Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (2008)
Disregarding the second entry in the series, which is downright horrendous and deserves to be burnt, drawn, quartered and burnt again, this one actually isn't all that bad. Sure, it's nowhere near as good as the original and it does suffer in the budget department, but with the writer of 'Robocop' and 'Total Recall' behind the helm, this does feel more like the first one. Especially as they do include some more satire, even if it is a little less on the nose than before.
Oh, and they brought Casper Van Dien back as Johnny Rico, which was an excellent idea.
The war against the bugs is still ongoing, and it has been for many years. Of course the Federation wants people to believe they are still winning or will win the war, but you can tell they are getting their ass handed to them more often than not. There's even a segment in the film where they now say they can recruit teenagers in the army and fleet.
Nice touch.
On the planet of Roku San, Rico is now colonel and head of a base that is dug in while the Arachnids scour the electrified perimeter. It's more or less a standoff, and nothing eventful happens. But then, psychic Sky Marshal Anoke visits the base, along with an old friend of Rico's and then things go wrong very rapidly. The base is overrun and Rico is convicted for negligence and sentenced to hang. In the meantime, his pilot friend Lola Beck is stranded with a few people and the Sky Marshal on planet OM-1, a bizarre place. What's even more disconcerting, is that no one is planning to evacuate them. So Rico's friend Dix (and Lola's boyfriend) gets Johnny out of the slammer and into the Marauder-program, which is basically putting troopers in big mech suits.
Don't get overexcited, this is actually a subplot that they don't deal with too often. Well actually, only really at the end.
But it's the situation on OM-1 that is the focus. The Sky Marshal has gone completely gaga and is overly religious and claims that they will find god on this planet. As in: physically, because he hears the voice of god. A few of the stranded crew are also believers, so things don't go too swimmingly for Lola, being the sceptic that she is. It transpires that Sky Marshal Anoke has been working with the brain bug from the first film and this has turned him insane, as the bug kept growing and was actually a spy for something bigger...
Right off the bat, you will notice that this film suffers imensely from a paltry budget. But even so, they do the most they can with what they got. You get some graphic deaths and a couple of cool practical effects. The worst part is the CG, which is rather bad. The Arachnids feel lifeless and pretty copy-paste and the mech suits look genuinely horrendous. The cardboard base at the beginning doesn't inspire that much confidence either. Where in the first film the acting was often wooden on purpose, here you can tell there are actors that behave that way because they just aren't good.
However...
Even with all its glaring shortcomings, this is actually a lot more fun than you might expect. See, Ed Neumeier brought some of that cynicism of the first one back and even though it is a little too much at times, it gives the story the feel of the original. He does overdo it at times, making it feel rather comical. I'm not sure whether that was on purpose or not, but sometimes downplaying it a bit might have worked better. But the story does go in an interesting direction and some of the new faces are okay. Lola Beck is a fun character, even if most of the others are total arsehats (I'm looking at you, Jingo!). Casper Van Dien feels familiar as Johnny Rico: it's an older, more settled version and it works. He looks as if he didn't have any problems getting back in the role and if it weren't for that very cringy final speech he gives as an enlistment commercial, it would have been just fine. That last bit is too obviously done afterwards and he is clearly just reading his lines from a card.
Is it a masterpiece? No. Not by a mile. But it is an enjoyable romp through familiar territory and especially if you liked the first one, you can give this a try. Just don't expect anything on the scale of that production.
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