Review of Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004) by David U — 26 Jun 2011

I think people are being harsh on Starship Troopers 2. While it's no question that it's not as good as the first film, it's a hell of a lot better than Starship Troopers 3: Marauder. It had the lowest budget of all 3 films but the budget was a decent amount, so the effects in this movie looked almost as good as the effects in the first one.

That's probably due to the movie being produced and directed by Phil Tippett. Phil Tippet's studio was responsible for the effects in the first film. The cast also has some recognizble faces in it.

This movie is notable for straying away from the Starship Troopers forumla and the complete absence of Johnny Rico's character. He is not even mentioned in this one. This movie was more of a straight-foward action/horror when you compare it to the first and third.

There's one location, and all of it takes place in a single night with a small group of troopers. There wasn't much humor in this movie although there were parts that made me laugh. I don't know if they were intended for laughs or not though.

There are only two kinds of bugs shown in the film. The regular warrior arachnids, and the new control bugs which take over human's beings bodies. The arachnids take a backseat to these new bugs. They are only shown in the beginning and the end of the movie.

The rest of it focuses on these control bugs. While it's been done before, I liked the idea of the humans suddenly becoming a threat to each other and not knowing who to trust in the end. Honestly, it's a decent movie.

The special effects are good and there's a pretty good amount of gore and action. What brings it down is that the acting isn't too great, the dialouge is corny at parts, the plot is nothing new or spectacular, and none of the original cast and characters come back from the first film.

The only original cast member to return is Brenda Strong, although she plays a different character since her character from the first film was killed. It sounds like a longshot, but I'd recommend this movie to Starship Trooper fans or people who are just fans of sci-fi horror.

If you don't like it, that's okay. But I would say at least give it a shot. Sci-fi horror fans who never saw the first film might enjoy this one more, since they will not be used to the big budget Hollywood film that was Starship Troopers 1.