Salvage Marines

I have been a long time fan of the books, so you can assume I was massively excited to hear about a live action show. Well, ITS TERRIBLE AND I AM FURIOUS! This looks like it was directed by someone who has no understanding of filmmaking. The acting is beyond terrible, especially the two leads, I can see why Casper Van Dien hasn't acted in anything worth a damn in 30 years. The brunette is also just terrible, is this her first acting role? Was this a student project? Why are the effects 90s level bad? Was the budget for the whole show 10k? I'm left with so many angry questions. I just hope these books get remade by a team of filmmakers that actually know how to make quality work.

UTTER FAILURE!

PS I made this account just for this review, that's how disappointed I am in this series.

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!

This show is obviously made on a shoestring budget, which maybe mostly used on actors' salary, and not on CGI. I agree that it wakes some memories from (then not so cheap) 90's SF series.

But earlier this year there was another cheap SF show, 'The Ark', and I must say I found 'Salvage Marines' more entertaining, though I am surely no friend of any military, para, or legit.

There are a also lot of similar (non-SF) shows focussing on troopers or platoons and their problems, amongst other the questionable legitimacy of their fight.

I did not find the acting as bad as stated here by others, nor the script, in general, as condemnable. For sure, both are not legendary, but at least the acting is solid. Sometimes the direction seems to be a bit helpless, but there is seemingly a strong determination to hold a certain level of consistency.

Or, I was just in the mood to watch something not.highbrow, that tries to deliver a simple story and some basic insight. Yes, mercenaries are still humans...and yes, they die for money...and yes, if "government" is replaced by "corporation" or vice versa, it's all the same, humans fighting against humans for advantages that do not reach the fighters, who risk their lives.

I hope, CvD got a bit of a salary out there (he doesn't seem old enough to retire) and give this little show 5 stars.

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!