I am currently 4 minutes and 15 seconds into the movie Starship troopers, and I am absolutely sure that is has the worst opening sequence I have ever witnessed. Perhaps it is because I just recently saw Cloverfield, which went a little too far down the documentary/shaky-cam road, but the little sequence 'on the battlefield' was RIDICULOUS. Let's even put aside the fact that a trained soldier continues to talk to the camera even though a Bug has (not sneakily at all) come around the corner and is about to snatch the soldier up in his semi-CGI, animatronic-looking maw. Let's put aside the fact that the soldier takes time to shout over the sound of gunfire and comment, in melodramatic terms, on the aesthetics of the planet he's landed on. We are evidently supposed to believe that the camera is being held by someone on the news crew, unarmed. SO WHAT IS HE DOING?? The Bug comes roaring around a rock and bites a few soldiers in half, and he just stands there, evidently intelligent enough to aim the camera into the action but not intelligent enough to remove himself to a safer location (namely not one within arm's-length of the Bug). He also has the steadiest hand I have ever seen, capable of smoothly swinging from Bug to shouting soldiers and back again. He can apparently do this even while running; perhaps this is why he appears to be moving no faster than a brisk trot. Once this faceless, brainless camera man has been put out of his misery by the Bug, his camera falls to the ground, allowing Rico to crawl toward it, his blindingly white teeth clenched prettily in pain and his eyes still open slightly, as if he is checking to make sure that he is still in frame so his bravery can be appropriately documented.
I believe that came out more like a rant than I intended. I apologize. Please look to 'to whitewash or not to whitewash' for a more measured and rational example of my response to Starship Troopers.