The Film
Sequels are a tricky business. For every successful film/sequel combination (e.g., Alien/Aliens, or Star Wars/Empire Strikes Back), there are other sequels that never quite recapture the magic of the original, say RoboCop/RoboCop2, or pretty much any Star Wars film after Return of the Jedi. Starship Troopers unfortunately falls into that latter category. A highly original first film is followed by two films that try to capitalize on the success of the first but eith less than satisfying results.
In the first film, director Paul Verhoeven and screen-writer Ed Neumeier manage to balance wit, action, love triangles, humor and fairly subtle yet subversive political satire into a memorable film that matures with age, holding up well to scrutiny over a decade after its release. More details are available in our Starship Troopers Blu-ray Disc review. But when Paul Verhoeven abandoned ship, the series went downhill in the second and third films, even with the skills of the original screen-writer.
In the second film: Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation, the original actors have disappeared (along with the director), and with them go the subtle satire, the chemistry and the cohesive vision that tied the first film together. It seems as if the film-makers were trying to copy other Sci Fi horror classics such as Alien and The Thing, with a film set mostly in the confines of a small claustrophobic space, but they do so with limited success.
Starship Troopers 2 finds a new set of characters trapped on a bug-controlled desert planet, seeking shelter and protection in a deserted outpost. In it they meet a mysterious sole survivor who has been locked into the incinerator, branded a murder in spray paint scrawled outside the door. The characters are cardboard-thin, the plot is not terribly original, and the best elements of the original film (namely the insightful satire, strong personal interactions and beautiful cinematography) are nearly completely absent.
There are some good action sequences, some effective use of effects (if that's not redundant), and enough comedic moments (intentional and otherwise) to move things along, but the sequel pales in comparison to the first film and is available on Blu-ray only as part of the trilogy. Oddly, ST2 does include one cast member carried over from the first film: actress Brenda Strong, who played a no-nonsense Starship Captain who went down with her ship in the first film, is back for more in ST2 as the tough-as-nails Sargent Dede Rake. Spoiler alert: she dies again. Mercifully, she is not brought back for a third death in the final film.
But we do have one major character returning in Starship Troopers 3: Marauder, and that's Casper Van Dien Johnny Rico, now a colonel in the Mobile Infantry. He's joined by the lovely Jolene Blaylock as Captain Lola Beck and Boris Kodjoe as Rico's one-time close friend now possible rival General Dix Hauser. Stephen Hogan plays the delightfully odd and mysterious singing Sky Marshall Omar Anoke and Amanda Donohoe plays his stern number 2, Admiral Enolo Phid.
ST3 tries to recapture the magic of the first film, with a love triangle among the three main players, bug-fighting on a desert terrain and an attempt to return some of the satire and political commentary that worked so well in the first film. But this time around, the subtlety is lost and the humor mostly falls flat (as does the story line). I mean are we really to believe that Johnny Rico's old friend Dix Hauser is going to have him arrested and sentenced to death simply for preventing him from executing a rowdy farmer in a bar? This is just one of the many gaping plot holes that prevent the viewer from fully suspending his or her disbelief in order to kick back and enjoy the movie. Overall, it's a slight improvement over the second film, but not by a wide margin.
I'm afraid the best comparison to recent film trilogies would be to the Matrix series: the memory of a clever original ground-breaking film is tainted by two less successful attempts to keep the franchise alive. Save yourself some aggravation: skip the sequels and just watch the first film three times. You'll enjoy it more.
The Picture
There is little to fault in the 1080p transfers, which are presented in 1.85:1 (ST1 and ST3) and 1.78:1 (ST2). They seem to be true representations of the raw material, with the original film looking more clean and pristine -- certainly more "film-like" -- than the newer films, simply because it was a more polished and professionally done film. It's a little odd that Starship Troopers 3 is presented at the theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 since it was released straight to video (well, straight to DVD and Blu-ray), but perhaps they thought they could manage a theatrical run when they first started shooting? In any case, the second film's 1.78:1 aspect ratio fills the entire 16:9 screen of a widescreen projector or television and the first and third films have very slight letterboxing bars at the top and bottom.
The original film's effects hold up surprisingly well under high definition scrutiny. In 1996 and 1997 when the first film was being made, CGI (computer generated imagery) was still fairly new ground, and the Whisky Outpost invasion was perhaps the first use of a simulated crowd or swarm. It's one thing to create a single generated bug, but to generate a swarm of thousands each of which move independently yet interact with each other represents a massive feat of programming and computer processing power. We've seen this type of work repeated recently in films such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy but to see it done so effectively several years earlier is impressive indeed.
In the second and third films, budgetary constraints rear their ugly heads in the form of slightly less polished looking CG imagery (the bugs), and a bit less attention to detail on make-up and miniature effects work. Fortunately, the film-makers knew their limitations and worked around them, showing swarms of bugs on a low-res infrared security monitoring system instead of a complicated "live shot," and limiting sweeping large-scale miniature work such as starship "beauty" shots to far fewer than what we saw in the first film. The second film is the weakest video presentation of the bunch, seemingly shot on video equipment instead of film. If it seems that some of the details are lost in the darkness, then that was probably intentional.
The Sound
All three films get the lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1-channel treatment, but this doesn't mean they all sound the same. The first film features a fairly aggressive mix which makes frequent use of the surround channels and LFE channel to create a bombastic sonic spectacle. The second film, being more dialog-driven, favors the center channel with a subtler score and surround channels being used more for atmospheric effects and for "creep factor." The third film again tries to recapture the grandeur of the first but is lacking a bit in overall polish. There are plenty of LFE blasts and an immersive surround field, but the overall mix is less cohesive and solid than the first film.
The Extras
Extras vary from film to film. The first film comes with a wealth of extras as discussed in our stand-alone Starship Troopers review, including a very entertaining PIP commentary ("FedNet Mode"). The second film includes one commentary track, two short featurettes and a BD-Live link. The third film returns with a PIP commentary ("Marauder Mode"), two Making-Of featurettes, a music video, and two distinct commentary tracks. It also includes a BD-Live tab for exclusive Web-based content.
The interview segments used in "Marauder Mode" and "FedNet Mode" seem to have been shot at the same time, as Ed Neumeier and Casper Van Dien look pretty much the same in both sets of extras. It's just that there is more to say about Starship Troopers than there is about Marauder, so the PIP track for the first film is more enjoyable. Overall, other than the extreme slowness to load the BD-Live material (which after all that wait, isn't that exciting), the extras are comprehensive enough. The best film of the three has the most supplements, and this is as it should be.
Final Thoughts
It's rare that sequels can improve on a film or even maintain the quality of the original. Even the Alien series which started off with the one two punch of Alien and Aliens went downhill after two films and has never been able to recapture the magic. And so it goes with Starship Troopers. The original film may not have received universal acclaim or huge box office success but it stands on its own a decade later as an important piece of film-making. The same cannot be said about its sequels.
If you're a die-hard fan of the films, then the trilogy on Blu-ray is your best bet to get all three films in the best possible quality, with some interesting extras to boot. But if you enjoyed the first film and are curious what came after it, then try a rental first.
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