Starship Troopers: Invasion

"I always get the shakes before a drop. I've had the injections, of course, and hypnotic preparation, and it stands to reason that I can't really be afraid. The ship's psychiatrist has checked my brain waves and asked me silly questions while I was asleep and he tells me that it isn't fear, it isn't anything important - it's just like the trembling of an eager race horse in the starting gate... ...I couldn't say about that; I've never been a race horse. But the fact is: I'm scared silly, every time" - Juan "Johnnie" Rico, first lines, Robert A. Heinlein's "Starship Troopers"

I don't pretend to know everything that late sci-fi writer Robert A. Heinlein intended to put forth in his controversial landmark 1959 military science fiction novel "Starship Troopers." I do know that it's been hugely influential in science fiction literature and film ever since its publication 53 years ago. It was adapted into Paul Verhoeven's wildly prescient 1997 feature-length movie (which appeared to be more of a pro-/anti-war satire of Heinlein's novel), and more importantly (to me, anyway) the cast members of James Cameron's "Aliens" (1986) - my #5 movie, by the way - were required to read the book as part of their "basic training" for the film.

Regardless of what you think of Heinlein's points in the book, it's first-rate sci-fi entertainment and pro-war military propaganda of the first degree. I saw Verhoeven's 1997 film adaptation first, and to this day I still absolutely love that movie. I read the book some time afterward; I completed it in a single day - that's how immersed I was in Heinlein's insanely in-depth futuristic universe. Two sequels to Verhoeven's original film have been produced, and one animated sequel from "Appleseed" (2004) director Shinji Aramaki - 2012's "Starship Troopers: Invasion" (which was ultimately supported by an ultimately flawed script by screenwriter Flint Dille).

"Starship Troopers: Invasion" is the most worthwhile sequel so far to Verhoeven's 1997 cinematic offering of Heinlein's most celebrated work (for me, that is). Like the not-so-freakin'-bad "Starship Troopers: Marauder" (2008), "Invasion" takes a little bit more inspiration directly from the pages of Heinlein's original novel, even though "Invasion" is, in fact, a direct sequel - more or less - to Verhoeven's first live-action movie.

What connects this particular feature to its predecessors - despite being animated - is that three central characters from Verhoeven's 1997 film reappear here: Johnny Rico, Carmen Ibanez, and Carl Jenkins (who were played, respectively, by Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, and Neil Patrick Harris in Verhoeven's first film). Van Dien and "Starship Troopers" screenwriter/long-time Verhoeven collaborator Ed Neumeier serve as producers on "Invasion." "Starship Troopers: Invasion" is a nicely animated feature with a largely Japanese Anime' production team behind it, with American actors voicing the parts.

The film begins with the mysterious disappearance of the Federation Starship "John A. Warden," which was apparently conducting clandestine experiments involving the Arachnids, which was under the supervision of Carl Jenkins, now the head of the Ministry of Paranormal Warfare. A group of M.I. (Mobile Infantry) troopers, along with Captain Carmen Ibanez, are sent to investigate, only to discover a Bug plot that threatens the very fate of everything on Earth. And Johnny Rico, now a general, is forced to join the fray in order to save his friends and the galaxy from a full-scale Bug infestation.

Unlike its predecessors, the plot to "Starship Troopers: Invasion" is pretty straight-forward science fiction warfare and lacks the vicious humor aimed at satirizing wartime values and military propaganda that marked its three predecessors. Despite that, there is some slight humor to be found here (of the tough-guy military variety and not satirical), and some decidedly course language (and some gratuitous nudity). Instead, "Invasion" seems more closely tied to "Aliens" in its presentation and characterizations. You also see a more prominent display of the "powered suits" made famous in the pages of Heinlein's original novel.

Characters are pretty thin and it's hard to separate some of them from one another, but it's true here that both prominent and stock characters alike get slaughtered viciously in some particularly gruesome ways (even though it's also true that the Bugs appear to suffer a much heavier body count than the humans do). (It's quite remarkable that the presentation and overall appearance of the Bugs here is still quite faithful to their presentation in Verhoeven's original - where they were first designed by special effects artist Phil Tippett - though they're more for cannon-fodder here, rather than a misunderstood indigenous species defending their home from hostile foreign invaders.)

Shinji Aramaki created a lean, mean, and focused Japanese-style animated feature with "Starship Troopers: Invasion." The film takes a little more inspiration from Robert A. Heinlein's original book (which is quite good, in my opinion, for the film, at least), but it's still very much in line with the legacy put forth by Paul Verhoeven's 1997 film adaptation. It's an ultra-violent, action-packed blast - nothing more, nothing less.

7/10

I didn't have high hopes for this film, as Starship Troopers is the type of franchise where, like Aliens or Terminator, you really need a big budget to properly do justice to on screen. And seeing as this clearly wasn't a major production on the same level as FF: The Spirits Within, GitS (1995), or even FF7: Advent Children, I was expecting it to be on the same level as Appleseed or Renaissance or, at best, Ultramarines. I mean, just look at what happened with ST2 and ST3 with their $9M budgets (about the same budget as Ultramarines).

However, I was actually pleasantly surprised by the animation quality of this film. It's not The Spirits Within, but it's at least on par with Advent Children. The film doesn't go for an ultra photo-realistic look, but the bugs, the armor, the ships, the environment, etc. are all exceedingly well rendered. The bugs in particular look extremely realistic (especially being chopped down by machinegun rounds), as do all the on-screen physics.

Still, there _were_ some flaws... First off, there's a distinct anime aesthetic to the film that seems ill-suited for this franchise. You'll recognize the costumes, equipment, etc. as being from the ST universe, but still with an anime-spin to it. This is especially obvious in Carmen's weird Gundam-style sci-fi-Victorian uniform. Somehow, a baby blue "crop top" military dress jacket and matching corset just doesn't seem to fit the ultra-macho, utilitarian culture of the fascist Terran Federation (nor the rest of the ST universe). In fact, she looked more like a flight attendant than a starship captain.

Likewise, the body and facial styles in the film are all stereotypical of anime characters--to the point that most of the male protagonists look pretty much alike. I suppose that's why they had to resort to giving Rico an eye patch, Hero a distinctive scar under his eye, and Holyman his weird anime-style tattoos and pale complexion.

Even the semi-mechanized mobile infantry body armor/spacesuits seemed to have a bit of a corseted waistline. That said, the ships, armor, and space station designs in this film are still very high quality overall, rivaling even the first movie in some respects. Even the overly-Halo-inspired-corset-wearing MI battle suits are better looking than the armor shown in any of the previous ST works. Though I personally would have stuck with the black and field grey color scheme for the mobile infantry gear/costumes instead of the jungle green cameo (this is supposed to read C-A-M-O, as in camouflage; please ignore IMDb's idiotic autocorrection) they used in the film, which is more reminiscent of U.S. marines than German storm troopers (and also not making much sense in space or inside of the silvery monolithic starships and space stations).

The overall CGI quality is actually very impressive considering that in theory, Stage 6's target production budget is at most the same as that of Ultramarines (the admirable but ultimately disappointing WH40K animated film), and yet ST: Invasion is head and shoulders above what Ultramarines managed to achieve with their budget.

If you want to be picky, sure, there are a few stereotypical mannequin moments that nearly all 3D animes tend to have, where the body movements seem a bit too rigid or the facial animation doesn't seem quite right (like the virtual actor had too much Botox). But all of this is fairly easy to overlook when you're fully engaged in the plot and action.

Alas, there is ONE critical area where ST:I falls flat on its face: voice acting. Carmen and Johnny's VO actors were decent, but much of the rest of the cast did not seem to be voiced by professional voice actors (or at least properly cast voice actors)--another sign of the film's anime heritage--and was quite painful to sit through. Like so many other great Japanese animated works, this one was ruined in the final leg of the race by a studio that just didn't care enough about the English voice-overs to get it done right.

It's a real pity, as the story was actually pretty serviceable and the rest of the film was very high quality overall, with only the aforementioned quibbles (all fairly minor and easily overlooked), and would probably do well with a major release in North America if not for the painfully bad English VOs. And supposedly this film was never even dubbed in Japanese (at least Akira and most other animes with poor English dubs are watchable in Japanese with English subs). It's such a severe flaw and stands in such stark contrast with the rest of the film, that I'd consider petitioning Stage 6/Sony to release the raw audio tracks of the film and let the community re-dub the VOs.

Not stellar, but pretty good. Had all the regulars Carmen, johnny Rico and Carl the esp guy. Some good crazy action however a bit heavy on drama that didn't really work for me. Decent enough story and faithful to the original. A little overboard with the nudity, but hey. i like boobs as much as the next guy. Worth a rental for sure. Some effects and graphics worked really well at times, sometimes not so much. The bug animations were kinda stiff while the texture work was really good on the faces and "ahem" skin. You can tell which scenes they spent time polishing. By far much better then Starship Troopers 2 or 3. My only real complaint is that the story itself felt kinda rushed and didn't really have any nuance. It was a good story and some of the time I felt was wasted on things that were not needed at the cost of fleshing out the premise of the movie. Just my 2 cents.

I've been quite against of watching any new ST movies in recent years, because both ST2 and ST3 are really unsatisfactory for me. However after watching this movie, I have the feeling the ST movies have started going back to the right track.

Firstly, the movie has found the right audience. It's a movie for a simple story, a small incidence in the ST universe, not for deep philosophy. However, you have to admit that if the story writer can really put a little bit of philosophical ideas from the original novel into conversations and the environment around characters, just like the ST1 did, this new movie will be on a new level. And that's why ST1 is always way ahead of other ST movies. For the story, I give 7/10, with 3 marks off for the absence of in-depth philosophical ideas.

And then, I like the design of weapons and ships and many tiny concept things. This includes very careful design of a fleet of starships that follows the style of ST1. Other things like the suit of mobile infantry. Weapon designs. Airdrop of mechanized MI. Main guns of the space station. I should say I have seen the shadows of the original novel, and you can tell the designer have really put a lot of effort to making these things look comfortable, and surely it's just very fun to watch how these men's stuffs to work in the movie. For the artistic design, I give 9/10, with one mark off for the illogical uselessness of the protection ability of the MI armor.

In terms of the characters, everybody is poker-face. There is no room for showing the personality. There is also not enough conflict between characters as well. A good movie has to have conflict between characters, that's why Alien and Star Wars is epic. I can only give this part 5/10.

Therefore, if you are looking for a simple, straight forward movie, with cool graphic and awesome boy stuff. You should watch this movie. If you want to see some philosophical content, then you better wait for the next ST movie, not this one.

This movie brought me exactly what I was expecting. Soldiers killing bugs! This movie could have been better if they had bigger budget(I bet this movie had a pretty low one.) Animations was sloppy and it had some flaws. The story was good but the voices not so. Also.. The girls look like anime .

Overall.. Not the best starship troopers movie.. But way better than Starship Troopers 2.

Hopefully the remake of the original Starship Troopers from 1997 will be good.

Worth a look.