I am a staunch supporter of the original Starship Troopers film. I watch it once a year, I quote it when possible and it began my unhealthy addiction to Denise Richards.
Think of it: To take such washed up and proven B-list talents as Neil Patrick Harris, Jake Busey, Patrick Muldoon, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards and Casper Van Dien and put them in a stirring acount of humanity's will and triumph over a hive-minded ruthlessly aggresive enemy, seems like the worst thing anybody could ever choose to get involved with. But my God, Starship Troopers (1) is one of the most kick-ass and well-presented space war films I have ever seen. Director Paul Verhoeven, who prior to ST gave the world Total Recall, Basic Instinct and Showgirls, has gone on to do absolutely nothing positive with his career (except for a ST cartoon mini-series that was pretty cool). But if he had thrown in his lot with ST 2 or 3, he would be much worse off than he is now.
STARSHIP TROOPERS 2 is nothing like the first one. While the first one had a touch of whimsy to it with the futuristic newsreel footage and the love stories within a hardened grunt troop, ST 2 is a horror film. It begins with the familiar military newsreel jingle from the first one, but then fills you in on the backstory with some really shoddy scrolling text. Then it suddenly does give you a newsreel... that uses awesome footage from the first film cut together with some revealingly tacky original shots. The fun-loving morale boosting nature of the first film's newsreels are completely absent. The sound is terrible and the acting and timing is startling. Then the actual content of the film starts up and the acting gets really hackneyed. There are a few actors later on in the film who do a good job and it's like taking a breath of fresh air when they finally get to speak. The story isn't awful. But it does feel like a video game made into a very low-budget film. The filmmakers also do a decent job of not making their paltry budget too glaring. The whole thing takes place in one building on some faraway planet as a bug that infects and takes over bodies spreads throughout the crew that is holed up and hopeless within. If you are a ST fan or have the capability of enjoying a B horror film, then it can be watched. Just ignore the fact that the actress portraying Sgt. Dede Rake was actually killed under a different moniker in the first film.
STARSHIP TROOPERS 3 is a whole different story. It is unbearable. Casper Van Dien is back in the lead role. I thought that would make a difference, but it possibly made things worse. The title is ST: Marauder. Anyone who watched the cartoons would know that the Marauders (giant weaponized robots piloted by humans) were pretty sick, but in no way a game ender. They are used in ST: 3 like Venom is used in Spiderman: 3; They show up at the very end and fuck shit up. Except the Maruader can't be taken down by clanking metal bars. It just blows up the big monster. What big monster you may ask? I would tell you not to ask, because it's better off not knowing to just what terrible depths they have forced this series into.
It begins with a newsreel. Probably to put people at rest who might be wary about another ST. And it actually looks pretty damned slick. They show the bugs with awesome new weapons and then say the Humans have one too! ....a shovel with a serrated edge? Then they show what kind of graphics will be employed to make the bugs in this film. They look like glowing, fuzzy, tap-dancing nintendo 64 characters. And there are a lot of them. The newsreel climaxes by showing that the people of the future have lost all musical inclination and now listen to a balding sky captain, who can't hit a note, as he sings about victory and other glorious army related things. This man goes on to be a central character. It's a story of greed and corruption and giant man-eating super bugs... actually I'm not sure, because I couldn't bring myself to rewatch any part of it in order to find out and I have wiped my mind of all memories of it. It is the first movie I have ever watched, where at the end I was angered that it existed and that it had forced its way into my life somehow.
Both Starship Troopers do have awkwardly lengthy moments of boobage.
