Amazon.co.uk Review
Allowing for all the low-budget shortcomings that plague any straight-to-video production, Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation serves up 92 minutes of passable SF action. Parlaying his veteran status as an animator, special-effects wizard, and stalwart survivor of the CGI revolution, Phil Tippett (with returning screenwriter Ed Neumeier) makes a woefully uninspired directorial debut with this makeshift sequel to Paul Verhoeven's 1997 blockbuster, retaining the jarhead militarism of Robert Heinlein's original novel while serving up more bugs, an all-new cast of attractive young stars and all-too-familiar plot elements borrowed from a dozen better movies.
"Bigger is better" is out of the question under such meagre budgetary circumstances, so Tippett and Neumeier compensate with gruesome bug fights and gross-out effects at regular intervals, some standard-issue nudity and escalating paranoia (echoing Carpenter's The Thing) when a new breed of bugs use human hosts (à la The Hidden) to overtake a stranded platoon of Federation soldiers on a bug-infested planet. Relying on murky confinement to hide nondescript sets, Starship Troopers 2 has three engaging leads in its favour: US TV regular Richard Burgi is solidly cast as the titular hero (he's the military equivalent of Pitch Black's Riddick); Colleen Porch is engaging as the most sensible Federation survivor; and screen veteran Ed Lauter makes the most of his salty role as a battle-hardened general. Unfortunately, they're adrift in a knock-off sequel (shot on high-def digital video) that could never do justice to its energetic predecessor. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews:
OH WHAT WERE THEY THINKING.......2007-10-26
What an insulting sequel to a brilliant film. This film must have a budget of around £2.50 and used scenes from the original film, hoping nobody had seen it. The story was non-existant and the acting more wooden than a park bench.
The makers of Starship Troopers must have fainted when presented with the worst sequel since The Bible Part 2.
Super Duper Troopers.......2007-07-18
Daft and violent yeah baby wooden actors bad efects just wat you want for a drunk night in with the boys!!!
Why the disrespect?.......2007-06-27
Ok, lets get this straight, Starship troopers (the film version) is supposed to be ludicrously cheesey, crammed full of corney one liners and grunts facing insurmountable odds - that's why troopers fans love it! Troopers 2 is not half bad. Ok so there's one set and the low budget shines through like a fire ball coming out of a bugs ass! However, i can name 10 sci-fi films that are worse of the top of my head - in fact i will: The recent 3 Star Wars; The vast majority of Star trek films; alien ressurection; That horrendous John travolta non-sense; Total recal; Alien Nation; Pitch Black. That's at least 10. Do you want to know more? Watch the film; in fact buy it! It's pretty damn good.
Really not as bad as people say.......2006-07-07
Solid storyline, but lacking "end twists". Decent camerawork, excellent lighting. Workmanlike sound design, but could have been better. Characters are clearly defined from each other (no "nameless grunt #6"), and the acting is wholly convincing. For a small budget movie this is fine entertainment and worth the budget price that the DVD now seems to sell for, although it sags at the end and some of the special effects are obviously b-grade. Overall it needs far more depth on the science to be called a science fiction movie - it's really a horror movie that just happens to be set on a dustbowl planet.
Lame, straight to DVD sequel, but ended up getting better..........2006-03-14
To even consider making a sequel to Paul Verhoeven's bug nasty film without him onboard was a mistake. Gone are all the subtle political jibes, the depth, the army sensibility mocking. In fact, this straight to DVD sequel is everything that the first film was against...
But that aside, there's no scope to this film. The action battles are limited, probably due to budget reasons, and amount to no more than people shooting guns at the screen. The storyline in the first one wasn't exactly the main reason for watching it, but this time round it's even worse.
Holed up on a planet waiting for pick up ships, a squad of soldiers wait in a hastily converted base, as the bugs close in. That's it.
Acting wise, this is truly shocking, with no big names cast. But for the style of film being made, budget acting suits a budget film. There is some nudity, but, as a fellow reviewer stated it was, it is hardly pornographic, nor exciting.
What gives the film it's high rating is that come the finale, it gets quite bloody and gory. And I have to admit, that some of the action scenes towards the end picked up slightly, but not enough to make up for the dull previous hour.
The only other plus point was that some of the bug effects were pretty good, and that's probably where most of the films budget went. The CGI was quite detailed, and fast, however, as the bugs were hardly in the movie at all, that is another disappointment.
Amazon.co.uk Review
Allowing for all the low-budget shortcomings that plague any straight-to-video production, Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation serves up 92 minutes of passable SF action. Parlaying his veteran status as an animator, special-effects wizard, and stalwart survivor of the CGI revolution, Phil Tippett (with returning screenwriter Ed Neumeier) makes a woefully uninspired directorial debut with this makeshift sequel to Paul Verhoeven's 1997 blockbuster, retaining the jarhead militarism of Robert Heinlein's original novel while serving up more bugs, an all-new cast of attractive young stars and all-too-familiar plot elements borrowed from a dozen better movies.
"Bigger is better" is out of the question under such meagre budgetary circumstances, so Tippett and Neumeier compensate with gruesome bug fights and gross-out effects at regular intervals, some standard-issue nudity and escalating paranoia (echoing Carpenter's The Thing) when a new breed of bugs use human hosts (à la The Hidden) to overtake a stranded platoon of Federation soldiers on a bug-infested planet. Relying on murky confinement to hide nondescript sets, Starship Troopers 2 has three engaging leads in its favour: US TV regular Richard Burgi is solidly cast as the titular hero (he's the military equivalent of Pitch Black's Riddick); Colleen Porch is engaging as the most sensible Federation survivor; and screen veteran Ed Lauter makes the most of his salty role as a battle-hardened general. Unfortunately, they're adrift in a knock-off sequel (shot on high-def digital video) that could never do justice to its energetic predecessor. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews:
OH WHAT WERE THEY THINKING.......2007-10-26
What an insulting sequel to a brilliant film. This film must have a budget of around £2.50 and used scenes from the original film, hoping nobody had seen it. The story was non-existant and the acting more wooden than a park bench.
The makers of Starship Troopers must have fainted when presented with the worst sequel since The Bible Part 2.
Super Duper Troopers.......2007-07-18
Daft and violent yeah baby wooden actors bad efects just wat you want for a drunk night in with the boys!!!
Why the disrespect?.......2007-06-27
Ok, lets get this straight, Starship troopers (the film version) is supposed to be ludicrously cheesey, crammed full of corney one liners and grunts facing insurmountable odds - that's why troopers fans love it! Troopers 2 is not half bad. Ok so there's one set and the low budget shines through like a fire ball coming out of a bugs ass! However, i can name 10 sci-fi films that are worse of the top of my head - in fact i will: The recent 3 Star Wars; The vast majority of Star trek films; alien ressurection; That horrendous John travolta non-sense; Total recal; Alien Nation; Pitch Black. That's at least 10. Do you want to know more? Watch the film; in fact buy it! It's pretty damn good.
Really not as bad as people say.......2006-07-07
Solid storyline, but lacking "end twists". Decent camerawork, excellent lighting. Workmanlike sound design, but could have been better. Characters are clearly defined from each other (no "nameless grunt #6"), and the acting is wholly convincing. For a small budget movie this is fine entertainment and worth the budget price that the DVD now seems to sell for, although it sags at the end and some of the special effects are obviously b-grade. Overall it needs far more depth on the science to be called a science fiction movie - it's really a horror movie that just happens to be set on a dustbowl planet.
Lame, straight to DVD sequel, but ended up getting better..........2006-03-14
To even consider making a sequel to Paul Verhoeven's bug nasty film without him onboard was a mistake. Gone are all the subtle political jibes, the depth, the army sensibility mocking. In fact, this straight to DVD sequel is everything that the first film was against...
But that aside, there's no scope to this film. The action battles are limited, probably due to budget reasons, and amount to no more than people shooting guns at the screen. The storyline in the first one wasn't exactly the main reason for watching it, but this time round it's even worse.
Holed up on a planet waiting for pick up ships, a squad of soldiers wait in a hastily converted base, as the bugs close in. That's it.
Acting wise, this is truly shocking, with no big names cast. But for the style of film being made, budget acting suits a budget film. There is some nudity, but, as a fellow reviewer stated it was, it is hardly pornographic, nor exciting.
What gives the film it's high rating is that come the finale, it gets quite bloody and gory. And I have to admit, that some of the action scenes towards the end picked up slightly, but not enough to make up for the dull previous hour.
The only other plus point was that some of the bug effects were pretty good, and that's probably where most of the films budget went. The CGI was quite detailed, and fast, however, as the bugs were hardly in the movie at all, that is another disappointment.
DVD Review:
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Season 2 [1995]
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Season 3 [1995]
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Complete Series (Seasons 1-7) [1995] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- Star Trek: Fan Collective - Captains Log
- Star Trek: Fan Collective - Klingon Box Set
- Star Trek: Fan Collective - 'Q' Box Set
- Star Trek: Fan Collective - Time Travel Box Set
- Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 1 [1990]
- Star Trek The Next Generation - Season 3 (Slimline Edition) [1989]
- Star Trek The Next Generation - Season 4 (Slimline Edition) [1990]
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