Starship Troopers: Marauder

Starship Troopers is back! The original directed by Paul Verhoeven followed the satire and attitude of his previous blockbuster, Robocop. In it, a right-wing federation urges its citizens to participate in a universal war with alien bug creatures. Based upon a revered sci-fi novel that I admit to having never read, it had the right amount of gore and action to satisfy the horror and action market. Whilst not particularly intellectual, there was a certain amount of intelligence in the story if you looked for it.

The sequel, Hero of the Federation was a competent, low budget monster movie that introduced a bug (similar to that in the classic movie The Hidden) that could take over human beings. This movie was more of a Tales of the Roughnecks than an actual Starship Troopers movie.

When Marauder starts, you know that it’s harking back to the look and feel of the original by using the Federation propaganda clips interspersed throughout the first film. Rico, played by Casper Van Dien, is back. He’s joined by Jolene Blalock who played the hottie Vulcan in Enterprise as Lola Beck (an old flame of Rico), and Boris Kodjoe as Dix Hauzer, Lola’s current partner and a General in the Federation. Almost immediately the budget constraints hamstring what on paper must have looked an ambitious storyline. (I’ll elaborate on the plot later).

The base in which Rico and the others are assigned looks little more than a bunker as opposed to the outpost it is supposed to be. The bugs look false and unbelievably wonky in their movements, like bits of plastic with hazard tape attached. The guns and uniform look a bit clunky up against real life 2008 uniforms and weaponry. Much of the action takes place off screen or by using shadows to denote the killings. There’s some decent gore fx suggesting that the make-up fx guys knew what they could do with limited resources. What really drags the movie down is the starship effects. Roger Corman would have been proud of the effects of starships orbiting and then jumping faster than light. The rest of us have seen what can be done with CG on a small scale. Just look at the recent Stargate SG-1 DTV movies to compare or Battlestar Galactica. The space scenes in Marauder are embarrassing. None of this criticism is levelled at the film makers, although I question the director’s choices. I feel that the production would have benefited from a larger budget and a theatrical release, because for a DTV movie overall it’s very good. But, the production values of the SG-1 movies are so much better. Perhaps they got a far superior budget.

So, the story is a good one. We see the inner workings of the Federation and how it keeps a grip on its citizens. Amanda Donohoe plays an interesting role and provides a twist three quarters in. Basically, Rico is disgraced as Bugs overrun an outpost and comes back fighting as he is enlisted in a new crack unit, to rescue the head of the federation on a bug infested planet which could be their equivalent of a homeworld. I’ll say no more about the plot because it’s best not to know what happens in the second half.

The plot is the positive thing about the film. The cast and characterisation is below par and that’s being polite. Van Dien is not leading man material. Kodjoe, clearly, couldn’t take his role seriously, and Blalock showed why she’s better off playing emotionally hollow characters. In the first half she seemed to be a giggly schoolgirl as opposed to a battle hardened pilot. In the second half she appeared to be trying to live up to the warrior aspect. The ending of the movie was obviously meant to be tongue in cheek so I’ll let her off for that. Donohoe and Stephen Hogan at least tried to be professional. One of the roughnecks had an accent that made Arnold Scharzenegger’s early portrayals lucid. English must not be her first language. Later, there’s a scene that requires nudity in such a pointless way that it means that the movie pretty much ticks all the boxes for low budget movies, presumably aimed at pubescent young boys.

Verdict:

All this aside, I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy the movie; I’d be lying. But, it could have been so much better. If Verhoeven had revisited his B-movie classic we might have found something quite special.

5 Out of 10 (Wayfarer)