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In its defense, the movie has some pretty decent CGI, and plenty of bug-splattering money shots - especially for such a low-budget direct-to-video affair as this one. The scenes of the bugs getting shot up or squashed are probably the saving grace of the film. That, and the requisite bits of occasional nudity from the blonde hardbody seductress of the cast. Unfortunately, besides the boobs, everything else in this film not created on a computer just looks lame, with an unshakeable "Made for Cable T.V." feel of cheapness surrounding it.

Bearing little importance in relation to the original film (which also bore little importance in relation to the novel), and featuring exactly zero recurring characters (You mean to tell me they couldn't even afford to get Casper Van Diem?), Starship Troopers 2 introduces us to a new squad of boys and girls who find themselves outnumbered and on the run by the bugs. They flee to a nearby abandoned outpost, where they find one survivor - a highly decorated veteran officer who has been accused of murdering the outpost commander and left locked in a cell. He did the crime, however, because he discovered that a new kind of bug had taken over the Commander's body in a Puppet Masters kind of way. Facing a fresh attack of conventional bugs from the outside, as well as the threat of being assimilated by gullet-encroaching parasites on the inside, they let this "Hero of the Federation" out of his cell so that he can kick some ass.

But while some of the bug-blasting action is entertaining, it is quickly accompanied by a sense of redundancy. I mean, how many times can you watch a bug stagger around while little green-splattered chunks of it get blown away by what is supposed to be gunfire - from flashlight guns.

Yes, that's right, this thing is made so cheaply that the guns aren't even real. These fake muzzle flashes, created by strobe lights, render an effect that's about as exciting as watching a really spirited match of Lazer Tag. The weapons are just one example of the cheap-looking overall production values, which also include spartan sets and ill-fitting costumes. It has about the same general quality as the average Sci-Fi channel original movie - and if you've ever randomly tuned in to Sci-Fi for a few minutes, you probably know just how laughably bad those can be.

Compounding these flaws is a buffet of really hammy acting. From the overwrought to the flat and uninspired, the cast of ST2 runs the entire gamut. Not only do none of these people convincingly act like they're in the military, but no effort was even made to make them LOOK like they were in the military. I know it's "The Future" and all, but i'm sure that the military still has some kind of codes in place governing dress, appearance, and fraternization. As the trying-to-act-tough-as-nails female sargeant points out in one scene, "That's the problem with this war - everyone's more interested in fucking than fighting."'

While the story isn't so stupid as to be patently insulting to anyone with an I.Q. over 65, it certainly isn't original or clever in any way either. The whole "parasite takes over host body" idea has been done to death in so many other cheap sci-fi movies (and done much better in movies like The Hidden), and on so many old episodes of Star Trek, that there is simply no new ground left to cover. And as much of a misfire as director Paul Verhoeven's attempt at skewering Heinlein's theme of facism was in the first movie, the brief moments where Hero of the Federation attempts to convey the same themes are so poorly done that they become an unwitting parody of those ideas of the previous film.

Much more of a rehash than a sequel in any true sense of the word, STARSHIP TROOPERS 2 is likely to put off fans of the original, pleasing only those who can reap high entertainment value from just the bare-bones ingredients of gore, boobs, and bug-splatter.

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originally posted: 06/14/04 04:37:40
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