Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation
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Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment / 2004 / 93 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: June 1, 2004 
In my review of Starship Troopers Superbit, I confessed that I considered the film to be a guilty pleasure. A merciless jab at fascism and jingoism, not everyone got it; the $95 million film earned only $60 million at the box office and a sequel seemed exceptionally unlikely. Fast-forward six years. The creative mind that contributed to the special effects for Star Wars Episodes IV, V, and VI, RoboCop, Willow, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Jurassic Park, and of course, Starship Troopers assumes the reins. Phil Tippett makes his directorial debut bringing returning screenwriter Edward Neumeier's script to the small screen - a direct to video production - entitled Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation. The financial performance of the first film was a severe impediment to getting this film made and, indeed, the filmmakers could only scare up a paltry 5% of the first film's budget for this effort. To suggest that compromises had to be made would be an understatement. Shot in only twenty-six days, the result is simple and a bit claustrophobic, but visually dense and looks better than the budget might imply. Alas, the screenplay fails to give this noble effort the chance it deserved. The film opens with a promising sequence, a propaganda piece aimed at luring the Earth's youth into a glamorous career in the military, fighting the bugs and ensuring citizenship. The commercial cynically segues to a squad of mobile infantry soldiers under attack on a planet shrouded in mist and in perpetual night. As bugs begin to overrun their position, the troopers are told over a radio link that extraction will take hours. Desperate, the squad splits up; most flee to a defensible outpost while a commanding general and a few troopers stay behind to hold off the bugs. This film is the tale of that lost squadron's fight to survive until they can be picked up by an assault craft.
The plot is more than a straightforward defense of an armored building; the assault is from within as well as from without. It seems that over the course of years of conflict, the bugs have developed a new weapon, one that threatens to destroy the Federation with covert attacks at the highest levels of the military and the government. And the first such attack plays out before us. The premise is clever, but both derivative and poorly executed. Fans of the genre will recognize elements from several popular science fiction films I'm reluctant to name since their identities hint of spoilers. More critically, the screenplay forces the characters to behave foolishly. Characters' odd patterns of behavior and symptoms remain unnoticed or ignored. A repaired door destroys a critical electrical cable that was in plain sight. No one questions bizarre seductions by a trooper who has a penchant for removing her clothes. And the climactic finale is complete nonsense; a decision by one of the troopers makes no sense at all. What the film does offer is a cornucopia of gore. Limbs and appendages are expendable. Bugs do quite a bit of ingenious damage, very different from that seen in the original Starship Troopers. The CGI special effects are surprisingly good, as are most of the practical effects with the possible exception of the Xenon flash tubes used at the tips of the barrels of the troopers' weapons. Neumeier has always been wonderfully droll as he skewers societal quirks, but in an age of covert war made necessary by barbaric terrorism, it's not clear that parodies of jingoism and fascism are entirely appropriate. I only wish he had focused more on the logic and motivation of the actions of his characters. Tippett's direction is taught and well staged, considering the extreme limitations he faced. This is a small film about a small but crucial skirmish in a vast interstellar war. A modest group is confined by circumstance to fight off the horrors around them, but if the intent was to create the kind of unrelenting tension we experienced in a film like Alien, the filmmakers and the cast sadly failed. With the exception of the bookends of disingenuous propaganda-like commercials extolling the virtues of military service, none of the dark humor Paul Verhoeven infused into the first film may be found. This is a bleak exercise in science fiction horror that neither horrifies nor captures the spirit of its predecessor. Perhaps a bit of gratuitous nudity was added to enhance the DVD's appeal.
Video: How Does The Disc Look? The film's aspect ratio of 1.78:1 is presented in anamorphic video. The images were captured by Sony's 1080p24 high definition video camera systems designed for the film industry with the encouragement of George Lucas. (A supplement indicates that a lower resolution system would have been the director's choice, but Sony, the sponsoring studio, insisted on its sister company's HD cameras. ) This is a very dark film, but the images hold up rather well. In scenes in which high contrast is visible, there are no halos at all. Consequently, small object detail and fine textures are quite good. Some video noise may be seen in those scenes that are particularly dark; I have the impression that the filmmakers were really pushing the cameras to their light gathering limits. Color accuracy is excellent. Flesh tones are accurate and the copious blood is convincing. With the exception of the video noise that modestly resembles film grain, shadow detail in the many dark scenes is also excellent. I did not notice any compression artifacts. The result may be a bit murky, but at least it's film-like. Audio: How Does The Disc Sound? There are two 5.1 tracks on this DVD, one in Dolby Digital and one in DTS. Each has very active surround channels that decode very nicely with EX enabled. Most of the surround effects are discrete with few pans or mixing that would place sound sources between surround speakers. Exceptionally deep bass is present to stimulate your anal sphincter. The orchestral score was co-composed by John W. Morgan and William T. Stromberg; the latter, significantly, has been involved in numerous re-recordings of reconstructed film scores from the golden age of cinema, and you may hear a stylistic influence. The score is both effective and presented with authority. Sound effects are dynamic and visceral. The dialog remains quite clear throughout the entire film. The inevitable comparison between the two encoding schemes gives the edge once more to DTS; I found that the individual elements became a bit more indistinct during times of high audio dramatics. Dolby Digital seemed to submerge the dialog a bit more than the DTS track. The alternative language is French, presented in Dolby Surround 2.0. Subtitles are available in French and English, for which Closed Captions are also included.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There? The DVD opens with a few programmed trailers for Hellboy (1:23), Resident Evil: Apocalypse (1:24), and Steamboy (1:16), but these may be skipped with the next chapter button. Never fear, these trailers and more are available from the Special Features menus. The first supplement is a feature-length commentary by director Phil Tippett, producer Jon Davison, and screenwriter Ed Neumeier. I found this to be one of the better commentaries I've heard. All of the participants are candid and open about how they had to deal with the extreme financial limitations imposed on the production. They speak at length about the casting and the set design and prop designs. The best part of the commentary is the description of the making of the film, the special effects, camera work, lighting challenges, and editing. Regular readers know how much I enjoy technical commentaries. Neumeier has yet to come to terms with his script; he gives the listener the impression that he believes the plot has a depth I simply didn't perceive. There are two featurettes on this DVD. The first, Inside the Federation (30:02), is a very good featurette about a mediocre film. Tippett, Davison, and Neumeier may be seen discussing the effort. After the usual description of the plot and characters, the short moves on to the technicalities of making the film. Stunts, special effects, practical effects, and production design are described and revealed. Tippett's extensive preparation and collaborative directorial style is described at length. Most of the players appear to describe their thoughts and their experiences as they made the film. The featurette ends with a tribute to and a set visit by Ray Harryhausen, Tippett's boyhood inspiration. Note that this featurette must be avoided before seeing the film unless you enjoy numerous spoilers. The second featurette is entitled From Green Screen to Silver Screen (9:04). It's a tour narrated by Visual Effects Supervisor Eric Leven of the creation of four of the CGI sequences. Those familiar with similar supplements from earlier DVDs will be right at home. We get to see simple storyboards, animatics, background plates (and their occasional mattes), rough animation, completed animation, and the final composite. Next is a Photo Gallery containing about twenty behind-the-scenes, publicity, and production stills. Lastly, we have a selection of trailers. In addition to the trailers that I mentioned can be seen as the DVD first loads, you'll also find trailers for Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (1:06), The Returner (2:10), and Wild Things 2 (1:11) DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC? An autoloading applet will present a screen from which you can go to several websites: resister for a newsletter, visit Sony Pictures, visit Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment, and experience a demonstration of a Starship Troopers game for the PC, the X-Box, and for the PlayStation2 (the game site was not yet available at the time of this writing). Parting Thoughts The cast is strong (although I recognized no one except for one player whose character died in the original film and who has returned in a completely different role), and the production values are higher than one might expect for such an incredibly inexpensive effort, but the poorly written screenplay hobbles this valiant attempt to continue the Starship Troopers saga. It may work for some on the level of science fiction flavored horror, but fans of the original film are likely to come away disappointed. The transfer is quit good, the audio is excellent, and the supplements are far better than I would have expected. My hopes were high, but the film is hard to recommend. |
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