Review of Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (2008) by Kenneth H — 14 Oct 2008

A nice addition and, in some ways, redemption for the Starship Troopers series. Starship Troopers 3 marks a glorious return to the elements that made the first one so great - intense, thrilling, and very entertaining man-versus-Bugs action, a great story and engaging plot, interesting characters, and the pointed satire/commentary on the excesses and follies of a militaristic society. This time, however, the barbed satire and commentary extends to include organized religion - specifically, the cheap, brainless, and utterly vapid version of it practiced by those in this movie and, in my opinion, by many if not most religious people in our own world. The religious believers and practitioners in this movie are very much the same annoying mumbo-jumbo spouters of our world - except in this world, at least initially, they are actually viewed by most in society with disdain and distrust. Later, religion is more accepted but mainly as an inspirational tool for the Federation's number one obsession: war.

Much as the first movie satirized the glorification of the military, this movie satirizes the excesses of organized religion: how its believers will gladly spout whatever nonsense they're told to, how not only have they become no more than mindless drones but moreover they're completely oblivious to that fact ("Why, because he's crazy? Or he believes in God like you?" "It's the wrong God!"), how their motivation is either thoughtless following or totally selfish and stupid ("I got religion, Dix. I got it bad."), and, most importantly, how religion is so easily manipulated to justify and promote anything - in this case, continued aggression and totalitarianism by and within a militaristic, authoritarian, xenophobic, ultra-communitarian society.

Despite having a relatively low budget befitting its status as a direct-to-video movie, this movie, unlike Starship Troopers 2, is not that cheap-feeling, with one glaring exception - the special effects for the Bugs. The Bugs in this movie, in stark contrast to the superbly visualized ones in the first and even (to a lesser extent) the second Starship Troopers, are very fake-looking and obviously CGI. That could be because of the low budget or the lack of visual effects artist Phil Tippett, who was largely responsible for the aforementioned outstanding work in creating the Bugs.