Attention all FAN Citizens. Direct to DVD Dissection is reviewing the 3rd sequel to the major motion picture from 1997, done with CGI animations and featuring the original characters from that movie. Would you like to know more?
VIEW TRAILER HERE
The Specs
- Rated R
- Director Shinji Aramaki
- Released Date August 28th, 2012
- Studio Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
- Runtime 89 minutes
The Story
A distant Federation outpost Fort Casey comes under attack by bugs. The team on the fast attack ship Alesia is assigned to help the Starship John A. Warden stationed in Fort Casey evacuate along with the survivors and bring military intelligence safely back to Earth. Carl Jenkins, now ministry of Paranormal Warfare, takes the starship on a clandestine mission before its rendezvous with the Alesia and goes missing in the nebula. Now, the battle-hardened troopers are charged with a rescue mission that may lead to a much more sinister consequence than they ever could have imagined….
The Cast
David Matranga as General Johnny Rico. Matranga worked with the director before on APPLESEED & APPLESEED SAGA: EX MACHINA as Briareos, among other voice overs for various animes.
Justin Doran as Dr Carl Jenkins. Worked on HALO: LEGENDS, as well as one shots on TV shows like ACCORDING TO JIM and FAIRLY LEGAL.
Luci Christian as Capt. Carmen Ibanez. Along with MAtranga, worked in both APPLESEED movies, as Deunan Knute, but also worked on the DRAGON AGE: DAWN OF THE SEEKER DVD movie, and the anime adaptation of the video game series DEVIL MAY CRY as Trish.
David Wald as Major Henry ‘Hero’ Varro. Worked on HALO LEGENDS as Master Chief in 2 segments, as well as lending his voice to several other series like FULL METAL ALCHEMIST BROTHERHOOD, DEVIL MAY CRY, and AIR GEAR.
The Dissection
STARSHIP TROOPERS: INVASION, as mentioned above, is the 3rd sequel to come from the original 1997 movie named STARSHIP TROOPERS. The previous 2, STARSHIP TROOPERS 2: HERO OF THE FEDERATION and STARSHIP TROOPERS 3: MARAUDER, were released direct to DVD style in 2004 and 2008 respectively. Both were never considered to be at the level of the first one, even with Casper Van Dien returning as Johnny Rico in the third movie. However, with this movie it tries something different than those, and is unhampered by the limitations of those movies to deliver something that can match or rival that first entry. What can go wrong?
A lot, actually.
General Johnny Rico (David Matranga) back on active duty.
First, let’s get this out of the way. In case you don’t know, this movie is not, I repeat NOT, done in live action, but instead with CG animation, animation that resembled movies like the RESIDENT EVIL CG movies and the director’s best known work, APPLESEED. The animation itself looks very good, except for a few instances when the uncanny valley rears its ugly head (especially in Jenkin’s case) and some jerky animation, but nothing too serious. It also helps to keep the movie from looking cheap, especially with the creature effect problems that plagued the first 2 sequels.
However, looking at it from the point of a Starship Troopers movie, it has some things against it. The iconic black armor from the first 3 movies is absent here, replaced by dark green space marine armor that resembles the Spartan armor from the HALO video game series, right down to the visor shape and the body armor design. There’s also a lack of the commercial segways from the previous movies that broke up the movie. It does have some of the more well known staples of the series, from the bugs methods of attack and some of the scene and even the use of nudity recalls back to the previous movies.
Ice Blond (Melissa Davis) getting between Ratzass (Leraldo Anzaldua) and Chow (Josh Grelle)
However, the main issue for fans of the series is the swerve the movie pulls. The trailer points out the return of the 3 main characters from the first movie, and that is true. However, the characters are voiced by different actors, and are all changed drastically from their original looks. On top of that, most of the movie revolves around the main troops in the movie, with code names like Trig, Hero, Ratzass, and Ice Blond, among others in the squad. They do have some big scenes later, but it’s not really their movie.
But moving to the movie itself, it is your standard movie set up. You have a squad of military soldiers who don’t act military at all, each with their little quirk or such that lets you know who is the comedy relief, the tomboy, the damaged goods, the jerk, the techie, and so on. There’s also the leader of the squad that is in trouble with the law, but they put him back in action to serve on this highly dangerous mission. There’s a lot of red shirt soldiers that bite it, as well as some others that serve as drama. It’s been done in some form is various other movies, and even in the last 3 movies had most or all of those elements in them. The movie does pick up in the second half, though, when it shifts over to a different plot and we get all the original characters getting more heavily involved. This is the turning point for the movie, as all the action is there and you get to see the titular invasion and the return of the Marauder armor suits. It’s just sad it took its time to get to that point.
GAAAAAHH!
The Extras
Nothing if you get the DVD from a rental place, apparently, but the DVD available for purchase itself promises an 11-Part DVD Making of Feature, as well as deleted scenes, a commentary track, and a gag reel, with the Blu Ray having an exclusive art and production design feature. There is a ton of different language set ups, though. Audio tracks include English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Thai, and the subtitles include all those plus English SDH, Korean, and Traditional Chinese.
There’s also several previews for various other movies from the studio:
- RESIDENT EVIL: DAMNATION
- THE RAID REDEMPTION
- LOOPER
- 6 BULLETS
- MEETING EVIL
The Verdict
STARSHIP TROOPERS: INVASION is a movie that would have been better served to not have the Starship Troopers name tied to it. With the leap from live action to CG, it improves on some aspects from the series, suffers in others and flat out abandons the rest. The movie isn’t actually bad, and can probably be considered the best of the sequels released, but it never gets to the high point the original did. Fans of the animation or the series will buy it in stores and like it, but if anyone else ends up renting it, they’ll get some enjoyment out of it if they’re willing to put the time in.
Recommended (3/5)
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http://www.redbox.com/movies/starship-troopers-invasion
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http://www.amazon.com/Starship-Troopers-Invasion/dp/B008XCF7Y6/ref=tmm_aiv_title_0
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http://www.amazon.com/Starship-Troopers-Artist-Not-Provided/dp/B0088X7YMS/ref=tmm_dvd_title_0