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 ometimes you wonder why studios make sequels when there seems to be no reason
and certainly no creative impetus to do so. Take "Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the
Federation", a movie where the title probably took longer to come up with
than the actual script. Even though the screenplay was written by Edward
Neumeier, who not only wrote "Robocop"
but also the original "Starship
Troopers", there's almost no redeeming value to "Starship Troopers
2" at all. The closest I can come up with is Richard Burgi, who makes a
very convincing infantry trooper, not to mention one hell of a charming
anti-hero.
This straight-to-video sequel takes us back to the ongoing
human war with the bugs, essentially arachnids that use vast numbers to
overwhelm their opponents. The film opens with the same satirical "Mobile
Infantry" propaganda ads that Paul Verhoeven (the director of the original)
used to great effect. Here, the sequence loses its creativity, even when we
dissolve to the actual combat field that proves the propaganda to be the lies
they are. In battle, we meet a unit of troopers being mowed down at night on a
barren desert planet. Apparently they thought it was a better idea to come down
and fight the bugs instead of nuking the critters from orbit. Go figure.
In any case, our troopers are soon overrun, and must seek shelter in an
abandoned outpost. Led by good ol boy General Shepherd (Ed Lauter), the troopers
stumble on Captain Dax (Richard Burgi), who was imprisoned inside the outpost
for killing his commanding office. But when the bugs attack, Dax is released by
Private Sahara (Colleen Porch), a half-psychic, to save the day. He does, but
that's only the beginning of their problem. You see, three mysterious troopers
have joined Shepherd's ranks, and these three have their own agendas that
involve bugs, humans, and lots of sex.
But don't be fooled, because the film, coming and going at
a brisk 80 minutes, really insinuates more than it actually shows. Like the
recent "Battlestar
Galactica" relaunch, the military folks here seem to have very little
understanding of military protocol, as everyone seems to be constantly getting
it on. Or if they're not, they're talking about it. Adding to this overtly
sexual vibe is that the bugs have a new weapon that requires them to, literally,
"suck face" with their victims. This means two of the three new
arrivals (one of whom is a hot to trot blonde) starts making out with everyone
in sight.
There are three big problems with "Starship Troopers
2". One) the movie has almost no budget to speak off, which may explain why
most of the film takes place at night, or in dark corridors. The movie opens on
some random hill, and then moves to the outpost, where the rest of the film
plays out. Two) the acting is atrocious. Except for Burgi and, to some extent
Porch, almost every member of the cast are borderline amateurish. Of course the
script by Neumeier doesn't do them any favors, which leads us to... Three)
Neumeier's script is awful. The movie is predictable, the characters clichéd,
and the sequence of events uninventive.
To be honest I can't understand why "Starship Troopers 2" was even
made in the first place. It's just not a very good movie, with some truly bad
acting by almost the entire cast. Not only is the script redundant and silly,
but for some reason every single line of dialogue has the word
"trooper" or "soldier" (or a combination of the two) in
them. Look, I understand these are military types, but do soldiers really
call each other "soldier" and "trooper" in every single
sentence? What passes for dialogue here is pitiful.
Although the main villains are the bugs, you see very
little of them in action -- or at least, action that's comprehensible. Then
again, considering that the original, with its big Hollywood budget, had pretty
much destroyed any entertainment value of watching bugs being shredded by rifle
fire, I suppose seeing more of this isn't really necessary. And if I'm not
mistaken, I'm almost certain they reused a lot of the CGI shots of human-bug
battles from the original, because a lot of the scenes here were awfully
familiar, even if they tried to hide the whole thing with different angles and
darkness. The only real originality is that instead of relying on the same brood
of warrior arachnids, the bugs have invented a new weapon ala "Invasion
of the Body Snatchers".
What really seals the fate of the movie are the abysmal
script, poor characters, and an inability by first-time director Phil Tippett to
get any decent performances out of his cast. As mentioned, the only good
performance is by Richard Burgi, who carries this weak and unnecessary film on
his strong shoulders like a champ. If not for Burgi, the whole thing would get
no more than 1 star from this terribly disappointed reviewer.
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