Starship Troopers 3: Marauder

This movie could have been so good, to bad they screwed it up.

I like the idea of the Marauder Project but the CGI animating it is very weak. So is the bug animation. Even the first movie looked better than this one and that was made in '97. I would say the CGI in this movie is on the same level as Robocop 2 which was made 18 years ago.

The story is consistent and entertaining except for the last few minutes. I liked the heavy combats, the mysteries and the political twists. It was interesting to see how a few men in power can manipulate the "truth" if you give up democracy. For the most part the movie kept the tone and the intensity of the first one but then they had to ruin it with the religious crap and cheesy love scenes at the end.

My opinion is that they took it too far with the bugs. For example with the exploding grenade bugs that you see in the first few minutes. Also the bugs' strength is their short lifespan hence their ability to evolve quickly. So, in my opinion this is in direct contradiction with the big bugs that lives for a really long time. But I'm no biologist and this is not a documentary movie.

You can notice that I did not mention Starship Troopers 2. I don't know why people embarrass themselves with movies like ST2 (or even ST3) if they don't have the budget to make a decent movie. ST2 showed just a bunch of amateur actors reading script from the autocue.

So to sum it up I don't regret the 100 minutes spent watching the movie but it will definitely not go into my personal collection.

In the front-line of the Second Bug War in planet Roku San, the charismatic Sky Marshal Omar Anoke (Stephen Hogan) arrives with his assistant General Dix Hauser (Boris Kodjoe) in an starship piloted by his fiancée Captain Lola Beck (Jolene Blalock) and they are welcomed by their friend and hero of Planet P Colonel Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien). While Anoke inspects the facility protected by fences, Dix, Lola and Rico go to a bar to celebrate their reunion. However, Dix has an incident with the local farmers and arrests Rico for insubordination; meanwhile, there is a shut down in the defense fences and the bugs break into the facility. Lola and Anoke escape in the starship, but it crashes in Planet OM-1 and Lola, Anoke, Chief Bull Brittles (Stelio Savante), Jingo Ryan (Cokey Falkow), Dr. Wiggs (Danny Keogh) and the religious flight attendant Holly Little (Marnette Patterson) save themselves in a rescue pod. When Dix discovers that Admiral Enolo Phid (Amanda Donohoe) has no intention to rescue the survivors in the Arachnid Quarantine Zone, he assigns Rico in the Marauder Program to lead a squad with six other troopers to rescue Lola and Anoke.

"Starship Troopers 3: Marauder" is a reasonable entertaining, with good and also awful points. The good ones are the ironic Federal Network, with manipulative messages and brainwash of the citizens; Jolene "T'Pol" Blalock; and the story as a whole that is not bad. However, there are many stupid lines and dialogs; annoying characters and situations (the attitudes and behavior of the flawed Dix is totally incoherent, Holly Little and Jingo are irritating and Anoke is silly); and this exaggerated subplot of religion is never funny and does not work. The special effects are only reasonable and the set decoration is good. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Tropas Estelares 3" ("Starship Troopers 3")

The first Starship Troopers was one of the best sci-fi movies around since Robocop and remains one of the top of its genre. The disappointing sequel 'Hero of the Federation' did not do it justice and was a low- point in the series. Starship Troopers 3: Marauder has brought the series back to the quality of the first.

The acting is spot on with Casper Van Dien fitting back into the role of Johnny Rico perfectly and showing a change in the character. Jolene Blalock & Stephen Hogan are perfectly cast in their respective roles.

The plot follows Johnny Rico who ones again tries to stop the Bug invasion. At points the CGI is quite poor but this does not really affect the quality or viewers enjoyment of the film.

Ed Neumeier's direction is perfect for the film and he takes the series in the direction that it should be going. Also featured is the series satirical humour of the first and is surprisingly good for a direct-to- video venture.

I'd be all for a Starship Troopers 4 providing we get the return of Casper Van Dien as Johnny Rico.

I don't know why I kept watching to the end, but I did anyway and it really wasn't worth my (or anyone else's for that matter) time.

you don't need a big budget to make a good film, but it's impossible to hide a bad one with a small budget and this one must have had a REALLY small budget.

I was surprised to see Jolene Blalock's name attached to this being a star trek fan I thought she might bring something to the movie, but I'm starting to understand why she was cast as an emotionally void Vulcan in Enterprise. I'd also read comments about the state of her lips and thought it was just internet geeks going overboard, but they are really big now, significantly moreso than in her trek role, I think she needs to ease off on the collagen before they take over her face, they're starting to look like she was beaten up.

the SFX would have embarrassed the Red Dwarf crew at times they were so bad. For an example of how bad it gets check out the scene on the ship at warp where the view out the window isn't even CGI but some space scene on a long roller rolled past the window really quickly with the same repeating pattern over and over. I honestly don't think I've seen that done since the 70's! even the bug CGI is barely up to video game standards and not a patch on the original (which is 11 years old (1997) now and still looking much better than anything in ST3).

seriously guys, if you don't have the budget to make it properly, just don't make it at all, for your own sakes as professionals as well as for the sake of your fans. didn't you learn anything from ST2?

It was refreshing to see they reclaimed much of what made the first movie great when making Marauder. The filmmakers tried to copy the 'style' of the first movie, and in some aspects they succeeded. In others however, they failed miserably. Nevertheless, I think they put a lot of effort into the movie this time. For example, the federation broadcasts of the first movie were fantastic because they carried a lot of atmosphere and had so much subtle irony included. In the third movie, I think they overshot the mark a bit. There are a lot of broadcasts and they do a good job helping to create the film's atmosphere, but they are so openly ironic and sometimes it's almost comedy. One would think the officials are crazy to actually air that (Strongly in contrary to the first movie's broadcasts).

The story is not too bad. If you are willing to overlook some flaws you might find to like it. They even implemented a plot twist, which however was not very surprising at all. What I really could not stand was the needlessly exaggerated part about religion.

The cast is OK, but I think the filmmakers should have brought more old characters. It was nice to see Rico again; however it seemed the main characters were actually Lola and Dix instead of him. Dix's character also acts unreasonable on several occasions. And I found that the cast for the sky marshal was good, he has some charisma.

CGI effects are not very impressive. The bugs seem slightly worse animated than in 1997. So do explosions and the settings. The space ships and broadcasts look nice though.

Music is very average. Aside from the great song in the first broadcast there are no themes that would grab your attention. You would expect much much more of Klaus Badelt after his Pirates of the Caribbean score. Maybe he should have oriented his work more on the fantastic score of Basil Poledouris from the first movie. There is perhaps just one tiny little moment towards the end, where you would notice the music as great support for the scene. But once you notice it, its already over.

Writing this review I feel that there is actually not much positive to say in detail. But the composition of all these clearly average components is slightly better, because the atmosphere was right. It can be seen that this is in fact a Starship Troopers movie and not only shares the same name, as the second one did.