Starship Troopers 2 was CRAP!!!

[Gerry]

I think the biggest mistake the producers/Verhoeven et al made was in calling it STARSHIP TROOPERS.  If they had called it the BIG BAD BUG BATTLE, we might not even be having this conversation.

As to whether the satire works or not, that's a matter of opinion.  It happens to work for me.  :)

And I do agree it is a cheesy sci-fi action movie with delusions of grandeur (but that also works for me).

SOLDIER with Kurt Russell is another cheesy sci-fi action movie with delusions of grandeur that also largely works for me.

[raj]

Gerry wrote:

> I think the biggest mistake the producers/Verhoeven et al made
> was in calling it STARSHIP TROOPERS.  If they had called it the
> BIG BAD BUG BATTLE, we might not even be having this
> conversation.

Correcto.  And I'd be able to enjoy the movie on that level.  But when I see a Heinlein title, I want a Heinlein story, with all that that implies.

[ED]

This was a good point with the change of title.  Calling it "We Killed Lots of Bugs" would make it a fine, if poor, movie. But assigning it a pedigree that goes to the heart of classic SciFi was the mistake, maybe.
-Ed

[Fearless Freep]

But assigning it a pedigree that goes to the heart of classic SciFi was the mistake, maybe.

I doubt it, because the reference back to the book was the only thing that even gave the attempted politcal satire anything to hang off of.  Without that reference it would've *really* fallen flat

[trekgeezer]

Why is this post still alive? ST was entertaining, but stupid and an insult to the source of the story, so of course the low budget direct to video sequel  is Crap.

[Gerry]

trek_geezer wrote:

> Why is this post still alive?

This is a badmovies discussion forum, of course it's still alive, and it will probably return from the dead again and again to try to eat your brains.

> ST was entertaining, but stupid
> and an insult to the source of the story, so of course the low
> budget direct to video sequel  is Crap.

See above. :)

[Prophet Tenebrae]

I just saw ST2... it wasn't particularly good but at the same time, it wasn't incredibly awful either. I was doing other stuff while I watched it so I don't feel I need my 90 minutes back or anything either...

The production values are quite diabolical - the blinking lights on the guns... that was just stupid and yes, there is just about every cliche for a war film. Bumbling Lieutant, tough sargeant, person who likes killing things, the coward but really these descriptions are as much information as the film really gives you.

People have said the plot is lifted from Aliens but I'd say this was far more along the lines of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and perhaps a direct parallel to The Faculty... albeit a lot worse. It's pretty obvious what is going to happen (if you didn't already know, you'll probably have it worked out within about 20 minutes tops) and at no point is there any suspense or "who can you trust?" as you get in "The Thing".

The ending was very superficial... so much so that it felt like the moral at the end of the original He-Man series. Ah, the immense irony that the hero who was branded a criminal for doing the right thing and hating the system was used by the very system itself to perpetuate what he had killed to prevent.

[jackflack]

Yeah, Starship Troopers 2 was crap.  It's that simple.  You could see what was going to happen very early on.

I remember that there was this CG Starship Troopers: Roughnecks cartoon series that used to come on the WB really early in the morning a few years ago.   It seemed like they just took one of the episodes from that and made it into a movie (but crappier than the cartoon because it was actually pretty good).

I somehow made it through this movie, it was really bad at times.  The crappy guns was really stupid, and I found it hard to believe that the sea of bugs didn't overrun them in the very beginning of the movie.  There was no way that their very few crappy guns would have held them off for that long.

Trash.

[Prophet Tenebrae]

Yeah, the guns really did just look like plastic pieces of s**t - at least in the original film, you got the impression that the guns were able of putting a bug down. All those guns did was make it seem like the film was in set in a rave (which would probably have been a vast improvement).

I think people have already pointed out that they pretty much ripped the plot off the Tophet campaign - only worse. I think that you can actually justify them not over-running the troopers at the start, it's because the bugs wanted them in there so they could infest them. The *real* question is why they didn't infest Sheppard at the start - other than the fact that would have meant the film was a lot shorter.

I think I might actually check the books out - is the armour they use in the CG cartoon anything like what they have in the books?

[ED]

The armor is full body power suits with rocket launchers, flame throwers, and mini a-bomb launcher.  Maybe even other surprises that I can't remember.  It really shaped my imagination as a pre-teen.   The movie guys were woefully under equipped by comparison.  
By the way, if you want decent Power Armor scifi, try "Armor" by John Steckley (I think).  It is much the same idea as the MI fighting suits.
-Ed