Reviews for Starship Troopers: Invasion

"Welcome back the good old classic Starship Troopers" For anyone who isn't familiar with the name "Starship Troopers" should really do a wikipedia search. The first Starship Troopers movie was a really well made blockbuster sci fiction movie. It catapulted the franchise, as well as actor Casper Van Dien into fame, as the famous "Johnny Rico". After 2 horrible low budget sequels (Starship Troopers 2 & 3), I am sure almost everyone had extremely low, or zero expectations, when they heard another Starship Troopers movie was being made. Original Star Actor, now turned Producer, Casper Van Dien did say in an earlier interview that he wanted "Starship Troopers"to return to its first movie's roots. I'll say it jolly well did.....

"Hoo Haa!!"

Story (9/10)

Carmen's ship got taken over by Carl Jenkins, Carl goes missing in space with it. Carmen finds it back and boards it with a new group of mobile infantry to investigate, simple sci fi opening.

The story is small in scale compared to the original first movie. And I can tell it got some inspiration from a certain game called "Dead Space". But what REALLY makes this work was because producer Casper Van Dien, and the scriptwriters, brought back many of the nuances that made the original first movie a classic. The script and execution are great examples of sci-fi action/survivor horror done right.

Art (9/10)

For an 3D animated movie the quality and detail of the artwork is really high. The guns, new mobile infantry armor, backdrops and characters are well designed with high attention to detail. Japanese Animation's high standards really shines through here.

Sound (9/10)

Great sound and music really contributes to this action/survivor horror sci fi movie. Silence is used greatly as a tension builder. Then adrenaline pumping hollywood music is used when the troopers and bugs start fighting and dying by the second.

Character (9/10)

All the new characters are great add-ons to this movie. Each of them have unique personalities. Some time was spent on the character development of the cast members, but not so much that the movie feels dragged out. This all helps the audience to root for the survival of every member of the crew when all the horrific fighting and dying starts.

Enjoyment & Overall (9/10)

I absolutely enjoyed this animated movie. It really retained all the elements that made the first starship troopers movie so great. Great characters, glorious hollywood shooting action, quick character deaths that shock the viewers, and the tension of never knowing whats going to happen next.

They also made sure to include scenes of self sacrificing troopers, trying to buy their allies precious seconds to run away or complete the mission. These scenes of honorable self sacrifice are iconic of the first "Starship Troopers" movie.

This animated movie is a great fusion of east and west. Hollywood blockbuster's great storytelling, along with Japanese Animation's great dedication to graphics and art.

In summary if you have watched, and liked, the first "Starship Troopers" movie, you HAVE to watch this animated movie. Forget about the abysmal starship troopers 2 and 3 movies. This animated movie is the TRUE sequel to "Starship Troopers"

As a fan of the franchise set forth by the 1997 cult classic, Starhip Stroopers, I am fairly pleased by this new animated adventure despite its gross shortcomings. Let's be frank, this movie is fan service for anyone who likes the franchise. As such, it does a decent job at giving fans a fun, visually appealing action ride. Alone, this movie belongs well at the bottom of the B-movie list. THE STORY follows a group of troopers who get caught up in a mystery involving a missing starship, a secret experiment, and of course, bugs. The plot is very basic and serves to lay downa framework for the action to make sense. While I did not watch this film for the story, I will say that because the basic outline is so solid, I was actually disappointed by its failure to develop. There is a very interesting premise that I believe could have been explored deeper, but woefully it was not. Instead, the movie opts for cheap, no-brainer cliche storytelling and even worse dialogue to drag itself forward. I believe that if they had spent the money on the writing instead of the truly pointless nude scenes, this would have had a decent story. At least the pacing keeps you interested. Fans of the original 1997 movie will get the most from this film as there are several nods to the source film.

THE ART is purely computer generated. While it's certainly not on the caliber of Pixar or Dreamworks it is certainly better than what I usually come out of Japan. In particular, the starship, space craft, and set designs are truly epic, and the effects are very well done. The characters all look too similar to each other (except for the females) and their animations are rather stiff. Still, the art is overall very good.

THE SOUND is a lot better than I expected. The version I saw was in English (I believe that is the original language of the film), and the voice acting was pretty good. The only shame is that the actual dialogue is pretty dumb, cliche, and hammy. The sound effects are good, and the music is definitely nostalgic as the theme from the 1997 film is definitely audible.

THE CHARACTERS are shallow and bland. There are really too many to be introduced and thoroughly explored in the span of the film, but it does not excuse the fact that whatever semblance of personality they have was merely written in to have some truly awful dialogue. It is a shame really because at face value, some of the characters seem interesting enough to get to know deeper, but there is no character development. Also, their fates will make the audience feel the authors are cheating.

I ENJOYED the film. It is a brainless action movie with guns, spaceships, and aliens. The film distills all the fan service you would want from a sci-fi flick into a fairly slick production. The film is certainly watchable, but don't expect much more than a cheap, but satisfying, action thrill. That said, I really think this would have worked better as a miniseries. I suppose I just feel bad that this could have been something more, something better, and a decent addition to the franchise.

Boobies, two horny soldiers fucking like rabbits, despite being complete strangers, then blood is spilled everywhere. The movie tries so hard to keep the audience engaged that you can't help but notice how weak the story is by the end. But who cares about that when there are boobies to focus on, am I right? This movie is a prime example of mindless action. You don't need to pay attention because the focus is solely on action and cheap shocking scenes. If you're familiar with American horror movies, you'll recognise all the cliches that this movie shamelessly borrows from. It's like a teenager's fever dream, completewith nudity and sex.

The story is as bland as a piece of bread without butter. It revolves around a failed experiment with some big-ass insects that nobody knows where they came from. The soldiers must rescue passengers on a ship, fight the bugs, and eventually everyone kills each other until the end. Yawn.

The characters are as generic. We have a horny man who's blinded by love, a blonde seductress who's only there for fan service, the virgin comic relief who complains about being virgin, a shy coward nice guy, a scientist asshole. Oh, and of course, the serious badass white hero you see in every American horror-action b-film. The only passable character is Tia Durer (or Trig), because she actually shows emotions and has goals that were story relevant making her stand out from the rest of the characters. The movie could have been so much better if she were the main character.

I appreciate the art design, but I can`t say the same for the disgusting green blood, and the soundtracks, including the catchy credit song, were so forgettable that it`s like a distant memory.

Overall, don't expect a riveting story or well-developed characters from this movie. However, if you're in the mood for some mindless action and sex, then this movie is worth a watch. You could treat it as a guilty pleasure at best.

This is copy of my review I posted at Movieweb.com Starship Troopers: Invasion is a breath of fresh air from the previous from the three previous films. I've been a fan of Starship Troopers since I first saw the film Starship Troopers back when it came out in November of 1997 a few weeks before the very disappointing Alien Resurrection. It wasn't a great film, but it was fun and entertaining with Denise Richards and two of my favorite actors in Michael Ironside and Neil Patrick Harris. Michael Ironside I think is a little known actor, but you might recognize him from his voice acting ashe was the voice of Darkside in the Superman and Justice League cartoon series along with his work as Sam Fisher in the Splinter Cell series. Then there is the one and only Neil Patrick Harris who I've followed since I watched him in Doogie Howser. He really is special multi-talented actor who enjoys what he does. Heck was the best thing in the Harold and Kumar films, and the only reason to watch How I Met Your Mother. Though I enjoyed the movie I hadn't read Robert A. Heinlein novel the film was based off of. After the film I picked up the novel and loved it. Starship Troopers had little in common with Heinlein's novel besides a few things like the main character Rico. Seven years later Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation a film that should never have been made was released to DVD. The plot wasn't terrible, but the acting and effects were just god awful. After the crap fest that was Starship Troopers 2 Bold Films and Stage 6 thought it was a good idea to make Starship Troopers 3: Marauder. The film worked out well bring back Casper Van Dien and bringing in the hot Jolene Blalock along with a decent script, good acting, and above average effects, but even with that it was still just an average film, so I was surprised to hear there was another film coming out especially that I heard very little about it, but when I saw it at Red Box I decided to give it a try, and I was very pleasantly surprised.

As I said earlier in my review Starship Troopers: Invasion is a surprisingly really good film. The story follows the starship Alesia and their group of marines as they arrive at The Federation asteroid base Fort Casey, which has been overrun by bugs. It seems like a simple job for Lieutenant Tony Daugherty and his men, but things get complicated when Carl Jenkins the Minister of Paranormal Warfare commandeers the John A. Warden from his longtime Friend Carmen Ibanez and disappears. The Alesia her marines, Carmen and the prisoner Major Henry Varro chase after him on orders from General Johnny Rico. The story follows the universe of the films as it is a continuation. I won't give anymore way except to say the story is great, but better than the three previous films. The only real flaw with the film was the characters. That is a problem with films with a ton of characters like war films. For example The Thin Red Line it's a really good film, but is really hurt by the overabundance of characters. There are a lot of characters in Starship Troopers: Invasion to many for having real character growth. Many don't live long enough for you to care. Still there are some that stand out like Trig the women sniper of the team, and a private nicknamed Holyman. Obviously he is a religious man, and he was a good character. Of course the returning characters were good as well including Rico, Carmen and Carl. I wish studio that made the film had gotten Casper, Denise and especially Neil to do the voices of the characters. Still the voice actors did a good job voicing the characters, and it was interesting to see how the characters have grown and changed. The only character I didn't really like was Major Henry Varro nicknamed "Hero". The writers tried to make you care about him, but it didn't work he just felt like a useless character.

Of course with this movie being a computer animated film I have to talk about the animation along with the action. Now I'm no expert in graphics or animation, so I only go by what I think is good, and in my opinion the computer animation was great. The film was really detailed, and you could see the expressions and emotion along with the pain and sadness in the characters faces. The detail of the ships and bases was really well done as well. Then there was the action, which there was of course a lot of, and it was brilliantly done with the bugs, explosions, fire fights and bloodshed. It is riveting and even if the characters aren't the best in the world the action will keep you glued to the film.

Starship Troopers: Invasion overall is a great film, with great animation and action along with a really good story, good voice acting and decent characters. It is definitely the best Starship Troopers film I highly recommend everyone see especially if you're a fan of the films and book, but is it the best adaption of Robert A. Heinlein's classic novel no. That honor goes to Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles the excellent 1999 animated series that ran for 36 episodes. Sadly it got canceled before it could come to a conclusion. It uses the characters from the films, but takes a different route that works really well along with the animation which was great. The series goes in depth into the character's lives as well as brings some characters from the novel as well as introducing new ones. I highly recommend both this film and the animated series if you're a fan of the novel and films or you're a Sci-fi fan in general.

I am going to see the new Sci-fi film Branded this weekend. It looks really interesting and I'm a big fan of Max von Sydow. I have been since I saw Needful Things and then the HBO Citizen X, which is a great film and one of the best made for TV films ever. Branded will be the first film I've wanted to see in the theater since the Bourne film four weeks ago. I will have a review up sometime Saturday or earlier.

"THE ONLY GOOD BUG IS A DEAD BUG" everythings was cliché, yea thats true but i just want to see enjoyable show now. And there is THE MOVIE i wanted too see as big fan of FascismTroopers i'm not disapointed This movie is a perfect sequel to the original film (there is only one film *cough*) Of course this show is not for people who wants a deep story, but because these kind of people are a bunch of dumbs they bring back their opinions and now the show as a bad score. So for the arts: Cgi was really goodSounds:*screaming soldiers intensifies*

Character: i just wants too see Guys Fighting those bugs

Enjoyment: well i want too see enjoyable show i was satisfied

indeed my english is not good because i'm not a rosbif

At first glance it's perhaps a bit weird that the Starship Troopers film franchise, which after the 1997 original had seen two direct-to-dvd entries in 2004 and 2008, would get a CGI anime sequel produced in Japan. But judging by the fact a 6 part OVA already aired before Paul Verhoeven even got to Heinlein's book, Japan has always enjoyed the universe to a certain degree, or at least producers see a potential market. Because of this obvious drastic change in production, Invasion feels quite different from it's precursors. But is it any good? The truth is that Starship Troopers: Invasion is just a well-animated and straightforwardaction story. It starts guns blazing and ends the same way, with a whole lot of dead bugs and troopers in the middle. There's no serious politics or satire to be found here, the plot unfolds pretty straightforwardly, and the action is consistently good though not amazing. The CGI is impressive, close to flawless whenever it concerns the combat, and without the skill on display here the movie would likely have been a lot harder to watch.

Most of the cast is solid, given just enough character to make the viewer care a little bit about their death or survival, and the overly macho atmosphere is the closest Invasion comes to the live-action movies outside of the bugs' design. The one weak spot is Henry 'Hero' Varro, who is set up to be the hero of the story but ultimately plays second fiddle to the live-action's main trio and the newly introduced troopers.

What also works in the favor of Invasion is it's simple but effective story structure. The action is never far off, the characters never get too much focus to the point it's boring, and the second half is mainly one giant unfolding battle. If anything it lasts a little too long with not enough turns to go through near the end, but since there's plenty of violence shown it's not too much of a bother.

Ultimately Starship Troopers: Invasion is neither terrible or particularly good. It has nothing to say but entertains decently, it's forgettable but not so much that it feels like a wasted watch, and kept a franchise alive that most everyone probably considered dead. For someone who likes some brainless military entertainment it's worth the time for the CGI alone, for everyone else probably not.

Starship Troopers: Invasion is a 2012 Sola Digital Arts film. Obviously it's based on the same book that the famous '97 film was based off of. Let's see how they handled it. I've not seen anything by Sola so I couldn't even make a prediction in that regard. Story: We open with a group of soldiers boarding a station that's been overrun by the bugs on a rescue mission. They have to find a second batch of soldiers that's trapped on board. They succeed only to have the larger, more powerful ship they brought with them get commandeered by a high ranking official. Shortly afterthey get orders to find that ship as its gone silent.

The film is a bit sloppy. There are multiple situations where characters have information that they have no way of knowing seemingly because they found the DVD and watched the part they missed. There's also a character who dies for seemingly no reason. One moment he's on his feet dealing with some bugs, then he gets checked on and he's just dead with no sign of any injury. What, did he just then realise the situation was kind of dangerous and have a heart attack?

The pacing is really well done. It has its intense moments and gives itself ample time to wind down so that you can process everything. The film also does a pretty good job of creating investment with the mystery of what exactly the official was up to and the knowledge that named, major characters can be killed at any time. I also do think there are some really good ideas in this film with the main antagonist and the specific scenario the characters find themselves dealing with. They just don't get developed all that well.

Characters:

The characters are definitely a problem. Invasion uses that common Hollywood action trope where they introduce a huge cast of characters and don't even try to make most of them interesting since they're basically there as fodder for the antagonists and the issue that always comes up in works with this trope is that they'll try to have some emotional death scenes but you can't really give a shit as a part of the audience because the character in question was about as complex and compelling as a cardboard cut-out. Some of the major characters do have small hints that they could be more than archetypes but the film never does anything with those traits that could add some complexity.

Art:

The CG isn't bad. The sci-fi elements look pretty interesting and I appreciate the fact that some of the soldiers have flair that sets their armour apart from the nearly identical armour of their companions. Sure, it gives the armour more personality than the character wearing it but the idea is good. The film also does a solid job of having action that's a bit chaotic, especially when things are going to hell, but not overly so. You can still easily discern everything that's happening.

Sound:

The acting is passable. While they got some truly talented actors like Hirano Aya and Kuroda Takaya, they have the serious disadvantage of characters who have next to nothing to them. Takahashi Tetsuya's compositions are pretty solid.

Ho-yay:

What little romance we see is hetero-normative.

Areas of Improvement:

1. The film really would have been better off with fewer characters and more time spent developing them. Maybe it wouldn't have allowed for as many death scenes but we would have gotten higher quality death scenes.

2. The script needed an editor who would actually pay attention and ask basic questions like "why does this happen? or "how does this character know this?"

3. While I really like the idea behind the main antagonist, they really needed to spend more time showcasing them and their abilities.

Final Thoughts:

Starship Troopers: Invasion is okay, not good but okay. I think the factor that ultimately holds it back is that Sola was content to make a dumb action film with under-developed characters and sloppy writing but some cool ideas and solid action sequences. I'm giving it a 6/10. Maybe if you just want some action and don't care much about the writing you'll enjoy it. If you want a really strong story and characters you can relate to, it's not going to be the thing to watch.