Grade C- : I am a fan of the Starship Troopers universe. I love the book, the early 2000’s TV series and especially the 1997 film. But while I dig those pieces, the sequels that followed the first film have been bad at best and terrible at worst. That’s why I was so excited about the animated Starship Troopers: Invasion (trailer) movie that was released on-demand a while back and is due out on DVD and Blu-ray August 28. It seemed like that film could take all of the best bits of Starship Troopers; interesting story, giant bugs, lots of action and discard all the negative bits; namely the limitations of a live-action and low-budget.
Unfortunately, Invasion plays out like an extended scene from a video game that’s heavy on action but light on logic.
In Invasion, the starship “Alesia” is missing and it’s up to a team of troopers to take it back from the bugs. There are a few twists and turns along the way and a few new bugs to boot, but that’s about it. Once the troopers land on the Alesia they shoot bugs, and bugs kill troopers. And since the troopers all wear the same suits of armor I was never sure if those being killed were characters I was supposed to care about or the nameless “red shirt” masses seemingly there only to meet a gruesome end at the maws of the bugs.
Worst of all, since Invasion is rated “R” there was lots of cursing and even nudity and sex that felt totally out of place in a 3D animated film. I felt “icky” after watching Invasion and it wasn’t because of all the blood in the movie.
Still, while Invasion isn’t a great movie by any means, it’s still much better than the Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004) and Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (2008) sequels.
