1997's Starship Troopers is arguably the most expensive B movie of all time. Granted, it's epic in scope, supported by expert direction by Paul Verhoven, and some deceptively clever satire which many mistook to be glorifying fascism. But despite its extreme violence (perhaps the most spectacularly bloody mainstream film ever), at its heart, it's a cheerfully (and intentionally) dumb & corny throwback to the sci-fi flicks of the 50s. Because it never really found an audience until its DVD release, I guess that also makes it the most expensive cult film of all time. So it ain't surprising that any attempt at a sequel would be a massively scaled-back, direct-to-video affair. What is surprising is that Starship Troopers 2 is as good as it is. It's no classic, obviously a derivative low-budget exploitation film, with little of the sly humor of the first, but it's fast moving and offers some undemanding fun.

Most of the film takes place in one setting, an abandoned outpost on Planet P, where the Federation has been waging an unsuccessful war against the Arachnids. Overwhelmed by the bugs, a small squadron of troopers take refuge inside the outpost. They are accompanied by troopers from another squadron, who rescued one of their generals. Once inside, they discover the outpost's lone survivor, Captain Dax (Richard Burgi), who'd been locked up for murdering his commanding officer. He's mean, cynical, burnt-out, and distrusted by the rest of the squadron. He is, however, a badass at killing bugs, and ends up saving these troopers on more than one occasion. Despite being temporarily safe from the marauding bugs, all isn't well inside the outpost. It turns out that the three soldiers who initially rescued the general aren't exactly...themselves. The viewer will figure out everything about the plot the second the camera remains on one of them longer than it should, and will be able to predict with utter certainty who will live or die. The rest of the film deals with the troopers meeting their demise, in repulsively gory fashion, while trying to prevent a new breed of bug from leaving the planet to infect mankind. Starship Troopers 2 features none of the epic land and space battles of the original; its low budget prohibits that. In fact, the plot is more directly lifted out of such claustrophobic classics as The Thing, Pitch Black, and especially Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Gone also is much of the gung-ho humor and satire, opting to be more of a traditional horror film. The result is a movie which is far less memorable than the original, but if you keep in-mind this is direct-to-video junk, the payoff ain't bad at all. There's good use of CGI effects (though not nearly as impressive as Troopers 1), some tense moments, performances that are generally better than most direct-to-video fare, and some truly icky scenes of violence that'll keep gorehounds happy. It's obvious that, considering the budget they were given, the creative team behind Starship Troopers 2 did the best they could with what they had.

The film was shot in digital video, thus keeping the cost down, and unfortunately it shows, particularly during the outdoor night shots (of which there are plenty); the picture is really murky and grainy in many sequences. The disc sounds good, though, rendered in both 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround and DTS.

Included is a full-length audio commentary by producer Jon Davison, writer Ed Neumeier and director Phil Tippet (the legendary special effects expert, making his directorial debut here), all of whom worked one the original Starship Troopers. There are also two pretty decent behind-the-scenes features, with numerous interviews with the cast and crew, as well as various movie trailers, a photo gallery, and a demo for the Starship Troopers PC game.

Similar Films: Starship Troopers, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Screamers, Night of the Living Dead, Alien, Ghosts of Mars, Pitch Black, The Hidden Summary: There's a lot of straight-to-video junk lining the shelves at your local Blockbuster, and this is, too. It's still a lot of dumb, violent fun, and has pretty decent production values for what it is. The picture transfer kind of sucks, and it's a good example why I'm still not a huge fan of movies shot in digital hi-def. But if you're gonna follow up a $100 million film with only a fraction of the budget, this is the way to get it done, I guess.