Customer Reviews

Starship Troopers 3: Marauder

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(26)
1 star:		(45)

 

 

My Rating: 3.75 out of 5

The Good Things
*Has a good amount of action and special effects.
*Very good photography.
*Better production quality than "Starship Troopers 2." Sets, props, and costumes are great. Introduces plenty of new gadgets and new alien bugs.
*Remains true to the original concepts and ideas presented in the last films.
*Storyline is good and easy to follow.
*Writing is generally good. The movie has a few good lines (some unintentionally funny).
*Greater insight on the political system (the Citizen's Federation). Much of the movie focuses on the inter-office transactions in the high-ranking sections, so it's more than just a bunch of guys with guns blowing stuff up.
*Interesting themes about religion and politics. Some interesting satire (but still not up to par with the first film).
*Good cast of characters. Acting is passable.
*Music is okay.

The Bad Things
*Probably not for the squeamish. Contains some bloody violence and nudity (but it's not quite as bad as the last two films).
*Despite the slick-looking production value, it's still not up to par with the first film, and can therefore be seen as inferior (I don't think it's too bad, though). Also, some special effects do look a little fake.

"Starship Troopers 2" was completely dull; I was pleased to see that number 3 returned to the basic fundamentals of the first original film. Aside from bringing back Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien), they've also brought back the battles, the satire, the gung-ho attitude, and consequently, the fun. It expands the franchise a little better too, incorporating more interesting political issues and ideas, and presenting a religious element. It's still not quite up to par with the first movie, but it sure beats the crud out of the second.

The DVD has good video quality. The sound is okay, but seems overdriven and distorted in some parts. It includes a few featurettes. The Blu-Ray has great video quality and okay sound.

If this review has not been helpful, then you are in violation of the Federation's morale, and need to be executed (or rather, leave a comment and tell me how I can improve).

STARSHIP TROOPERS 3: MARAUDER is a direct to DVD movie based loosely on a world and characters created by Robert A. Heinlein in his classic sci-fi adventure novel STARSHIP TROOPERS. While this movie is neither high budget nor high art, it is a very entertaining way to spend an evening at home. It is also a MUCH better follow on to the original STARSHIP TROOPERS movie than the simply dreadful second installment.

Casper Van Dien returns as our hero, Johnny Rico. His is joined by STAR TREK veteran Jolene Blalock as the rather well-formed, command pilot, damsel-in-distress. The performances by these two are very enjoyable, and it is good to see them both working again. They are joined by a very able supporting cast, all of whom add to the fun.

The special effects are a bit worn and corny, but overall, they work just fine for the comic book style of the movie. The Bugs are back, still trying to exterminate the humans, and we are trying just as hard to exterminate them back. Tons of explosions, lots of gore, and our hero saves the day. Pretty much what you want in a good, old fashioned "B" movie.

And the best part of all, we finally, finally get what we have been waiting for: the Mech Suits!! They were everything I had always imagined, and more. What took you guys so long??? The mechanized battle suits are what define the Mobile Infantry. Now, Johnny Rico will truly be the hero that Heinlein wrote. STARSHIP TROOPERS 3: MARAUDER is well worth seeing, especially for that reason. Recommended.

I loved the original starship troopers and the animated series but when they made direct to video releases they looked interesting from the trailers. I finally checked this one out, the story is bad! charectors you don't care about, special effects in night scenes looks alright but in day time looks like fake cgi. best part is the fight at the end. nothing really is that memorable except for the lame song the guy keeps singing through out the entire movie which is annoying along with the cringe worthy dialogue. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone.

This has got to be one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

This movie starts out boring, and you just keep waiting to see if it will be redeemed by an interesting plot twist. But no, it just gets worse and worse. The dialogue is so bad it will make you cringe throughout. The climax has two of the main characters repeating the lord's prayer over and over again while the Transformer-suits fight the bugs. You'd think that the writers could have found better dialogue to crib than to just start reading from the bible!

Don't waste your time with this one. The script-writers obviously did not.

Wow - that's 105 minutes of my life I'll never get back. I can't even put into words how absolutely awful this movie is. If you thought Starship Troopers II was bad, this is ten times worse!

The entire movie is one big evangelical prostelyzation that leads to the entire Federation embracing Jesus Christ. No, I'm not kidding! That is the ENTIRE PREMISE OF THE MOVIE.

The unintelligible foreign accents of some actresses sure don't help, nor does the pointless brief male/female full frontal nudity (no - you never see Jolene Blalock naked...sorry) and sporadic swearing that is neither consistent nor believable. (It's like the writers said, "hey, we haven't had anyone swear for ten minutes...better drop the F-bomb so that this Roughneck character is believable!)

While it's great to see Casper van Dien back, it's a shame he had to soil his career with this garbage. If you buy this movie, you're in for a very unpleasant surprise. This is NOTHING like the original Starship Troopers movie, has nothing to do with the original book or first sequel, and only has the Marauders in it for all of two minutes at the end in an implausible battle.

Want an example? A giant brain bug is found that is almost the size of a planet. Yet, after the Marauder rescue, a senior officer apologizes for "losing the brain bug." WHAT?!? IT'S THE WHOLE PLANET, IDIOT!

Uwe Boll couldn't film something this bad; that's all you need to know.

The title of this review says it all.

I could overlook the less than good acting, the less than realistic special effects and the blatant Christian proselytizing if this movie had a script that contained believable dialog and situations.

The movie starts out in a fashion much like the original Starship Troopers from 1997, with the somewhat sarcastic faux television/webcast like commercials. There is an exception though, this time the Federation seems even more totalitarian than in 1997's Starship Troopers.

After the faux commericials, we take up action on a farming planet called Roku San, where the Mobile Infantry defends an ungratiful farming colony. Colonel Johnny Rico, reprised by Casper Van Dien, is the commander of the MI troopers at Roku San.

The poor acting and poor special effects start off right off the bat, and it doesn't get better. The bugs are so obviously blue screens, props and very bad computer effects. It really boggles the mind that in 2008 someone would actually put out something with special effects this poorly done.

Casper Van Dien tries only so-so to capture that feel of the original, and Jolene Blalock, as Captian Lola Beck a former friend/lover of Johnny Rico, seem to forget she's not a Vulcan on Enterprise. Her acting was downright emotionless. Then the other star of the movie (I use the term 'star' lightly.) is Boris Kodjoe, who plays General Dix Hauser, the current love interest of Capt. Beck.

The whole plot was illogical and predictable. All I have to do is start with the premise that Sky Marshal Anoke was somehow able to access the power generators on Roku San, thus shutting down the electric fence and letting the bugs into the base. We don't learn this until later in the movie, but it's just a small example of the pure idiocy of the plot, because this fence was critical to the very survival of the colony, so it seem quite illogical that there weren't multiple redundancies and safe guards against someone either accidentally or purposely shutting it down. After all, there was a near insurgent population of farmers on the base.

In the end, this movie lost me with the entirely unbelievable plot and poor dialog. It was due to this that I wasn't able to overlook the bad acting and rotten special effects. Many time I am able to overlook these things with most "B" grade sci-fi, if the plot can suspend disbelief.

Just like the Alien franchise, I hate seeing a potentially good franshise ran into the ground like this.

Oh my god is this a horrible movie. If someone said "go and make the worst Starship Trooper movie possible", it would look just like this...only better.

The acting is a atrocious, the story is convoluted and the special effects are pathetic. What were they thinking? Why was this movie even made? Who signed off on this flick? Why did I buy it at the video store?

Well, actually I know why I bought it. The first Starship Trooper movie is one of my guilty pleasures. It's campy sci-fi fun with battles against killer space bugs. The second movie wasn't very good but it was at least watchable.

There are so many things wrong with this movie and so few right I'm not even sure where to begin....How about the fact that the only thing keeping back the horde of killer bugs is the electrical fence and no one thinks maybe they should have a back up generator or something. Oops! Power failure. Time to die.

And what is with the singing Air Marshall? Is this a joke? "It's a Good Day to Die?" Who could of possibly thought that was a good idea? It's unreal.

And why did they feel it was necessary to bring religion into this? It served absolutely no purpose. When they start reciting The Lords Prayer is one of the films many low points. Another is when we have to watch two bone heads kiss while they completely block the view of the exploding planet. The climatic scene no less. Ugh!

But the lowest point of the film comes when the marines have to strip down to get fitted for there "Marauder" battle suits. You can just hear the director saying "ok, this film is going pretty good but we really need to see some naked people." It is so pointless and the dialog in the scene is so bad it will leave you speechless.

I am giving this film one star. Not because it deserves a star but because Amazon wont let me give it less.

STARSHIP TROOPERS 3: MARAUDER, third in the series and released in 2008, should thank its lucky stars that the truly horrid HERO OF THE FEDERATION came before it, in effect NOT making MARAUDER the worse entry in the series. Like HERO OF THE FEDERATION, MARAUDER is a direct-to-video release. And while not as cringingly unbearable as HERO OF THE FEDERATION, it's a pretty bad movie. Still, this one tries to instill a sense of humor on the screen, so the satire and campiness earn it some style points.

A decade after the events of the first Starship Troopers movie, the future of humanity and the Federation is still very much up in the air. The alien bugs keep on pressing. Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien), now a grizzled veteran and a Colonel, is still doing his part. Except he still tends to go his own way, instead of playing party politics. This lands him in trouble with a former friend, now an officious General. Court martialed and about to be hanged, Rico is given a last-second reprieve when he's offered command of a covert mission, the objective of which is to rescue troopers stranded on OM-1, a quarantined bug planet which houses possibly the most dangerous bug of all.

Oh, man, STARSHIP TROOPERS 3: MARAUDER. So bad it's funny, and with enough cheese to get a decent wine tasting under your belt. Given, the budget is very meager. So right away you lose that epic scale shown in the first film. The special effects are, naturally, less than stellar. Explosions which won't wow anyone, cheap-looking shots of Federation vessels in space, gore which is more hokey than gory, and bugs which aren't convincing. The bugs here look like creatures on loan from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers or, perhaps more aptly, from the Roughnecks - The Starship Troopers Chronicles - The Complete Campaigns animated series. Not to knock the Roughnecks cartoon, because that was pretty awesome. But there's a difference between CG work in a cartoon and the CG in a live action flick. And, really, when the danger doesn't look real, how can you invest in the peril?

The film title "Marauder" refers to the code name given to Rico's seven-man crew tapped to undertake the secret ops to OM-1. They get to gear up in the latest line of mobile infantry armor. Thing is, these gynormous armor suits only show up the last few minutes of the film, and they end up being more anticlimactic than anything else.

And you can't blame the tiny budget on the dubious story and script. And the acting? Baaaad, brother, it's bad. Casper Van Dien, not about to ever win an acting award, is still the best actor here, which says something about the rest of the cast. But the film could've definitely used more of Johnny Rico in action and less of Jolene Blalock and her very exasperating group on the bug planet. I had some hopes for Jolene, she of the sexy Vulcan role in Star Trek Enterprise - The Complete First Season. But, it turns out, she wasn't good, either. By the way, after her years playing the stoic T'pol, it startles me to bits to see her crack a smile, let alone laugh. But whatever good will she'd accrued during the film evaporated with her ridiculous final 15 or so minutes on screen.

Other than bringing back Johnny Rico, the thing that comes close to (but not quite) making MARAUDER watchable are the satiric elements. The FedNet just keeps on churning out those optimistic, jingoistic wartime propaganda. There are even scheduled hangings of Federation traitors broadcasted on air. You don't have to be a deep thinker to get all the not-so-veiled references to certain topical issues. Politics, religion, nationalism, the war on Iraq. Check, check, check, and check. They're delivered hammily and heavy-handedly, yes, but, here and there, they are insidiously enjoyable.

To my shame, I also got a kick out of Sky Marshal Anoke, who is psychic and moonlights as a pop star. The Sky Marshal's hit "It's A Good Day to Die" can be seen in its extended version in the bonus features. Speaking of the bonus features, there are two audio commentaries, one by the writer/director Ed Neumeier and actors Casper Van Dien and Jolene Blalock, the other by Ed Neumeier again and also by the visual effects supervisor and the producer. That the cast and crew have the gall to be self-congratulatory in their comments boggles my mind a bit. But, in a weird way, props to them for being so audacious in turning a blind eye to what's really what. I guess, in their defense, what else could you expect them to say? That this movie is earth-shatteringly messed-up and you shouldn't see it? There are two featurettes: "Evolution: The Bugs of Starship Troopers 3: Marauder," focusing on the bug special effects, and "Enlist! Marauder' Mobile Infantry," the Making Of segment, spotlighting the cast.

STARSHIP TROOPERS 3: MARAUDER isn't quite HENRY V. Not when the motivational speeches here go along the lines of "You know what to do. Get in there and kill them all!" or that old chestnut "C'mon, you apes! Do you wanna live forever?" I read the Heinlein novel (Starship Troopers) and really liked it. And I thought that the first STARSHIP TROOPERS was just great, never mind that the critics panned it or that it never made huge box office duckets. Going in, I suspected MARAUDER was going to be weak, and it is. It doesn't even qualify as a guilty pleasure.

And yet it's not as stinky as HERO OF THE FEDERATION, so that badge, at least, this film could wear very proudly.

Irregardless, Johnny Rico rocks!

It seemed that this movie was targeted for that age group (13-16 years old) or the director/film maker where that old when they made this crap. The director's commentary changed my view on the first movie so I thought the director's commentary would change my mind on this one. Nope, no such luck. The acting was just so bad that it had me laughing out loud. The complete insanity of the "general" making a total ass of himself and saying such silly and stupid things made me say "wow" out loud several times.

The premise of the first movie was to conclude that in war all governments eventually turn into fascists governments. When I say "turn into" I don't mean that literally. Just that they behave and produce those results. This came directly from the director's mouth during his commentary and that is what he was trying to get across.

As I listened to this commentary (there are two of them - one from the film maker and the other from the director/cast) I really didn't get a clear picture of what they were trying to say. Sure there was the ending where the director was saying that the State will USE religion to their benefit. If it interferes with them, they will try to eliminate it, if they think they can use it for an advantage then they would. Regardless of these "messages" that they were trying to convey, it was done in an amateurish and sloppy way.

I give sci-fi a GREAT deal of leeway when it comes to suspending belief, however I do have limits. There was something that did occur to me and it might occur to you too. The way these people behaved would tend to make me believe that a highly advanced technological society could in fact be extremely sloppy and inefficient. Anyone that has been in our own military (as I have) would have thought of a million better ways to protect the base and battle these bugs. Even with our current day weapons, our own military could put down a volume of fire that would annihilate these bugs. For a society that has been at war with these bugs for the past 10 years would make any government fire the contractor or the advanced weapons division that continues to use those ineffective firearms they use, Marauders at the end notwithstanding. The level of insubordination in these troopers is amazing given the extreme threat and in some cases carried out punishments. But I guess that is part of the point; that a totalitarian society might indeed produce armies with methods and leadership that is highly dysfunctional.

These are some of the things that come to mind, though you can get that from the first movie without wasting your time on this bad one. I thought SST 2 was bad and I still think that one is worse than this one, but not by much.

The war against humanity is at its greatest peak. The planet Roku San is at its harshest point. With military support waning, soldiers dying daily, and with new bugs constantly revealing themselves to the world, how will humanity survive, if not without you? The Federation is currently looking for men and women to help fight this terror. How would you like to be a hero, and how would you like to become a citizen while you're at it?

Would you like to know more?

STARSHOOP TROOPERS as a series has become infamously known, if only because the second film did nothing to contribute to the first film's storyline. With little hope in mind, I set out to watch STARSHOOP TROOPERS: MARAUDER in the hopes that, somehow, it would be better than the second, and maybe as good as the first.

Sadly, disappointment takes the reins and throws me back a step with STARSHIP TROOPERS 3.

Set on the planet Roku San and following our original hero, Johnny Rico, the film is soon shown to have little hope when we get to learning about a few of its characters. Johnny Rico, experienced in his newfound years in the military, has always been known to not follow orders, but in the case of death? The sky marshal, one of the most famous men on Earth, is a pop star? And soldiers who, normally, would not become star struck, are enamored in a sky marshal slash singer's presence, often to the point of completely disobeying orders and ignoring outside threat? What has the series come too, if not a total cheese factor?

Sadly, this doesn't let up anytime soon. With a plot mainly following an offcast, Angelina Jolie-lookalike actress named Jolene Blalock as she leads a small group of individuals across the desert of Roku San, the film ultimately falls low as it devolves into an exaggerated attempt of a science-fiction movie.

PROS:

- Some actors. Jolene Blalock played her character extremely well, as did Marnette Patterson as Holly Little. I also have to give the man who played Johnny Rico credit for contributing to this film. I don't know how much they paid him, but hopefully enough to substantiate his time in playing in a very bad, very underdeveloped movie.

The long, long list of cons:

CONS:

- The CGI. Given that the first film was made in 1997, it was amazingly disappointing that the CGI was so bad. Given the advancement in computer graphics technology, you would think that a film would at least TRY to live up to the standards as its 1997 counterpart. Nope--it didn't. There's no need to think that anymore.

- The acting. The majority of the acting was littered with poor actors and actresses. Overemphasized, unamphasized, not emphasized at all--I found very few of the actors to be worth watching. I couldn't help but cringe at the way some of them played their characters, and at the way several of them were portrayed. Military men and women don't follow what we, as individuals, would think they would, marshals and officers order troops around in inane, nonsensical patterns, and soldiers throw themselves over exploding bugs when they could simply retreat to the back of the room. Valor isn't even an issue here--its stupidity that takes the toll.

- The cheese. Yes, I specifically mentioned cheese, if only because it's highly relevant in this movie. Sky Marshals as popstars, soldiers being told they'll be shot if they ask for an autograph, then trying to ask for an autograph, higher-ranking Federation officers not bothering to draw a gun when they're getting mercilessly beat up, then trying to arrest a soldier for getting the assailant off him--there's no short amount of corny action to this movie, as there's no shortage of stupidity that comes with the cheese factor.

In all, I couldn't help but wonder what exactly happened to this movie. STARSHIP TROOPERS 2 was a disappointment unto itself, but three?... it's horrible. It's better than 2, if only because it follows the storyline and world building of the first better, but it still doesn't make it a movie worth watching.

The STARSHIP TROOPERS franchised should've died after the first one was made. MARAUDER should quickly die a slow, horrible death, if only because it tarnishes the original to the point of disappointment. I was excited to see this, despite the warnings several of my friends gave me. I definitely won't watch a fourth in this movie. If I even begin to attempt to, I'll remind myself of how horrible two and three were, then push the first movie into the DVD player, if only because the first will always be the only good STARSHIP TROOPERS movie.