Virag's Movie Reviews: Starship Troopers 3 (2008)

The three-disc set of Starship Troopers flicks makes a great gift, especially for five bucks at your local discount megalowmart, kinda like flowers from a gas station, and I am truly thankful for it.  The first film is a shit ton of fun and worthy of repeated viewings; the others, not so much.  ST3: Marauder is every bit the garbage that the second one was; Ed Neumeier is nothing without Paul Verhoeven, and here he is the incompetent director as well as addle-headed screenwriter.  Yes, the budget was tiny, so the flick looks like a bad tee vee episode, but you don't need money to write a coherent story.  The entire Johnny Rico thing was wedged into the already asinine story--it feels like Casper Van Dien waited till the last minute to see if the check bounced, so he is really not in the movie or part of the main plot--and without big money the Heinlein jaegers are embarrassingly comical.  Really, a Casper-Van-Dien-does-Michael-Ironside Johnny Rico story would have been the best bet, with fuckloads of goofy, goo-filled cartoon bugs, non-stop action and gunfire, heaps of violence and gore, and wall-to-wall gratuitous nudity; Neumeier solo is not up to trenchant satire of fascist religious zealotry in an all-encompassing military state, and his attempt is beyond inept.  Plus, it's sad to see Amanda Donohoe and Stephen Hogan wasted here in service of that inane story.  Anybody who says this flick is miles better than numero dos is an asshole.