Harkus
08-09-2008, 09:47 PM
I had a lot of hope for this film. The original Starship Troopers remains today one of my favourite films, sure it's not extremely deep and it's quite cheesy but it is very enjoyable film to watch and has so much re-watch value. When I first saw the original, some eight or nine years ago I remember getting completely engrossed with the story and even more so with the characters. Rico, Carmen, Ace, Carl, Dizzy and to some extent Zim made Starship troopers a film that I will never get tired of watching. It will be of no surprise to you then that I was hoping for a sequel. For years I had my fingers crossed and waited for the day that a sequel would be announced and for a while it seemed that my hope was false, there were rumours and speculations but nothing more. I had all but given up hope until one day while shopping in town I saw a poster for Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation, a huge smile spread across my face and I was very excited. I waited and waited for the release and then finally it was released. I knew that none of the original characters were returning but still I had high expectations. Unfortunately I, along with many other Starship Troopers fans was very dissapointed with the film. It lacked so much. The story and the characters were boring and instead of the film being a war film it was a poor horror wannabe. After I had finished watching the second film I lost all hope of seeing Rico fight the bugs again and thought that there would never be another sequel. I was wrong! Apparently SST2 made a fair bit of money for Sony considering it was a direct to video film and so a sequel would be made. Rico would be back and it would go back to roots of the original! This time my expectations were not so high but I was still hoping for something very good. I have just finished watching SST3!!! literally ten minutes ago. The film starts off on a farming planet where the civilians hate the federation and the bugs are kept out a city by an electric fence. Rico is now a Colonel and is stationed on the farming planet killing the bugs. I won't say anything else about the story because I don't want to ruin it for you but i'll say that it has a very similar feel as the first film and anyone that likes the original will probably like this. The CGI is subpar but I can't hold that agaisnt them considering the budget. This film loses points for only having Rico return and not any of the other main characters from the first. Although despite the dissapointing lack of say, Ace for example the characters that this film introduce are very good. Dix hauser and Lola Beck have a lot of development and their relationships with Rico are enjoyable to watch. The story has twists and turns and is filled with action and suspense. The satire element from the first film is back and bigger than ever with a look at how far the federation will go and what they will do to people that even say that they disagree with the war. The religion aspect at the end is a bit much but overall Marauder is a damn good film and a worthy sequel to one of my favourite films of all time. 8/10