Salvage Marines

I came of age in the 90s, and this show reminded me of the type of low budget action sci-fi shows you could catch on weekend afternoons. I'm also a big Starship Troopers fan, having watched all of the movies and also read the book. So it's safe to say I'm right in the wheelhouse as far as demographics for a show like this.

This show is not designed to be very good. It is however designed to be entertaining, and honestly it struggles with that at times.

The armor, helmets, and props are superb. Like really badass looking. The soundtrack is spot on awesome. And the intro with all the artwork is the best part of the show.

The acting is what we all expect. I love some overreacted "I'm from Buenos Aires, and I say kill'em all!" lines, but there was nothing like that bravado. Cardboard thin characters are fine by me too, but there was just too much boring dialogue. I think it's really a writing issue. Takeda did a decent job displaying PTSD and grief though.

Overall if you're a sicko like me who enjoyed the Starship Troopers sequels, you probably can slog through this. It's not very good though. And I do feel for fans of the Necrospace books. I had never heard of them before, but after watching this I can tell there's a good concept in there, but this wasn't the series that could display it. In fact I'll probably pick up those books to find out, so thanks for the book recommendation Mr. Van Dien!

I am an avid SCIFI fan and love the corny Robocop/Total Recall/Starship Troopers era, so when I saw this pop up, I thought oh this could be a fun 90's throwback. This was a mistake. There is nothing in this series that shows me any of the people involved have any experience in filmmaking. Maybe this was everyones first time making a film? I don't know, but it was a huge waste of time. If you are reading this review, avoid this series and the makers of it, you will thank me later. And lastly, shame on you Casper, I expected better, Starship Troopers was so cool, but Salvage Marines was a dumpster fire.

Salvage Marines - campy, cheesy, and don't the forget sub-par acting. In addition the special effects are absolutely horrendous. It seriously looks like they contracted out the effects to someone who is using Adobe After Effects for the first time.

But did I enjoy it? Yeah, mostly. With Van Dien in the lead role it can feel like an alternate universe Starship Troopers at times. If you want to enjoy it as well then I really suggest you don't take this show too seriously. It is a fun experience if you don't get bogged down in its flaws. Just laugh it off and enjoy the ride.

The worst part by far is that you have to watch it on an ad-riddled streaming service that subjects you to 3 minutes of ads every 10 minutes. And it is the same annoying ads every single time. So be prepared to pop out your headphones and scroll through your favorite social media multiple times an episode. This isn't the show's fault, of course, but it does lead to a more negative viewing experience which can impact your opinion of the show.

I gotta tell you, this was the last straw for Crackle. That platform had so much potential when it first launched, but after terrible series after terrible series, THIS ONE really makes it known that Crackle does not care about quality entertainment. I honestly just can't believe that this is the standard they have aligned themselves with. Let's give this show the benefit of the doubt, let's compare the effects to a hit scifi show of the 90's, Sliders, and still Salvage Marines doesn't even compare. This show is an embarrassment to Crackle and just scifi shows in general. The show runner and director should have been fired, plain and simple. My only hope is that the budget for the entire series was under 200k, otherwise someone is REALLY BAD at filmmaking.

I love cheesy sci-fi, so this is right up my alley. The books are better though, because your imagination is way better than the effects on display here...

However, the combat scenes are pretty laughable. I kept thinking of the shootout scenes from Police Squad, if you've ever seen it, where the people shooting at each other are 5 feet apart from each other and not hitting each other, lol.

It reminds me off all those sci-fi shows that flooded the marketplace in the 90's. Which is fine, because I liked all those shows and they knew they were catering to people like me.

So, I liked it. Yes, it's cheesy, but it's fun.

And Casper rules!