Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not that bad. Not as good as 1, but nowhere near as bad as 2., 21 Jul 2008
I watched this film expecting it to be bad. I remember getting excited about 'Starship Troopers 2' and being horribly disappointed. So, I wasn't expecting much from this, but I enjoyed it, to a degree. The beginning didn't start that well, I found myself contemplating turning it off or skipping ahead. I managed to stick with it and began to like some of the characters and wanting to know what happens. Where the second film seemed nothing like a Starship Troopers film (the only thing connecting it were one of the species of bugs), this felt much more like it - with multiple story lines, a cheesy set of actors and video clips/adverts from the federation advertising the war.
Overall, I wouldn't say this was an amazing film, but it was good fun. Don't expect anything near as good as the first, cus you won't like it otherwise. This is missing one thing that the original had plenty of... Money.
Enjoy.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Get in there and Kill 'em all!!, 2 Oct 2008
This movie is one of the present crop of new movies made especially for the `Straight-to-DVD and Blue Ray' market, the studios no doubt having realized they can by-pass the millions they would have to spend when launching a picture in cinemas. It used to be the case that a movie would be released straight to video or DVD only if it was deemed to be of a quality not satisfactory to be released in theatres. But these days, with roughly 7 years of revenue and research statistics available, studios are increasingly finding that the medium of DVD can often reap far higher financial rewards than the cinemas, and are therefore commissioning movies to be made especially for that medium, often with fairly creditable results. The DVD market is also more accessible to the consumer; it being far easier to pop down to your local HMV than it is to hike to the ends of earth to find a screening of the latest obscure little film you wish to see!
Ed Neumeier, the screenwriter behind Robocop and the first Starship Troopers movie makes his directorial debut with this third installment in the `Grunts Vs Bugs' science fiction war satire. The war between humanity and the relentless arachnids has waged for years, and the Earth government, increasingly reliant on the continuation of the conflict, have opened up new fronts in the war across several star systems, and stepped up the propaganda campaign to even more extreme levels. Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien), now a colonel, returns to the fold as the lead character in this picture after being absent from the last movie. The action begins on the dusty industrial planet Roko San with Rico and his hapless grunts defending an outpost populated by groups of resentful farmers and agricultural workers. Its business as usual on the colony as bugs swarm everywhere, while the outpost receives a visit from acclaimed Sky Marshall Omar Anoke (Stephen Hogan) accompanied by a former friend of Rico's Dix Hauser (Boris Kodjoe), and what might possibly be an old flame Captain Lola Beck (Jolene Blalock - the Vulcan from TV's Star Trek Enterprise). After the initial skirmish at the colony during which Rico has to stand up against not only the bugs, but the bureaucratic stupidity of the Earth government, the visiting party reboard their shuttle and begin to head home before being attacked mid-flight and forced to crash land on a remote desert world. The survivors are left with the unenviable task of trekking across the bug infested planet, with their Sky Marshall behaving increasingly erratic and creepily religious as times goes on. Rico, after a mock-execution trial on charges of sedition, is ordered to proceed to said planet and recover the survivors.
Put away your skepticism, this is great fun! The production, on an obviously limited budget has done a great job. Ed Neumeier has put in significant thought to developing an intelligent, thoughtful and enjoyably satirical script - the propaganda news reports are a hoot! The action too is well-staged, the special effects and set design all looking suitably polished and futuristic - resembling a big budget version of Babylon 5. The director also happily shoe-horns in a moment of gratuitous nudity, as a team of new recruits is introduced to some new military combat technology, and it all seems wonderfully commonplace!
Fans of David Twohy's Pitch Black may find something to complain about; as some of the scenery and landscapes of the desert planet do resemble that movie's setting, but this is only a small criticism. From watching the standard `making-of' featurettes included on the DVD, you can tell that everyone working on the production had a great time. All the principals; from the director and the cast and crew are over-flowing with enthusiasm for the project, and obviously very keen for the franchise to continue. Rumour has it that Neumeier and Van Dien are working on either another Starship Troopers DVD/Blue Ray movie or a possible TV series.
Any fan of pulp sci-fi B-movies should immediately add Starship Troopers 3: Marauder to their DVD collection. "See you on the Bounce, Trooper"!!
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19 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
They just keep getting worse..., 29 Sep 2008
While I thoroughly enjoyed the first in this trilogy, the second was a bitter disappointment. After seeing the adverts for this while channel surfing it began to look like the writers for Starship Troopers knew they'd made an appalling film second time around and made a stab at creating a worthy sequel to the original.
Starship Troopers 3: Marauder was dreadful from start to finish. Granted, it cannot be denied the fact that they had done a respectable job with the budget they had, they really should have waited until they had the funds. It was not only the barbarically terrible acting, cheesy one-liners and cardboard animations on the bugs but the overall story did not do the Starship Troopers franchise any good.
Without giving away too much of the story for those who are brave enough to buy this and sit right through from beginning to end (as I did, confident it was going to get better) I will go through some of the things that were either annoying, unnecessary or just plain wrong.
First, the guns. In the original they were slightly larger than a standard issue assault rifle which was explained by the creators as the machine guns housing advanced computers and cooling systems, which is fair enough. In ST3, they look to be a little over 1 metre in length. They don't seem to be capable of doing anything more than shooting bullets, lobbing grenades or acting as a pathetically weak flashlight. So why are they so big?
Secondly, the action. I counted, there are only 3 scenes in the whole movie in which some characters fight a hoard of bugs. This is not acceptable. This movie focuses too much on the political side of this futuristic world, showing us several hangings (which made me deeply uncomfortable and slightly sick) that did not seem to advance the plot in any way shape or form. The final scene in which there is a barely acceptable amount of action contains the long-awaited Power Armour that was featured heavily in the original novel by Robert A. Heinlein in 1959. This scene lasts only a few minutes, so it is over before you have a chance to really get into it. To add insult to injury, the mechanical marvels they wear to fight the bugs seem severely underpowered and the awkward camera angles fail to do them any further justice.
Thirdly, the Q-Bomb. Capable of destroying an entire planet, I was eagerly anticipating what seemed to be the highlight of this god awful movie. When it is fired at the very end, the badly animated explosion is blocked by an overly-ambitious kiss by two key characters, so I was almost crushed by my own disappointment.
Fourth, religion. This almost seems like a propaganda film put out by the church of Christianity. Heavily referenced, God is said to have been the one to wipe the bugs off the planet featured this time around, not the seven heavily armed marines or the Q-Bomb. I have nothing against religion, I want to make that as clear as day, people can believe what they want and I'm fine with that, but to put it in a science fiction film is unacceptable. It seems the sole purpose of this film is not to entertain, but to convert.
Fifth, the bugs themselves. The original movie showed off animations that was ahead of its time. This film, however, incorporates what looks like the use of puppets and animatronics for the close-ups and upsettingly recycled animation for distant walk cycles. The original (comparing again) shows bugs fighting amongst themselves during an apparent migration, but this time, the animations are flat and the bugs too friendly to one and other. The new and interesting bug that was featured, named the `Scorpion' (resembling one, but in place of a stinger is a plasma cannon) is shrouded in shadow, so you don't even get a good look at it and is on camera for less than a minute.
Lastly, the characters. I didn't care about any of them and more often than not found myself hoping that several key characters died by the hands (or jaws, whatever) of a warrior bug or something, just to add some action to the bland scenes of a group of stranded, emotionless people make their way across the surface of a calm, happy looking planet with guns larger than a human leg.
This film is dreadful and it is beyond me why it received near universal applause. If ever another Starship Troopers film comes out, I will be the first to buy it, because I am absolutely positive that one day there will be one worthy to call Starship Troopers: The Official Sequel. I love this franchise, but it only goes as far as the original novel (which I urge people to purchase) and the first movie.
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