At first glance, “Starship Troopers,” the newest effort from “Showgirls” director Paul Verhoeven, seems to be the type of movie you’d come up with by filming a sugar-amped seven-year-old playing with G.I. Joes and plastic cockroaches in his back yard.The basic story is such: Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien), a star athlete and all-around model teenager, decides to join the military after graduating high school. While being in the military grants an individual “citizenship” – which has advantages being a “civilian” doesn’t – Rico joins mainly because of his girlfriend, Carmen Ibanez (Dina Meyer), whose goal is to become a military pilot. Another of their schoolmates, Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick “Doogie” Harris), qualifies for Military Intelligence. Rico’s credentials aren’t quite as impressive.So, over the strenuous objections of his filthy rich parents, Rico signs up for Mobile Infantry – the grunts of the military. He ends up in a company with Dizzy Flores (Denise Richards), who has harbored a lifelong crush on Rico, and Ace Levy (Jake Busey – in an often hilarious performance), who battles with Rico for the role of squad leader. Rico finally wins out. But after a disastrous accident which results in him being stripped of his role as squad leader and publicly beaten, he decides he joined the military for the wrong reason – Carmen, who’s progressing along just fine as a pilot.Rico starts down when – in one of those amazing Hollywood coincidences – giant bugs attack and destroy his hometown of Buenos Aires. Of course, he does what anyone would do: he asks to be reinstated in the Infantry. His request is granted and he’s sent off with the rest of the military to invade the home planet of the Arachnids. It sounds hokey, and at times it seems hokey too. However, once the preliminary stuff is out of the way, the movie takes off. Verhoeven keeps things moving and the script is surprisingly strong. Some of the lines are funny, and certain spots of the movie are an intentional skewering of not only the movie itself, but an entire genre.The actors do a good job of staying out of the way of the action, as the real stars of the movie are the bugs and the explosions. Van Dien nails Rico as a rich boy-turned-super soldier, while Meyer, Richards, and Busey all are convincing. Harris undergoes a rather creepy transformation from high school whiz kid to black-jacketed military scientist, forced to make decisions that cost hundreds of thousands of lives. The futuristic theme plays well, with the setting, costumes and special effects combining to make this movie look more realistic than a lot of other sci-fi films. The choreography is also impressive, especially when you consider that the actors had to “battle” a blue screen, with the bugs being added later.While “Star Wars” set the bar for special effects shots and “Jurassic Park” raised it, “Troopers” obliterates it. There are over 550 special effects shots in the movie – as compared to 170 for “Jurassic Park” – and they all work smashingly. The effects are, at times, downright awe-inspiring, especially some of the close combat scenes with the insects. It makes “Independence Day,” with its few shots of the aliens, seem almost lame by comparison. All in all, this movie is a blast to watch. The story, based on the classic novel of the same name by Robert Heinlein, is interesting and packed with twists and turns that keep the audience on edge. At times, the audience erupted in cheers as the soldiers faced off with the seemingly undefeatable bugs. This is one of the few movies that lives up to the advance hype.