When the first Starship Troopers movie came out in 1997 you either loved it or hated it. A fine mix of satirical elements, dumb action and camp, the Paul Veroheven helmed adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein‘s novel was everything a forgiving B-movie fan could want (be it on a big studio budget). In 2004 it was followed-up with a mediocre direct-to-DVD sequel which obviously did well enough on the sales front to bring us the topic of our review today, Starship Troopers 3: Marauder.

Rather than just penning the screenplays, series writer Ed Neumeier decides to take the helm for this third instalment and it does pay off in various, smaller, ways. Back in full force are the “news flash” segments the original did so well and it’s nice to have such tongue-in-cheek satire present here – I love the moments where shovels are considered a new weapon and the patriotic “Good Day to Die” song. Also returning is Casper Van Dien reprising his roll of Johnny Rico, who’s gone on to become the leader of a squad of soldiers on Roku San.

The war between the bugs and humans is still happening with no evident end in sight. Society has latched onto Sky Marshall Anoke (Stephen Hogan) as their new hero, which is something the government is more than happy to play up to keep everyone in check. However, things are thrown into a tizzy when Anoke, tough ship captain Lola Beck (Jolene Blalock), and various members of her crew crash land on a distant alien planet infested with insect baddies.

Back into action is Rico, who’s put back on active duty with a highly trained squad of troopers to try and locate our lost Sky Marshall and rescue him. While this is going on Neumeier throws out various sub-plots involving inner turmoil between the Federation and local blue collar workers, jumps back and forth between Rico getting ready to mount his mission and Beck acting all tough and trying to protect Anoke, and piles on a whole slew of completely overdone religious talk. Neumeier is trying to inject the series’ mythos with heavy-handed talk about God and faith, which bumps roughly up against the satirical elements and action sequences to leave me scratching my head and questioning such a decision.

Van Dien’s return to the series isn’t much to crow about as he’s merely expected to act all macho, which is fine because the rest of the time he’s wooden. Blalock (best known for the Star Trek spin-off “Enterprise”) does her best tough girl impersonation and fares okay for the most part. Hogan is engaging enough as Anoke and it’s always cool to see veteran actress Amanda Donohoe (The Lair of the White Worm) on screen.

Starship Troopers 3: Maruader has its share of decent moments as the CGI bug effects actually look much better than I expected and the first attack scene sports some decent bloodshed, however, a lot of the battle scenes feel a little bit cramped and smaller in scale making them only mildly effective and the finale where Rico and his squad strap-into giant robot suits (the Marauders of the title) is probably the weakest thing here. I also, like mentioned above, enjoyed the return of the various news casts and commercials as well as the humour touches blended into the story – it helped make this feel a lot more in-tune with the original than the passable second entry did. This isn’t to say that this entry doesn’t feel completely like a sci-fi sequel on a college student’s budget, but at least there was more effort put forth this time. (Chris Hartley, 10/15/08)

Directed By: Ed Neumeier.
Written By: Ed Neumeier.

Starring: Casper Van Dien, Jolene Blalock, Stephen Hogan, Amanda Donohoe.