2. Arachnids Starship Troopers
I suppose nothing should be taken seriously in the satirical world of Starship Troopers, yet when it chooses to wildly bend the rules within its own canon, you've got to upbraid that sort of thing. What I'm talking about here is the Arachnids, and more specifically, the threat they represent. The first thing we notice about Starship Troopers' bug antagonists is that they are bloody terrifying over 12 feet in height and possessing all sorts of razor-sharp mandibles. Not only does their offensive capability make them completely terrifying, but it's also pointed out that they can lose a limb and shrug it off, and if you don't get the in the nervous centre, it takes a whole fire team to properly put one down. As Rico's biology teacher tells us at film opening, in purely Darwinian terms, they're better than us. Yet apparently, the Arachnids become far less imposing as the film goes on. At first, it takes the above sort off effort to put paid to one, but come film close, Arachnids are being tenderised all over the shop, and with very little effort. Despite being heavily outnumbered Roughnecks kill a veritable mountain of the things, and when Rico rescues Carmen from the bug-hole, three soldiers manage to kill dozens of them very, very easily. It's all a bit strange really the bugs are built up as a major threat, but seem to gradually become weaker when it's dramatically convenient. Hell, I don't know, maybe Rico's their Kryptonite?