Starship Troopers 3: Marauder

---

Tools:
Recommend review to a friend »

---

The war with the bugs continues.

For those of you keeping score, this is the third entry in the series that began with the 1997 theatrical release of "Starship Troopers," continued with the 2004 direct-to-video release of "Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation," and now offers the 2008 direct-to-video "Starship Troopers 3: Marauder."

The original "Starship Troopers," directed by Paul Verhoeven, proved a disappointment at the box-office but picked up momentum on DVD by delivering healthy doses of satire and thrills. "Starship Troopers 2," directed by Phil Tippett, met with downright hostility, the voters at IMDb giving it a combined rating of 3.5/10. Ed Neumeier wrote both scripts, so, evidently unhappy with what happened to number two, he not only wrote but directed "Starship Troopers 3" (a first-time directorial effort for the writer of "RoboCop," all three "Starship Troopers," and "Anacondas 2"). The outcome, however, remains a far cry from the initial Verhoeven film. Even though Neumeier tries to put a little more mock-heroic humor back into the action, that's not saying much. "Starship Troopers 3" is a bad movie by any account, bereft of most of the first film's fun and frolic.

The problems with "Starship Troopers 3" are almost too numerous to count, and they start from the ground up. The fact is, Neumeier never distinguishes himself here as a writer or a director, despite his apparent attempts to replicate Verhoeven's accomplishments. Although he's got Casper Van Dien back in the lead as gung-ho hero Johnny Rico, plus a bevy of beautiful people with whom to work, Neumeier can't seem to find a consistent tone or tempo for the film. It starts out as the first movie did, taking a humorous, semidocumentary approach in a series of FedNet television announcements about the glories of war and the need to serve one's country, but these stabs at satire don't last long before the film bogs down in flat, bug-fighting shenanigans.

The script Neumeier devises jumps from character to character, never establishing a lead or a star, despite the presence of Van Dien, who practically disappears after the first half of the story. Yet when Van Dien is on screen, he puts in the best acting job of anyone, which doesn't bode well for the rest of the talent involved.

The cheapjack production values and the cartoonish CGI only make matters worse, with some of the set construction reminding one of the "Star Trek" series of the 60's and with a giant scorpion looking like something out of a 50s' monster flick. I'd say the standard bugs come off best, but since they are no longer the novelty they were a decade ago, even they seem a bit cheesy. Moreover, most of the movie looks studio-bound, so that adds to the appearance of cheapness, too, with the few location shots standing out starkly by their adding at least a modicum of verisimilitude to the activities. Indeed, much of the movie looks like a filmed stage play, it's that unconvincing, with the filmmakers creating most of the explosive effects by simply shaking the camera.

Neumeier does his best to inject a topical note into the proceedings by drawing parallels between the bug war and America's war in Iraq, but it's all rather obvious and overstated. For instance, the Federation's motto "If you're against the war, you're against us" smacks of early Bush-era sentiments. The Federation has also become more dictatorial by this time in the saga, with the totalitarian government handing out death sentences to people who speak out against the bug war.

Johnny Rico exposes the movie's intelligence level with his tactical command to "get in there and kill 'em all!" Certainly, Neumeier means for the audience to take the line humorously, as part of an intentional corniness, yet the serious straightforwardness of so much of the rest of the action persuades one possibly to think otherwise.

Characters come and go whom the filmmakers never introduce or explain, and the ones we do get to know a little better, we don't care much about. Van Dien's Rico is just more of the same but older. Jolene Blalock as Capt. Lola Beck looks better standing around than saying anything, but that goes for most of the actors; neither the screenplay nor the director gives anybody anything to work with. Boris Kodjoe's Gen. Dix Hauser is supposedly one of Rico's old friends, but we'd never know it. Amanda Donahoe as Admiral Enolo Phid is something of an enigma, never revealing much of her true self. Stephen Hogan as Sky Marshal Omar Anoke is a joke as a pop-singer world leader. And Marnette Patterson as Holly Little, a naive flight attendant, is one of many characters who pops up out of nowhere late in the story and suddenly becomes a leading figure.

---

---