The Starship Troopers Trilogy

Back when it first came out in 1997, I really enjoyed the first STARSHIP TROOPERS. I even saw it in theaters twice. The first time I saw it, I said that I had to buy it on laserdisc when it came out. I don't think it ever came out on LD, but by the time it was out on home video I remember getting it as one of my earliest DVDs.

The first movie is set at some unspecified time in the future, when mankind is invovled in a space war with big, intelligent bugs. The movie is mainly about some meathead named Johnny Rico, played by Casper Van Dien, who joins the military to impress Denise Richards. Not a smart idea, since she isn't anywhere near as interested in him as he is her. Instead he hooks up with a girl he's less interested in (probably because her boobs are smaller), makes buddies with Gary Busey's son, and winds up taking the place of his former high school teacher/Lieutenant (played by the always excellent, Michael Ironside). Oh, and his best friend is the psychic Carl, played by Neil Patrick Harris. In one of the most subtly disturbing scenes that climax the movie, NPH places his hand on a gigantic bug that resembles some sort of Lovecraftian nighmare of a vagina and proclaims that, "It's afraid!" Oh, and there's also the not-so-subtle hints that the humans are facists and might not necessarily be the good guys. For crying out loud, the "good guys" are all dressed up like Nazis. It's all pretty dumb, but the spaceships and bugs looked pretty good on the big screen and hell, that alone made it worthy of a home video collection purchase to me.

In 2004 a straight-to-video sequel, called STARSHIP TROOPERS 2: HERO OF THE FEDERATION, came out. It was supposed to feature one of the more memorable characters from the first movie, the drill sargent, Zim (Clancy Brown). "MEEEDIIIC!!!" Anyway, Clancy didn't do the movie for whatever reason. So instead, they changed it to another character and honestly, nobody noticed that this movie existed. Unlike the first one, this one was done on the cheap. The guns didn't even have muzzle flashes. I can't remembered and definitely can't be bothered to dig the DVD out and see if the bug CGI looked decent or not. Overall, this was a movie that can be (and was) ignored.

Now, eleven years after the first one hit theaters, STARSHIP TROOPERS 3: MARAUDER, is coming out. Again, like it's predecessor, it's straight to home video. This time though, they managed to lure one of the cast from the first movie back. Casper Van Dien returns as Johnny Rico. There's no mention of any of the other characters from the first movie. I guess that given the likely mortality rate of the characters in these movies (look at all of the deaths in the first one), we can assume most of those characters have died in the last 11 years. I'm sure that at least some of those actors like Jake Busey aren't doing much and would've taken the gig. Anyway, I'm sure they figured by getting the lead character back from the original movie, that would boost DVD sales. I'm sure he wasn't hard to get since, unlike most of his castmates from the original, Van Dien's career pretty much fizzled out after the first ST. I will say, that I can only recall seeing him in these two movies, and the decade that has passed certainly hasn't improved his already wooden acting skills.

The only other notable actor in this one is Jolene Blalock, who's best known for starring on one of the numerous STAR TREK TV spin-offs. (Anything beyond the original series holds zero interest for me, so I can't say I've seen the TREK show she was on.) Other nerds seem to think she's the hottest thing ever, but I don't see what the big deal is about her. Anyway, if you squint she pretty much looks like Denise Richards, and plays mostly the same role as Richards in the first movie, just minus any of the love interest stuff with the Rico character.

The plot of the film, such as it is, is that Rico is running an outpost. The head of the military, the Sky Marshall, is coming to visit, and along with him are two of Rico's old friends, General Dix Houser, and pilot Lola Beck. There's a disagreement, resulting in Rico being arrested, but before he can be taken into custody, the bugs attack and kill a bunch of the soldiers. The Sky Marshall escapes with Beck to her ship. The ship winds up crashing on a planet infested with bugs. Rico is sent, in new armored suits, to rescue the Sky Marshall and others. There's more, but I don't want to give the whole thing away.

Any subtly about the humans in the Federation being facists is quickly dispensed with in this flick. The only way it could have been more overt would've been gigantic flashing letters saying so on screen throughout the movie. This time though, the theme of the movie is religion. I'm still not certain if the movie was endorsing it or mocking it. Probably a little bit of both.

The CGI effects on the bugs in this one vary from scene to scene. In some instances, they look pretty much as good as the first movie. However, in more than a few scenes they look like something out of a Nintendo 64 or Playstation 1 game. Terrible. At least they could afford to do muzzle flashes on the gun this time out. So that right there puts it leagues about the second movie.

The fact that they used the armored suits in this movie should please the book purists, who complained about the lack of the suits in the original movie. The CGI on these isn't that hot in my opinion.

Overall, MARAUDER is a better movie than the second movie, but nowhere near as good as the first. It's certainly closer in feel to the first movie, newscasts and all, than the second one was. If you're a fan of the series, it's worth checking out.

Shameless, 'you can get this stuff at Amazon' plug time...

Pick up STARSHIP TROOPERS 3: MARAUDER on DVD or Blu-Ray.

Also, the first, and best movie in the series is finally available in HD on Blu-Ray: STARSHIP TROOPERS Blu-Ray. Or, if you're still in the video stone age like myself, grab the latest version of it on DVD.

Or get the entire trilogy on DVD and/or Blu-Ray. (It's the only way to get the second movie in HD.)