Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Before I get started, I do need to explain something for those of you that are new to this series, and if you're reading this review for the first time. Way back in November, I had put out a tournament involving 8 movies. And the winner of that tournament would be the movie that I would cover for episode 100. Well, to make a long story short, hardly anyone voted in that tournament. And because of that, I had no choice but to end up cancelling it. Now, I'm not gonna blame anyone for not voting. I probably just wasn't expecting it to happen. But anyways, out of the first 4 matches for Round 1, two movies got at least 1 vote. And since they were a tie, I had to decide which of these two movies would be episode 99 and 100. And after doing some thinking, I have made a decision on their placements. So you'll find out what movie I'll be covering next week for episode 100. But as for tonight's movie, being episode 99, I'm gonna be covering a sci-fi action movie from 2008. That movie is "Starship Troopers 3: Marauder".
Now, I have seen the previous two "Starship Troopers" films in this franchise. The first movie was amazing. It was fun, it was funny, it was action packed, it was one of the finest sci-fi movies I had seen in many, many years. And then "Starship Troopers 2" came along and decided to go way off fucking the rails by becoming a bland, boring, bullshit, sci-fi horror movie. Where it had unlikable characters, a story that was boring as shit, and I personally don't believe that it was meant to be a "Starship Troopers" movie. It was probably meant to be something else, but someone decided to slap the "Starship Troopers" name onto it in hopes that it would, in some small way, tie into the lore of the "Starship Troopers" universe.
We're now up to the third movie, and I can tell you everything that I know about it right here. I know that this movie is a direct follow-up from the first movie, because it has the main character, Johnny Rico, returning from the first movie. Which is totally cool, because I really liked Johnny Rico. That, and he's still played by Casper Van Dien. Which is also totally cool to see him back. So we have that going in. I've also heard that this movie has almost no connection with "Starship Troopers 2". If that is the case, then it's probably for the best, because I would've tried to distance myself from "Starship Troopers 2" as far as possible anyways.
Beyond that, I know almost nothing about this movie. I'm hoping for it to be pretty good, but I've also heard people say that the "Starship Troopers" franchise got worse with every sequel after the first movie. Now, I'm not totally sure if that's the case or not. But there is a possibility that they could be right, at least when it comes to this third movie. And if it DOES suck, then I just hope it's not as bad as "Starship Troopers 2" was. But I really won't know if this movie will be any good or not. So the only way I'm gonna find out for myself, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Starship Troopers 3: Marauder".
14 minutes later
You know, guys, it's weird. On one hand, it's rather fucked up to see a public hanging for these war protesters on TV. On the other hand, their enemies ARE the bugs. So I don't exactly know why they would protest against a war involving these bugs that have destroyed a good majority of human life to begin with. So, lesson learned: NEVER protest a war against the bugs. Otherwise, you'll get your 15 minutes of fame via a public hanging. Wow...and me just saying that sounds incredibly fucked up. But I will say, the ad they showed for it early on was kinda funny, so I guess I can't really complain, now can I?
13 minutes later
So, the bugs now have a scorpion in their ranks...I'm gonna say this now, that thing looks really fucking cool. And not only that, but it just shot a Godzilla-like laser from it's tail. I think it's safe to say that the bugs in this movie are just as badass and destructive as they were in the first movie. That is awesome to see!
8 minutes later
You know, guys, I would claim this as shocking, but somehow, I don't think that's too far off, given how some governments are handled in certain countries. And no, I'm not gonna tell you what I'm talking about, you're just gonna have to watch the movie for yourself.
14 minutes later
You know what, guys? I'm really liking how they're spoofing the propaganda in this movie. It's certainly really cool. In fact, this movie has been really good, so far. I'm really enjoying it. OK granted, it's nowhere near as good as the first movie, but it's certainly a massive improvement over "Starship Troopers 2". And that's always a positive in my book.
17 minutes later
Well, I think it's safe to say that Jingo's fate was already sealed when he decided to hide in the "rocks". However, I can't say I feel sorry for him because he was starting to become irritating as shit. So, nothing of value was fucking lost.
5 minutes later
Wait, so this brain bug, the one that I'm going to assume was captured at the end of the first movie, was 'allowed' to be captured so it can pass intelligence? But according to Jenkins from the first movie, who was also psychic, he said that the bug was afraid. So...did Jenkins get it wrong this entire time? Or was the bug lying throughout the 8 years of being contained by the Federation until Anoke came along? I understand I'm probably thinking WAY too deep into this, but it's starting to bug me a little bit...pun intended, of course.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Starship Troopers 3: Marauder", and we're ending the movie with a rather catchy song. You guys can't hear this for obvious reasons, but this song is...actually pretty good. Let me shut the movie off...all right. Well, that was interesting, to say the least. So, let's get the obvious question out of the way first. Is this movie better than "Starship Troopers 2"? By a long shot. But, then again, this thing would have to go out of it's way to suck harder than "Starship Troopers 2" did. Now, is this movie as good as the first "Starship Troopers"? No. Hell no. I would rather watch the first movie more often than I would watch the third movie. Mind you, this movie is still pretty good. It's just, compared to the first movie, "Starship Troopers" is in a league of itself. But that's just me, personally speaking, because I loved that first movie so much.
But I'm just stalling at this point, let's get into the writing. And I want to start with something that I feel needs to be known first. Because there are those who might read this, and probably have never seen a "Starship Troopers" film in their life. So, I'm gonna start with how this movie was being presented. Now, prior to going into this movie, I did re-watch the first "Starship Troopers" movie, and I remembered why I enjoyed that film so much. Because instead of just being another standard sci-fi action movie that we've seen many times beforehand, one of the things that made that movie unique was that it was satirizing a ton of genres. It was spoofing military films, propaganda, war films, it was doing all of that. And the movie was never meant to be taken too seriously. Now that isn't to say that the movie didn't have serious moments, but they were still poultry to what that film wanted to be. And it was great. The second film, however, did not do ANY of that. Instead of trying to spoof elements in the sci-fi horror genre, it decided to just be a straight-laced sci-fi horror movie. And it really did not work, because the film had dull, lifeless writing, and characters who all had the depth and personality of dried wood. And, as I stated earlier, it didn't really feel like a "Starship Troopers" movie. Or even a proper sequel to the first "Starship Troopers". And that's why I hated that movie so much, because it took everything that made the first movie work, and stripped away just about all of it's life and personality into something that was considered a husk of waste. We now enter the third movie, and I can tell you right off the bat that this movie is a 'back to basics' film. Basically, "Starship Troopers 3: Marauder" goes back to it's roots in doing what the first movie had done. Which is spoofing propaganda, war films, military films, and that's all back in spades. But they're not just spoofing that. They're also spoofing a new genre, which is religion, which also plays a big factor into this movie. And, for the most part, it works pretty well. Now, is all of it funny? No. But again, I'm mostly comparing that with the spoofing that was done in the first film. Which, to me anyway, I got more of a laugh out of that than I did for this. But that's not to say that this movie isn't funny with it's spoofing. Because some stuff can be potentially really funny, depending on your tastes in humor. For example, if you like dark humor, then you're gonna get a kick out of them airing public hangings on TV for war protesters and such. That shit, to me, was funny. But then again, I am a fan of dark humor, and I know that there are those that aren't into that kind of thing. But still, what is here in terms of spoofing is really good. And I'm glad to see it making a return in this movie, seeing as how it was absent in "Starship Troopers 2".
Now I want touch upon the characters. And I'm gonna start with Johnny Rico. As I made mention earlier, I liked Rico from the first movie, and I was curious to see how much of a role he plays into this third movie. Well...I'm gonna be honest when I say this, I feel like his character was kinda wasted in this film. Because for those of you who never saw the first "Starship Troopers" film, Rico had a lot of his story and character told in that first movie. Granted, most of that was just him trying to become a Citizen because he wanted to impress a girl that he liked. Speaking of which, she doesn't make a return in this movie. In fact, nobody from the first film, outside of Johnny Rico, makes a return in this movie. And I feel like that's somewhat of a missed opportunity to do something more with them interacting with Rico. In fact, Rico doesn't really do much in this movie, other than what he did in the first movie, which was fight the bugs. That, and he also goes on a secret mission, along with 6 other troopers, to go on this desert planet to rescue a small band of deserted troopers that are on a bug planet known as OM-1. And they do so with some new mechs known as the Marauders. By the way, a bit of a spoiler here, we don't see these mechs in action up until VERY late in the film. And I'm talking about an hour and a half into the movie. Which is rather cheap, especially considering that the Marauder name is in the title of the movie itself. But that's really just a minor thing. But getting back to Rico for a second, you could've told this story with ANY other character in Rico's place, and you wouldn't have missed a thing. In fact, the only reason I can think of as to why Rico was even in this movie was because the film needed some star power, thus is the reason why they got back Casper Van Dien to play Johnny Rico again. However, that's just me jumping into the casting. And also, thinking about it now, Rico's story arc was pretty much wrapped up in the first movie. So, I wasn't totally sure what else they could've done with him in this film. And unfortunately, they kinda skimped out on doing anything more with Johnny Rico in this film. But on the flip side of characters, we do get to focus more on our stranded characters such as Captain Lola Beck, along with a few other survivors, including Omar Anoke, who plays a huge factor into this movie, mainly because of the religious focus that this movie hones in on. Now, while I'm on the subject of religion for a moment, I feel like some people might see the religion in this movie as it being rather preachy. But again, I must stress that religion is the main spoof target in this movie. And taking it too seriously might not be something you want to get into. So I do have to warn you there. As for the characters themselves, most of them are developed really well. Again, save for Johnny Rico who didn't have much of anything to work with in terms of enhancing his character from the first movie. You could've replaced his character with someone new, and it wouldn't have changed a thing. And, again, the only reason why he was even in this movie was so that they could get Casper Van Dien to play Rico again as the top star for this movie.
Since I'm on the subject of casting, let's get into the acting. The acting here, for the most part, is really good. A lot of it is that cheesy sort of acting that was in the first movie, and it totally works here. And even though Casper Van Dien didn't have much to work with in this movie, he was still able to play his character as well as he could've. Granted, it's not as good as it was in the first movie. However, for what little he had to work, he was still able to make it work. As for the rest of the cast, most of them, as I just said, turn in really good performances. There was one actress, however, I need to comment on. I don't remember her name, but she was the Lieutenant from very early on in the movie. And she had an accent that I couldn't get a good grasp on. I don't know if she was trying to sound Russian or, maybe, Bulgarian. But the accent REALLY threw me off. So if anyone who has seen this movie, please tell me what accent she was suppose to have. Because it just sounded so weird hearing her speak her lines. So overall, minus one bit of a questionable accent, the acting from the entire cast was really good.
Special effects are really good in most areas. But then again, the first two "Starship Troopers" movies were really heavy on special effects, mostly for stuff such as the bugs and ships. And all of that makes a return here. We got a lot of blood in this movie, which was, again, also in the first two movies. And the blood effects look great. Now when it comes to the CG, most of it is really solid for the ships and most of the bugs. I say 'most' of the bugs, because there are a couple of shots in this movie that make the bugs look very obvious in CG. Now again, the bugs in the first two movies were done in CG, but I felt like those two movies hid it well enough to not make the bugs look too obvious in CG. This movie, at least for a couple of shots, makes the bugs look like they were rendered a little too noticeable in CG. However, I also have to stress that these shots are VERY minor. And almost nobody is going to notice them, save for me, because I have a tendency to notice a lot of smaller details. And a lot of people are not going to notice the few minor shots where the bugs look obvious in CG. But I still think it is worth noting, even if it's very minor. But the rest of the bugs look great. CG is really good in a lot of areas in this movie, and I'd say it's almost as good-looking as it was in the first movie. Again, minor shots and all that almost nobody's going to notice, save for me.
Camerawork here is really good, minus some bits of shaky cam that was in the beginning of the movie when the bugs first start to invade Roku San. However, everything else after that looks great. Lighting here is lit perfectly. Sound-mix is great. The score here is very similar to what you would hear in the first "Starship Troopers" movie. And about the only thing I can mention, in terms of the soundtrack, is the song that was brought up twice in this movie. I believe the song is called "A Good Day To Die", which is the song that Anoke sings towards the beginning of the movie. And the song plays again during the end credits, which is a really good song. And I would totally recommend you give the song a listen to at some point. You can probably find this song on YouTube easily, so go ahead and give it a listen to at some point when you get the chance.
Overall, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Starship Troopers 3: Marauder"? Yeah. I can definitely recommend it, as long as you have seen the first "Starship Troopers" movie. If you've seen the first movie, and not the second, then you skip ahead of that film and jump straight into this third one. Like I said, the second film has barely any connection with the first movie. So you can go straight into this third movie, and you wouldn't miss a thing. And for those who have seen the second movie, and you thought that film sucked balls, then this film definitely goes back to it's roots by doing most of the things that the first movie did, such as spoofing the genres I had mention earlier. Now I should mention again that this movie is nowhere NEAR as good as the first movie, partially because of how Johnny Rico's character was handled in this movie, but it's certainly a fun little flick. And I personally liked it enough to hold onto my copy of it. Now, as for myself...I'm gonna go and watch another fun, cheesy flick. I think I'm gonna go and watch my copy of "Planet Terror". Because that, to me, is certainly a fun flick to watch.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of episode 99 of Reaction & Review. Holy shit, guys, we're about to hit the 100th episode...I cannot believe that, but we're just about there. And considering the film that I have planned for that episode, it's gonna be something interesting. But for now, guys, take care, and I will see you all for episode 100 in the near future. Peace.
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