to read Playboy for the articles, or people who think that _Showgirls_ depicts the awful exploitation of sex workers.
But maybe this is too harsh. Perhaps Verhoeven starts off well, intent on showing the dangers of (male) aggression and exploitation. But then he gets overwhelmed by his id and can't help gloryifying what's he's trying to dislike.