Review of Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (2008) by Markus K — 26 Jul 2008

First Starship Troopers was great scifi/war/adventure. Second one was a total opposite of it. Cheap looking and clumsy sequel, that had its moments, but those were far and a few. Part 3 is major improvement from part 2, but nowhere near the greatness of first.

When it comes to acting, overacting is theme of the day. When dialogue isn't the best, extremely serious delivery from not-so-good actors makes the whole thing even more funnier. So none of the actors are particulary good in this. Two, who are better than the rest, are Casper Van Dien as Johnny Rico, and Jolene Blalock as Lola. But, even they are average at the best. It's great to see Van Dien back in Starship Troopers, though. And Blalock sure looks good...

I think that Ed Neumeier, who wrote first Robocop and all three Troopers, makes better job in directing than Phil Tippett (of the second part). Pacing is nice, and effort shows in camera angles, action scenes etc. But still, he is no Paul Verhoeven (first movie).

And then of course, there are special effects, that are the worst of the series. Part 1, being theatre release, had great effects. Second one had nice bug effects, but most of the sets were too simple, or makers didn't know how to shoot them, I don't know. Marauder has some nice sets, but bug effects are too cgi-looking. Thank God that they least brought machine guns back. Those laser-rifle things from part 2 were ridiculous.

And speaking of God, whole God talk was quite irritating most of the time...

Overall, this was extremely dumb movie, but fun and entertaining. It felt more Starship Troopers than second part.