It seems that the director and writer for Starship Trooper had a specific political statement they wanted to make about fascism, rather than just do the book. It was better than a sharp stick in the eye but I could watch it and even capture it to DVD.

Atlas Shrugged was done in three movies with three different directors. Here again, books and movies are different media, but that does not justify what they did to the movies. Maybe the books were just too dense with plot and characters.