Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars

I generally watch the Starship Troopers CG movies looking for ridiculously over-the-top action shlock I can put on with friends and laugh at while being entertained. Traitor of Mars does the trick on this front, but it actually has a pretty good story this time with a cast of lovable shlubs. Whoever came up with the concept of a makeup-caked bimbo Space Marine is exactly the kind of person who should be leading the charge on these Starship Trooler CG flicks.

These sequels are, as you might expect, nowhere remotely close to the verhoeven classic in terms of tone or message, but they surprisingly do a pretty great job of keeping up that same dumb fun 90's shlock feel that the surface level of first flick had: troopers are sent into the meat grinder time and again by incompetent superiors who are wholly detached from the reality of war. The difference is that, in these CG flicks, Rico will get launched 15 feet into the air, do a flip and jump-kick a giant bug to kill it, and it'll totally work. Everyone has anime plot armor and every dumb tactical decision can be fought through by shooting enough bullets at it.

In short, it's close enough to the surface level of the original to keep true, while also being wholly enjoyable shlock to watch with friends. Thought they did a good job with this one.

I enjoyed this, and I hope more cgi animation sequels are produced, as the quality from computers continues to get better by leaps and bounds.

I don't think it was meant to be a sequel, per se, but just a treat for the fans. The Rbt A Heinlein book is awesome, nothing like anything yet put on video, but the original movie and this one have some elements from it.

I'm giving it 3 stars because of the voice actors (original cast). Other than that, the film is garbage. I'm no military expert but the military/logical errors in the movie are terrible. It feels like the who script, story was written for some 10 year olds. Full of boring, old clichés and jokes that makes you want to fall asleep. If you really have nothing else to do, watch it, but even brushing your teeth for 1,5 hours is more entertaining than this. Such a shame they killed this great franchise after the first movie.

Starship Troopers has a long history dating back all the way to the tail end of the 1950's, it's movie's started in the 80's and ever since it's been a very rocky road. They hit pay dirt with 1997's Paul Verhoevens epic but after that it all fell rather flat.

In 2012 they released Invasion which was the first animated Starship Troopers movie and it wasn't bad, in fact it was the best since 1997 as parts 2 & 3 of the live action were pretty terrible.

Here in 2017 with Casper Van Dien returning as Rico and oddly Dina Meyer returning as Dizzy they succeeded again as this is the best Starship Troopers movie they've made (With the exception of 1997).

Also returning for the ride is Carmen and Carl, but don't expect them to be voiced by Denise Richards or Neil Patrick Harris.

The plot is a conspiracy regarding a bug outbreak on mars and it's actually not all that bad. The animation though not entirely fluid still looks the part and even if it is a tad cheesy the voice acting is on point.

Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars is a rather enjoyable addition to the franchise. More of this would be greatly appreciated.

The Good:

Looks great

Some oddly good humour

The Bad:

Dizzy looked weird

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Kicking someone to the ground who is in possession of a nuke makes perfect sense

Battlesuits come standard with butt cheeks

Approval ratings are monitered active and live at all times

Serious funding was spent on the CG and the storytelling, only to be ruined by third-rate dialog. Would have been an asset to Starship Trooper if they had invested in better scriptwriters. I realize the cost restraints and the enormous effort in the creative department and voice actors. But to neglect in spending in a decent dialog writer is just a shame....