Starship Troopers is one of the crucial series in the SF movies industry. Although it had lots of luck with persons involved in the directing and production (Paul Verhoeven, Phil Tippett, Ed Neumeier), the bad luck was also present. This intellectual hard-SF journey is not for everyone, so it also can't be the multimillion blockbuster. Therefore the production team of parts 2 and 3 had to make miracles with the strictly limited budget. Marauder was a great success, so executives at Sony decided that the series deserves the next chance. Unfortunately, someone also decided that it should be CGI...
So there it is. Finally, straight from the Japanese studios comes Starship Troopers Invasion. There are some good elements there. Indeed, the heart starts beating faster, when we see the Federation insignia on the soldiers' uniforms once again. This movie is neither a spin-off, nor a reboot, but an attempt to continue the story. Therefore we meet some old friends: Johnny Rico, Carl Jenkins and Carmen Ibanez. We have the same ships and the same bugs (with a few new ones - well conceived and designed). Also, the weaponry of the troopers is evolving in the logical way. Some special effects are impressive (zero gravity, deep space action). The plot (at least at first sight) seems interesting. Unfortunately, when we dig a little deeper and see the movie to the last minute, problems appear.
Firstly, this is the CGI picture. No matter how hard the crew tries to create the real world, it is still "unreal", computer-generated. As with most contemporary computer games, it is difficult to treat this one as seriously as "normal" movies. This is the significant step back comparing to previous installments. Secondly, the story, written by Flint Dille, may be good for the computer game (his main specialization), but the movie requires another approach. It is difficult to watch the whole movie without yawning... Hundreds of bullets fired and tens of bugs exterminated will not change this. Thirdly, characters are flat and have nothing important to say or do... The only interesting elements in the character development refer to Rico, Carl and Carmen, but that's not enough. Fourthly, all previous movies had something to add to the political situation inside the Federation. There was satire, commentary to the war effort, propaganda, etc. Now it's all gone. There is only action without any deeper reflection. Fifthly, this is, after all, Japanese movie, therefore sometimes it looks like one of many anime products. This time it's definitely not good... The worst part to watch are the last fifteen minutes, where we see the classic mecha-style combat (where are Marauders????), which does not belong to the Starship Troopers universe at all... I understand that Asian audience is the most important (only there the last three parts were shown in theaters), but the far-east influences are too overwhelming in the movie. Besides, why don't Casper van Dien, Neil Patrick Harris and Denise Richards lend their voices to "their" characters?
The construction of the picture resembles the second, least impressive part and is not convincing or satisfying (practically the whole plot takes place inside the starship). It borrows a lot from other pictures, like Aliens. Through almost the whole movie we have the impression that we watched all this before and it was better back then. If You are a Starship Troopers fan, You will probably receive the fourth part with pain. This was the attempt to push the whole story further, but it seems that it's not possible with CGI and Japanese as the production crew. It's definitely the worst Starship Troopers in the series. Let's hope that someone will give a green light to the next part, again with live actors and the budget high enough to show the great war with Arachnids as it deserves.
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