STARSHIP TROOPERS 2: Hero of the Federation

Paul Verhoeven's 1997 STARSHIP TROOPERS is one of the great under appreciated classic science fiction movies of the 20^th century. Verhoeven teamed up with his ROBOCOP screenwriter Ed Neumeier to adapt Robert Heinlein's iconic interstellar war novel, giving the story a broad satiric spin that, quite frankly, a lot of folks just didn't get. General audiences were unable to discern that aspects of the film were supposed to be corny. Often dismissing it as MELROSE PLACE in space, it seems the concept that, due to natural breeding and unnatural genetic tinkering, the human race of the future will be incredibly healthy and attractive was a bit too far out for many to grasp. Many that did understand the movie balked at alterations in the source material. And in the midst of the Clinton presidency, the idea that the leaders of the free world could whip their followers into a patriotic fervor that would send a generation blindly to their deaths in a bloody war of economic conquest seemed pretty far out, too. I mean, we're all too smart for that, right?

In any case, TROOPERS was a 95 million dollar black comedy with terrific special effects and a wicked sense of humor. In retrospect, nobody should have expected it to do well at the box office, and it did relatively poorly. And so, it comes as a bit of a surprise that the film would spawn not only an animated series, but a sequel feature. A direct-to-video sequel, sure, but any kind of sequel would seem to be uncalled for.

Neumeier, first time director/special effects wizard Phil Tippett, and producer Jon Davison explain how a STARSHIP TROOPERS sequel came to be on their DVD commentrak. The answer is pretty simple: STARSHIP TROOPERS 2 was made for only 5% of the budget of the original. Instead of epic scale and massive battle scenes, we get a claustrophobic horror story that stitches together elements of THE LOST PATROL with THE THING and INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, along with recycled animation effects. Sure, six years of advances in digital technology eliminate much of the cost, but a definite cut-rate atmosphere remains.

Scattered forces under the command of General J.G. Shepherd (veteran movie general Ed Lauter) are fighting a losing battle against endless hordes of enemy Bugs on a dark and stormy planet. Troopers pull back inside a seemingly abandoned keep. The sole remaining soldier inside is Captain Dax (soap opera veteran Richard Burgi), who survived an earlier assault because he was locked up for the murder of his commanding officer. Though branded a traitor, Dax is recognized as one of the few experienced warriors in the group, and Shepherd allows him to help out until they can get back to civilization.

Dax helps re-engage the keep's defenses (including a cool giant "bug zapper"), but some of the troopers (especially the psychic ones) begin to suspect that a more insidious enemy may already be on the inside that the troopers may be caught in the Bugs' master plan to destroy the human race.

Whatever symbolism Neumeier may have built into the subtext of the story having to do with the infectious nature of aggression and how sometimes you're forced to choose between puppetmasters is soon lost amid bloody horror movie clichés. The original's clever propaganda "news" stories are sorely missed, replaced with extreme gore and dopey spook effects. The anti-war message is there, but it's mostly an afterthought, buried under B-movie melodramatics. Missing also is a sense of a truly alien enemy that is harder to beat because it doesn't think like a human.

The finished product is aptly reflected by Tippett and company on their commentrak, recorded "hours" after the film's completion. It's obvious that though the trio is proud of their work and that of the cast and crew, it was a grinding shoot that left all involved exhausted. There's much talk of how much was accomplished "for the money", and what plans had to be abandoned because they couldn't afford them. But as one of the participants comments as he uncorks a bottle of cheap wine during the recording, "We had really good champagne on the first picture."

"Inside the Federation" is a half-hour Making-Of that focuses mostly on Tippett, editing together interviews with principle crew and cast with behind-the-scenes footage and some of the better clips from the movie. The best part of this is the section dealing with the limited but still impressive f/x work. This includes some footage of Ray Harryhausen visiting the set to see this new generation of monster makers in action. Everybody says they want to do STARSHIP TROOPERS 3, though maybe with a less hectic shooting schedule. F/X supervisor Eric Levin comes back to narrate nine minutes of footage that takes shots through all stages from storyboard to finished footage.

The disc loads up defaulting to trailers for HELLBOY, RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE and Katsuhiro Otomo's eagerly awaited STEAMBOY, and we finish our tour with a return to those trailers, plus ones for RETURNER, ST2, and another unwarranted sequel, WILD THINGS 2.