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Stars: Richard
Burgi, Lawrence Monoson, Colleen Porch, Kelly Carlson, Ed Lauter, Sandrine Holt,
and Brenda Strong
Writer: Ed
Neumeier
Director: Phil
Tippett
Feature length: 92
minutes
Extras: Director,
Writer, and Producer Commentary, “From Green Screen To Silver Screen”
Featurette, “Inside The Federation” Documentary, Photo Gallery, Trailers,
Starship Troopers DVD-ROM Game Demo Link
Languages: English
DTS Digital 5.1 Theatrical Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
and French Language Dolby Surround Sound
Subtitles: English
Captions and Closed Captions and French Language Subtitles
Packaging: Amaray
Keep Case
Chapter Stops: 28
Sound: DTS Digital
5.1 Theatrical Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, and Dolby
Surround Sound
Year of DVD
Release: 2004
Home Video
Distributor: Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment
MPAA Rating: R
Reviewer: Mark A.
Rivera
Five years have
past since the events of the first “Starship Troopers” feature film and
while the Fed Net continues to broadcast patriotic images of Federation troops
triumphing over the bugs, the reality of the war is quite different for mobile
infantry troopers fighting for their lives on a dark and stormy world dubbed
Zulu Angel, which is deep in the Arachnid Quarantine Zone. Surrounded by
countless numbers of warrior bugs and with no way to be retrieved, General
Shepherd (Ed Lauter), remains behind along with a few select troopers as a
diversion so that the rest of his soldiers can get shelter in an abandoned
Federation outpost. There they discover Captain Dax (Richard Burgi), a decorated
officer left behind on charges of murder. Dax is a skillful survivor who is
weary of the war, but is forced to back into service to raise the morale of the
other troopers and assist in facilitating the defense of the outpost until a
rescue ship can arrive. After succeeding in securing the area, General Shepherd
and a few surviving soldiers manage to make it against the odds into the
protection of the outpost, but they are not alone. A new insidious breed of bug
has infiltrated the complex and could spell the ultimate destruction for
humanity if it gets off world and into Federation space.
“Starship
Troopers 2: Hero Of The Federation” is a more intimate, but never the less
thrilling straight to video sequel to the 1997 theatrical release. As
Screenwriter Ed Neumeier states in both the feature length audio commentary and
the “Inside The Federation” documentary presented on this DVD, “Starship
Troopers” was presented as a fascist World War II propaganda film, but
“Starship Troopers 2: Hero Of The Federation” is meant to be a lot darker
and serve as a metaphor for the Korean War. Though the filmmakers deny any
influence based on current events, I think “Starship Troopers 2: Hero Of The
Federation” is like a allegory for the war in Iraq where our leaders use the
media to present one image, but the reality that has been cropping through
various sources presents an arguable opposite picture to what I think Americans
have been lead to believe. I apologize for bringing politics into this review,
but it is hard not to see the similarities and allegory for tough subjects is
one of the things that science fiction truly handles well.
“Starship
Troopers 2: Hero Of The Federation” is not only a bleaker film, it is also
less epic in scope. The Fed Net broadcasts used to punctuate the action with a
bit of dark humor in the first film is used only twice here and the irony
definitely adds more pathos to the film’s signature hero and how a government
can use that person’s action to create an icon to use for the purposes of
getting “Fresh meat for the grinder” as a recruitment officer states openly
to a survivor at the film’s close. I had an objection to that line at the end
of the film because I think it overstated the obvious and I really cannot
believe that a career military officer in charge of recruitment would be so
callous as to openly state something like that regardless of how he felt. I
would imagine a proclamation like that in the world of “Starship Troopers”
would get an officer into a ton of trouble. My only other problem with the film
deals with the question of how did certain soldiers become infected with the
bugs especially if they were fighting out in the open with no cover? Wouldn’t
someone see what was happening? I mean either they are all infected or not, but
to have one character miraculously survive and not witness or even suspect that
the other survivors have been compromised seems unlikely to me.
In his feature
film directing debut Phil Tippett keeps the pace of the film moving fast and
considering the film was made in 26 days for a fraction of the budget of the
original, the production values and special effects are equal to the original
with plenty of sci-fi gore like the first film too. Actress Brenda Strong, who
played the Captain of the Lewis & Clark in the first film returns for
the sequel playing a new character. Originally Clancy Brown was supposed to
reprise his role as Sgt. Zim from the first film, which would have been great,
but I am actually glad he didn’t because there’s always the possibility they
can bring him and maybe other characters from the first film for another
installment if this direct to DVD sequel is successful. “Starship Troopers 2:
Hero Of The Federation” was shot using high definition video and then
downgraded a bit to give a more documentary like look to the film. I think they
did a great job because it certainly looked like film to me while I was watching
this DVD.
I am not sure of
this is a direct digital to DVD transfer or if a film print was made for
overseas markets and then used for this digital presentation, but whatever
method was used certainly did not effect the quality of the picture
presentation. “Starship Troopers 2: Hero Of The Federation” is presented in
an anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) aspect ratio and the image looks great. Any
deficiency in the picture quality is strictly due to the environment the
characters are placed with harsh sand storms and gritty interiors adding to the
immediacy of the action. Obviously the better the method of connection, the
better the image presentation, but on my Pioneer DVD player using component
video outputs, “Starship Troopers 2: Hero Of The Federation” looked great.
While I was listening to the feature length audio commentary, I watched the film
on a different DVD player using an SVideo output to the same widescreen
television. In that case I noticed a bit more grain than I did when I watched it
using component video output, but the image quality did appear somewhat brighter
with the SVideo playback. I prefer the sharper component video image playback,
but my point in mentioning the difference is to state that two different players
using two different forms of video feed yielded different results so if at all
possible, I recommend viewing “Starship Troopers 2: Hero Of The Federation”
with a component video hookup, which is far more common now than it was a few
years ago.
The English DTS
Digital 5.1 Theatrical Surround Soundtrack is clear and edgy and the English
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack also delivers a nice three-dimensional
home theater sound listening experience. A French Language Dolby Surround
Soundtrack and English Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired as
well as French Language Subtitles are encoded as options. The feature length
audio commentary with Director Phil Tippett, Screenwriter Ed Neumeier, and
Producer Jon Davison repeats much of the information given in the “Inside The
Federation” documentary, but it is also very screen specific and quite
informative. The “Inside The Federation” documentary (30:02) starts off at
first as being somewhat fluffy, but changes into a good in depth look at how the
film was made. None other than the great stop motion animator Ray Harryhausen,
whose credits include “Jason And The Argonauts” and “The Seventh Voyage Of
Sinbad,” even stopped by to watch the production and gave his thumbs up.
Demonstration of the digital effects compositing is also provided in the “From
Green Screen To Silver Screen” featurette (9:04).
A short photo
gallery and trailers for “Starship Troopers 2: Hero Of The Federation”
(1:06), “Returner” (2:10), “Wild Things 2” (1:11), “Hellboy” (1:23),
“Resident Evil: Apocalypse” (1:24), and “Steam Boy” (1:16) wrap up the
extra value DVD-Video features. Those with a DVD-ROM drive will have access to
web links that include a preview of the “Starship Troopers” PC game demo.
The menus are standard interactive still frames that are easy to navigate.
Though I still
prefer the first film, “Starship Troopers 2: Hero Of The Federation” is an
above average straight to video sequel that I think is worth checking out.
“Starship Troopers 2: Hero Of The Federation: Special Edition” will debut on
DVD-Video at retailers on and offline on Tuesday, June 1, 2004 from Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment.
© Copyright 2004
By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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