The Worst Film Ever

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Looking a bit derivative, with its "Federation" and 'warp drive", the "Starship Troopers" genre in fact goes well back to 1959 Robert Heinlein sci-fi, and it has a lot to say about military-industrial complex scenarios. In fact, Eisenhower was criticised by Heinlein for not being gung-ho enough, and it was ultimately that President who first used the term military-industrial complex, in the context of something to be guarded against.Heinlein thus tended to speak up for the military in his books, while in the films we see (and see satirised and somewhat criticised) the military domination of life, art, commerce, discipline, social norms and everything else (here even also religion) in the fight against arachnid aliens so teeming, so pushy and so utterly ruthless that they make Tolkien's orcs look like teddy-bears. They are cannon-fodder big time, but, buglike indeed, are alarmingly hard to kill, and impossible to eradicate en masse. Hence, more often than not, our hero recruits into the armed forces (which in this dystopia means pretty much everybody) drop like flies themselves. And interestingly, while those in authority are mocked by the film, the ordinary soldiery tend not to be, though they do certainly expire with great regularity, and relatively gorily.In the meantime, there is a (poignantly authentic) touch of the Stalingrads about a situation in which male and female troops live, love, fight and (all-too-soon) die alongside each other as equals. "Starship Troopers" the original was notorious for an ostensibly-titillating, but also groundbreaking, shared-changing-room scene in which males and females routinely appeared naked alongside one another without giving it a second thought. Needless to say, film 3 does not fully resist this temptation, and the point is again made quite impressively.Edward Neumeier's third instalment also emulates its first predecessor of 11 years earlier in pushing the "public information film" as a way of holding its story together, and this remains enjoyable in a way that emphasises how not-altogether-far from this kind of thing we are already. In the first film, these helped the story along, whereas here one is a little hard-pressed to find a story. The thing looks more like a series of vignettes, and not all aspects of the plot seem to follow through. The first section takes place on a farm-colony planet that seems to be in perpetual darkness (some farming!), and it plays with a story about a farmers' revolt against the Federation that seems to go nowhere at all.The film also has a love interest between Gen. Dix Hauser (Boris Kodjoe) and Capt. Lola Beck (Jolene Blalock) - in which Casper Van Dien's Johnny Rico plays gooseberry - that also seems pure artifice, not even convincing in the film's own limited terms.British/Irish actors Amanda Donohoe and Stephen Hogan are on-screen rivals for top jobs that give better value, however, with Hogan's Sky Marshal being as much entertainer as commander-in-chief - a clever plot twist. Since he has come under the spell of a false deity, he contrasts with others who are really part of a religious revival (also somewhat intriguing as a film concept).Ultimately, one mainly watches a film of this type for the above slightly tongue-in-cheek presentation of some future world of ours, as well as to get a good attack of the shudders watching man against beast. Here the film does as it should, giving us the creeps effectively enough, and helping the more imaginative viewer consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe, somewhere out there in endless space...

After the disappointing debacle of STARSHIP TROOPERS 2, I was in no hurry to watch the third in the series, knowing full well that it could never recapture the glory of the Verhoeven movie. When I saw it on TV one evening, I ended up watching it anyway, and from the outset I knew it was going to be better than the second one. It has a bigger budget, for a start, and it attempts to emulate the first film's look and style rather than adopting a clichéd B-movie atmosphere like the second film did. There's no doubting that it's a film packed with poor elements and disappointment, but in the end I still enjoyed it - to a degree.One plus is that Casper Van Dien returns to his famous role as Johnny Rico some eleven years after he made the first movie, and the astonishing thing is that he doesn't look to have aged a day. Van Dien will never win an acting Oscar, but I find him impossible to dislike: he always seem chirpy, ready with a smile, and first into the action. I don't know, there's just something about him. He's backed by a cast all of whom play the usual B-movie types, with Amanda Donohoe making an appearance as some commander or other.Director Edward Neumeier is the guy who wrote STARSHIP TROOPERS and ROBOCOP, so I respect him for that, but his work as director is less impressive. Let's say that he's passable. Some elements here are cringe-worthy, like the news bulletins, which just try too hard to be funny. There's less bloodshed and gore than in the first film, and the CGI effects used to animate the bugs just aren't as good either. The story tries to be original, bringing in a new super-bug the size of a planet, and linking themes of telepathy and religion. There's a LOT about Christianity in this movie, which made a lot of people hate it, but I found that it brought something new and thought-provoking to the table, so I was open to it. Van Dien disappears for much of the film and we're stuck with the B-movie characters, which isn't great, but I've seen a lot worse. There's also an entirely gratuitous nude sequence late on in the film which will no doubt delight male viewers.

You cant be buying/downloading/watching a Direct to DVD movie and expect theatrical standard production values.If your looking for a hidden gem STOP now and look elsewhere, this isn't one of those rare cult classics that was somehow overlooked for box-office glory.Yes the special effects are campy and frankly I cant get the obsession with CGI when most times old school animatronics/props and special effect tricks do a much better job than computers especially on a budget.But still I suspect that besides wasting the potential of an obviously talented brick and mortar special effects team, the movie has below par special effects even for DTD standards.The story is frankly brilliant, filled with satire , dark/slapstick/dry humour, multiple themes and deliberately campy dialogues.And most of the actors have done justice to the script, including the supporting cast and extras, the only ones raising doubts were Jolene Balock who just wasn't in it, or just isn't talented enough.The only thing really lacking script wise is some genuine dark/ depressing moments, which could have allowed us to be genuine elated in others.I cant emphasise how much of a better movie this would have been if it would have made the paradigm shift from CGI to old school special effects.In the end its the depiction dysfunctional military future that's the real winner. And the cast has done justice to it.Genuine Campy B-Movie Entertainment.-s emphasis on CGI.+/-s no real dark moments, why nudity without titillation.+s Genuine effort from cast and crew, THE PREMISE/SCRIPT.

This is probably the lower rating I've marked on a review, however this doesn't mean the movie is "Bad" It's just an "ok" film. It starts confusing us about if we really should remember all of the new characters they introduced Rico is amazingly still alive and he can't stop using the phrases of his old Major Jean (Even though I think it sounded "cool enough" coming from his kinda-girly voice). The movie has some action, some other fail-war scenes like people running too slowly from potential treats, bunkers that allows them to live peacefully in a bug infested planet like if the really big bugs or subterranean bugs were completely extinguished and a simple electric fence would do the job But it's still "watchable". The only thing I didn't like at all was the ships landing with that halo-like thing above the girl's head, that was way too much...But hey, give it a try