Released: May 2004
Director: Phil Tippett
Run Time: 88 Minutes
Rated R
Distributor: Sony/Tristar Pictures
Cast:
Richard Burgi: Captain V.J. Dax
Ed Lauter: General Jack Gordon Shephard
Brenda Strong: Sgt. Dede Rake
Colleen Porch: Pvt. Lei Sahara
Lawrence Monoson: Lt. Pavlov Dill
One of the greatest things about director Paul Verhoeven is that regardless of what kind of movie he makes, you can almost guarantee that people will talk about it for years. Why? It’s a huge number of reasons. It could be the over-the-top bloody violence. It could be the not-so-subtle sexuality on display, or it could be the incredibly obvious social commentary that permeates each of his movies. Regardless of which reason a movie of his is memorable, the fact that they are so memorable speaks volumes about his dedication to the craft. This last weekend, I saw my Twitter feed explode with really ding-dong takes about how Starship Troopers isn’t a satire of fascism. I’ll settle it right now: It IS satire. Now, whether or not you like it as satire is a whole different can of beans. For a movie that’s nearly 30 years old, people are still divided over it. Personally, I loved the hell out of it, and I’ve read the book it’s LOOSELY based on. It wasn’t a super successful movie, but for some reason, Sony decided to start doing sequels to the movie. We now have three live-action films and two animated ones. All of which are canonical to the original 1997 picture. 20 years ago, in 2004, we got our first direct-to-video sequel in Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation.
Set sometime after the Terran Federation captured a brain bug on the distant planet P, we see a platoon of Mobile Infantry troopers trying to escape the Arachnids when they reach an abandoned outpost. Taking cover from the bugs and the storm, the troopers, led by psychic Lt. Dill, discover that there is one lone occupant of the outpost: a former Federation officer named Dax. After being released by Pvt. Sahara, Dax helps secure the building when a handful of lost troopers, including General Jack Shephard show up. Things start taking a turn for the strange when these new troopers start behaving very strangely. It turns out that these troopers are host for a new kind of bug intent on infiltrating the Federation at the highest levels. It’s very clear from the film’s budget of 7 million dollars, that Starship Troopers 2 was never going to match the original movie in any capacity. Story-wise, this is a far more contained film than the sprawling space soap opera that was Verhoeven’s movie. Instead, this movie is set pretty much in a single location: An abandoned outpost on the fringes of Federation space. That alone makes this a very different kind of movie. This is more of a horror movie than a big sci-fi epic spectacle. It actually has more in common with movies like The Thing and Alien. Now, I’m not saying it’s as good as those movies. Far from it. It’s not even in the same league.
When I first heard that a sequel to Starship Troopers was made, I was excited. I thought I was going to get more of the great action sequences that peppered Verhoeven’s original film. Nope. It certainly had action, but it wasn’t even close to being what the first movie was, and that pissed me off. I remember distinctly HATING this movie when I first saw it. From the acting to the CGI, it was an abominable mess. Now, having seen it nearly 20 years after its release, do I still hate it? No. Not remotely. I’m not saying it’s a good movie. It isn’t it. Between the obvious budget limitations and the fact that this was the directorial debut of creature effects guru Phil Tippett, Hero of the Federation has a lot going against it. This is not a grand sci-fi spectacle. This is a horror movie, and on that level…it kind of works. This is a pretty gory movie, and most of the blood and guts are practical, which is a HUGE plus in my book. It’s also pretty atmospheric. The level of claustrophobia is high. Again: more points.
Everything else about the movie is…questionable. The CGI isn’t the worst I’ve seen, but it’s still not very impressive, when you can see it. There’s another bad mark: The cinematography is AWFUL. I get that this is a very different kind of movie than the first, but the film is so poorly shot, you can barely make out anything that happens. It’s a dark movie…literally. The set designs are fine as it’s all on stage. But the green-screen effects are…nasty, and not in a good way. The acting is also not very good. In fact, the only person that returned to the franchise was Brenda Strong, who played Captain Deladier in the previous movie. Here, she plays Sgt. Rake, a tough-as-nails, cigar-munching squad leader. I thought she did just fine. The other acting highlight is Richard Burgi as Captain Dax. I think he knew exactly what kind of movie he was in, because he chews the scenery like its nobody’s business. Everyone else, though is weak, and so are the characters. Lawrence Monoson plays the psychic Lt. Dill, who comes across as a bit of a…dill. Colleen Porch is supposed to play our resident hero, Pvt. Sahara, but she just wasn’t convincing.
The movie was so low-budget they couldn’t even afford blanks for the guns, so instead they used flashing lights to indicate a burst. That’s great, if you’re going up against someone who has epilepsy, but giant bugs? I don’t actually blame Phil Tippett entirely for this mess. He’s an award-winning visual effects artist that’s worked on some of the biggest movies that Hollywood has made. This movie was clearly intended to be what it ended up being, so in that regard, it works. It really does. But as a sequel to Starship Troopers, it sucks. For fans of the original movie, there were certain expectations that Hero of the Federation was simply never going to deliver, and when I first saw it, I was devastated at what I was seeing. 20 years later, I now understand what the intent was, and I think it was decent enough. Also, the whole propaganda angle of the original film was mostly removed, so the movie played it straight. It’s a vastly different kind of movie, but I don’t hate it as much as I used to. Is it a good movie? Not by a long shot. It’s got a lot of problems from a technical and narrative perspective, but I think it’s fun in its own way.