Year:
2004
Studio:
Columbia Pictures/TriStar Pictures
Feature:
2/5
DVD:
3/5
I've known that
this movie was being made for quite some time from the movie news site
I read. From a promising start ("Starship Troopers 2 will be made!") to
disappointment ("straight to video?") to an eventual release that
people who saw it said sucked quite a bit, I didn't expect much from
this movie.
Surprisingly it's not a horrible movie. It's more of a low-budget
science fiction horror movie set in the ST universe. We have a totally
new cast (though Brenda Strong who was in the first movie returns as a
different character, Sergeant Rake) composed of unknowns. The bugs are
still there though with much less CGI. Visually it's a lot darker and
the FedNet commercials are gone except for at beginning and end of the
movie.
The plot is that a unit of Mobile Infantry is massacred by the bugs. A
squad escapes to an abandoned MI stronghold which they reactivate to
hold off the bug hordes. Another group of MI survivors arrive, but the
survivors are being controlled by mind-control bugs inside them.
The zombie troopers slowly infect the other MIs as our heroes try to
figure out why everyone is acting funny. Eventually it's just Captain
Dax (Richard Burgi) and Private Sahara (Colleen Porch) against the
possessed MI troopers.
If you go in expecting a really bad video-only movie you will probably
like this movie. It's bad but there was still enough money for quite a
few special effects (although a lot of it was done gratis by the FX
company). Acting is not too bad, story is not too bad, action is fairly
good. ST2 would have made a bad theatrical movie, but it's ok as a
video rental.
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Extras
1. Audio Commentary: Director Phil Tippett, Producer Jon Davison,
Writer Ed Neumeier. I liked this commentary. It was made a couple of
hours after the final edit of the movie. They know this is not a good
movie but they think they did a pretty good job given the budget and
time contraints. It's nice to hear the production people have the sense
of humor to poke fun at their work.
2. "Inside the Federation": 30 minute behind-the-scenes look at the
movie. Lots of short cast and crew interview clips.
3. "From Green Screen to Silver Screen". 9 minutes of Visual Effects
Supervisor Eric Leven going through four of the CGI shots of the movie.
4. Photo Gallery: about 20 photos.
5. Trailers:
Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation - uses way too much of the
superior special effects footage from the first movie.
Steamboy - an anime movie set in what looks to be Victorian England
with steamtech.
Resident Evil 2: Apocalypse - the trailer masquerading as a commercial
that was shown in theaters.
Returner - a science fiction Hong Kong action film.
Wild Things 2 - straight to video sequel.
Hellboy - standard theatrical trailer.
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