Starship Troopers 2 - Hero of the Federation

A straight to DVD sequel is often cause for alarm. In animation the straight-to-DVDness is most often noticeable in the quality of the animation itself, and in the live-action arena it is usually defined by limited story and absent big name stars, not to mention a definite decrease in the quality of special effects. Here, in Starship Troopers 2, we only get a selection of those usual giveaways which I found surprising, to say the least.

Picking up the story from five years after the first film, a group of Troopers are cut off from extraction and make their way to a seemingly abandoned outpost to await rescue. Leaving four Troopers behind to cover their escape, they arrive to find a Colonel Dax imprisoned in an incinerator with an obvious bug battle having eradicated the rest of his men. Records state he murdered his commanding officer and the new group of Troopers initially mistrust him, but come to find he has reasons. With the arrival of the surviving group from the initial escape, those reasons seem to be re-occurring in the outpost.

"You never kill ‘em all son…"

A strange new type of alien bug has been discovered and it is with some very violent ends that we discover their purposes and mission amongst these ragtag survivors of the outpost. With Dax being re-imprisoned, the rest of the group is slowly being corrupted and it looks like the bug army may win with a deadly new form of warfare…

There are no recognisable figures from the first film and indeed this one feels a lot different. Gone are the endless stream of Trooper extras, spaceship sets and big namers, instead garnering a group of smaller players from TV and smaller budget movies. Special effects, however, have been created and executed by director Phil Tippet (who worked so solidly on the original film in the special effects arena) and look just as good as the original film. What differs though is the compactness of sets and the claustrophobia of the outpost which is in direct opposition of the size and scale of the first film. Performances aren’t quite so polished here as the original and, in many ways, this film is practically unrecognisable from the first. Perhaps the only real relationship with the first is the premise and the director, who has stepped up for this film from his usual area of expertise in special effects, as noted.

It’s always going to be tough to sequelise a film that received such a black and white response from the audiences; they either loved it (as I did) or hated it (my brother and sister did when we all went together). Paul Verhoeven’s intensely dark and cryptic sense of humour though can be hard to see at times and this is probably the whole reason for this worldwide antipathy toward the movie. Robocop was so much better received because the film worked on several levels; humourous, a callous portrait of a foreseeable future and just a plain old action film, among others. To that end, Starship Troopers did the same, but perhaps the Corporations of Robocop were easier to relate to than a giant bug army on the far side of the galaxy. This is where Starship 2 misses the mark. There is no deeper irony here, no biting social satire and even the few attempts at a laugh fall rather flat. Whether this is in the writing or the virtual inexperience of the cast, it’s hard to say.

However, for those of you who liked the Alien films this is practically a milieu of each, carefully excised, repainted and stuck back together to create a new hybrid. And, as much as I wanted to give this film a huge thumbs up for effort, it is overshadowed by this heavy lending of genre from other pieces. There isn’t much here we’ve not seen before in some other way and, unfortunately, it’s also been done better. Given the microscopic budget though, the film is pretty good, so it’s gotta be in your court here folks. Personally, I’d wholly recommend rental first to see what you think.

Much of this film appears to be shot on DV cameras, so there’s a very faint, almost indiscernible video camera feeling to it; almost documentary like. This works okay for the film and ties it to the first where we have the reporters sending propaganda home to Earth. Night shots though suffer a little with some grain turning up here and there in the darker scenes (of which there are plenty).

Blacks are mildly washed out as well, leaving a deeper grey in their wake while the colour palette is solely and firmly entrenched in the earth colour palette. The aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with enhancement works alright as there aren’t a great deal of wider landscape shots and the layer change, while apparent, isn’t too disruptive at 55:46.

Delivered in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, the surrounds do get a fair working over, as does the subwoofer. The gunfire (still hopelessly inadequate against the bugs) is poorly delivered, sounding more like growling toys than heavy-duty combat rifles. The majority of the rest of the sound effects are fine though, bringing plenty of juicy wet slaps and tears amidst the click-clacking of the insect army.

Dialogue is a bit cheesy at times, but this is in fitting with the first film, though some of the delivery is a little hesistant and wooden from the greener cast. The music, scored by John Morgan and William Stromberg, struck me more as a television series theme and almost childlike next to the violent action on screen. Whether this is intentional or not, I don’t know, but I found the score disappointing and a mild annoyance.

Like trailers? We got a shitload here.

After the trailer for our film Starship Troopers 2, we have short vehicles for Spider-Man 2, Bad Boys 2, Hellboy, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Welcome to the Jungle, Terminator 3: Rise of yhe Machines and the television animated series Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles. Plus, hold onto your helmets, we have the Dolby 'space' trailer just to fully set the scene. Woo.

The audio commentary is spoken by director Phil Tippet (who also drew the storyboards), producer Jon Davison and writer Ed Neumeier. These guys speak well of their film and add plenty of their budgeting tips regarding whatever is on screen. Thankfully they know the limitations of their product here and aren’t trying to oversell it, rather just describe the fun they had doing it. Fair enough.

From Green Screen to Silver Screen is an interesting 9:06 featurette regarding the effects shots and layers on four scenes. This is ably voiceovered by Eric Leven and is worth a look, but gets tired pretty quick. Also, isn’t the ‘Silver Screen’ a cinema screen?

Inside the Federation runs for 30:05 and is the usual indepth making of featurette, again practically the direct opposite of self-serving. Honesty is all too rare in the extras, so that is greatly appreciated here. All too often we get bored senseless by ‘Oh they were so good to work with’ etc. and here it is a little like that, but mostly everyone knows they’re working on and discussing a low-budget movie and act accordingly.

A photo gallery is all we have left and this hold 19 pics from behind the scenes.

Starship 2 is quite successful when looked at in relation to its budget. Produced on food stamps, it looks pretty sensational, if acted a little woodenly. In regard to the sequel to the first film, this bears little resemblance and doesn’t do much but borrow the title, in essence. Well, that and the incredible bug animation that looks as good here as it did in the Starship Troopers.

With these mixed values, this film is going to have about the same effect as the first one did; that is, people will either love it outright, or hate it forthwith. Personally, I’m leaning more on the side of liking it over disliking it, but unfortunately it does suffer from a distinct lack of originality. Think of this as more an original film rather than any sort of sequel, if you like, but it’s the connection to the first that stops this being just another B-grade cheaparse piece of crap.