Zeus: Starship Troopers 3

[Julius Seeker]

It was just released, Rico's in this one and the budget is FAR higher than the second one (but at 25 million it's still a far cry from the first ones 110 million). It's direct to DVD.

Tell me how it is, and I don't care about other reviews, I found the first one fairly enjoyable as well (which I do believe was also poorly received).

[Zeus]

I d'loaded it a few weeks ago and saw the first 10 minutes, but I've been busy with renovating a rental property I bought and haven't had a chance to see it yet.

I can tell you that it opens FAR better than #2. The second was a HORRIBLE film in the first 20 minutes....then became a pretty solid sequel if you could tolerate it that long. But I have yet to see where they're going with #3, so I can't give judgement yet.

BTW, the original's budget was $95M and it only grossed $54M.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120201/business

That's why it was considered "Verhoven's first failure"....until it dominated early DVD sales (it was one of the top 10 DVDs in sales for 2 solid years). It was the DVD sales that drove both the original sequel (which did quite well) and the Special Edition DVD.

[Eric]

Casper Van Dien is back playing Rico, I just downloaded it an hour ago, so I'll check it out.

My expectations must be as low as humanly possible.

I tried to make my expectations low low low for The Mummy 3, but they weren't low enough.

I must do better at movies I know will be horrible in order to enjoy them.

[Zeus]

Casper Van Dien is back playing Rico, I just downloaded it an hour ago, so I'll check it out.

My expectations must be as low as humanly possible.

I tried to make my expectations low low low for The Mummy 3, but they weren't low enough.

I must do better at movies I know will be horrible in order to enjoy them.

Did you see Starship Troopers 2? Did you like it?

[Eric]

Casper Van Dien is back playing Rico, I just downloaded it an hour ago, so I'll check it out.

My expectations must be as low as humanly possible.

I tried to make my expectations low low low for The Mummy 3, but they weren't low enough.

I must do better at movies I know will be horrible in order to enjoy them.

Did you see Starship Troopers 2? Did you like it?

I tried to watch 2, but it didn't have the same cheese appeal that made me like the first one.

I watched the first 15-20 minutes and turned it off.

[SineSwiper]

Why torture yourself with "straight to DVD" movies? Starship Troopers didn't have power suits, therefore it EPIC FAILS!!!

Period.

End of story.

Fin.

There is no spoon.

[Zeus]

Casper Van Dien is back playing Rico, I just downloaded it an hour ago, so I'll check it out.

My expectations must be as low as humanly possible.

I tried to make my expectations low low low for The Mummy 3, but they weren't low enough.

I must do better at movies I know will be horrible in order to enjoy them.

Did you see Starship Troopers 2? Did you like it?

I tried to watch 2, but it didn't have the same cheese appeal that made me like the first one.

I watched the first 15-20 minutes and turned it off.

If you think that the first Starship Troopers is nothing but a light, cheesy, violent action flick, there's really no reason to keep watching the series.

The second one, after the horrid first 20 minutes, turns out to be a pretty decent action-thriller set in the universe. With the anti-budget, that means that it's more on atmosphere and keeping in line with the first than being a big budget, cheesy flick.

That being said, the "do you want to know more?" thing is actually expanded in the second one.

[Zeus]

Why torture yourself with "straight to DVD" movies? Starship Troopers didn't have power suits, therefore it EPIC FAILS!!!

Period.

End of story.

Fin.

There is no spoon.

It was a freakin' amazing flick, period. It may not have been the book but that don't mean it ain't good

[Tessian]

As much as it pains me to even consider watching this I have to ask-- do you need to see the 2nd one at all to enjoy the 3rd?

[Mully]

Why torture yourself with "straight to DVD" movies?

These movies either had a very small and fast theatrical run (where it garnered no press) or straight to dvd

Where would be without...

Equilibrium
Repo Man
Boondock Saints

[Julius Seeker]

I already own the first one, but they are selling the trilogy in a box set, I may pick that up.

[Zeus]

Why torture yourself with "straight to DVD" movies?

These movies either had a very small and fast theatrical run (where it garnered no press) or straight to dvd

Where would be without...

Equilibrium
Repo Man
Boondock Saints

Or:

Wizard of Oz
Princess Bride
Army of Darkness

[Julius Seeker]

I actually still haven't read the book (or any of Heinlein's stuff actually). It's one that I have been meaning to read for the last decade.

[Zeus]

I actually still haven't read the book (or any of Heinlein's stuff actually). It's one that I have been meaning to read for the last decade.

I haven't either but I have a few friends who have. They say it's far different than the movie. In the book, it's nothing for one soldier to take out 100 bugs. But they've also said that the movie is great in its own right, just for different reasons

[SineSwiper]

Why torture yourself with "straight to DVD" movies?

These movies either had a very small and fast theatrical run (where it garnered no press) or straight to dvd

Where would be without...

Equilibrium
Repo Man
Boondock Saints

Or:

Wizard of Oz
Princess Bride
Army of Darkness

I would like proof for all of these statements. Except AoD. That's a given. Equilibrium at least had some limited theater exposure. The rest of them had more than that. Fuck, the Wizard of Oz was released BEFORE THEY HAD VCRs!

My point is that if the studios think that nobody's going to see it, they put it straight to video. That's not the kind of thing you want in an action movie.

[Zeus]

These movies either had a very small and fast theatrical run (where it garnered no press) or straight to dvd

Where would be without...

Equilibrium
Repo Man
Boondock Saints

Or:

Wizard of Oz
Princess Bride
Army of Darkness

I would like proof for all of these statements. Except AoD. That's a given. Equilibrium at least had some limited theater exposure. The rest of them had more than that. Fuck, the Wizard of Oz was released BEFORE THEY HAD VCRs!

My point is that if the studios think that nobody's going to see it, they put it straight to video. That's not the kind of thing you want in an action movie.

Do a Wiki search if you don't believe me. Oz wasn't a very big flick in theatres, it made it's name much later. Princess Bride was royally fucked up in pre-release and found it's audience on DVD, kind of like Starship Troopers did. In fact, if you watch the Special Edition doc on Princess Bride, you hear Rob Reiner talk about the comparisons made between them in terms of them finding their audience long after their theatrical runs

[Flip]

I already own the first one, but they are selling the trilogy in a box set, I may pick that up.

I picked up a box set today at Best Buy. $40 for all three and an action figure, lol.

All 3 come with digital copies for the CPU, and a PSP converted format.

[Julius Seeker]

Seems like a fairly good deal. I'll have to look into that this weekend. I think there's enough entertainment in there for 40 bucks.

[Zeus]

Since you asked, Seek (spoiler free):

I thought Starship Troopers 3 was about the level of 2 in terms of quality. Which means that it's worth the watch and doesn't completely destroy what the first one did, adds some neat extensions to the ST "universe", but can never, EVER be considered the quality of the original masterpiece.

It also means you'll have to live with some heavy doses of cheese as well. The opening 20 minutes or so have some cheesy special effect, albiet WAAAAAY better than the second one. Just not nearly as good as the original (you seen that shit on HD? ST looks great even now). And you really don't get into the meat of the storyline until about halfway through. There's also some questionable acting and irritating religious subplot but where they go with the story and extending the universe still makes it a worthwhile watch, just not a "dear LORD, I need to buy this NOW" type of film. It's direct to DVD for a reason after all.

And Sine, they do quell some of your complaints WRT book vs films in this one when they reveal what "Marauder" stands for. I can tell you more through PM since I don't want to ruin it for those who haven't watched it. So you have to ask yourself: Do you want to know more? - then click on the right link :-)

[Flip]

I bought the 3 movie pack and watched them all. The first was, of course, a rewatch of many time over, but i had never seen the 2nd or 3rd. I'll try to not spoil.

I thought the 2nd was pretty crappy... even beyond the first 30 minutes, which someone mentioned it got better afterwards. Its a budget movie, which is fine, but what bothered me is that it didnt progress the war or story at all. Its an isolated event movie that has nothing to do with Starship Troopers besides the arachnids (which arent essential) and the also very brief "Would you like to know more?" sequences.

The 3rd movie references the 1st movie a lot and moves things along. It pretends the 2nd movie didnt exist at all and never brings up the 'weird' bugs that were the plot of the 2nd... so, they decided to abandon that idea altogether. The religious aspect works for what it needed to and i thought the acting was fine. The ending sequence was super cheesy special effects, but what can you do? At least there were some awesome boobies.

#1 best of the series. #2 barf. #3 good entertainment.

[bovine]

there was also an animated television series (computer animated). I remember seeing a half an episode or so of content. I don't know if it furthered the entire series along, but it was called "Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles".

[Blotus]

The 3rd movie references the 1st movie a lot and moves things along. It pretends the 2nd movie didnt exist

Thanks, buddy! I downloaded 2 and 3 but after struggling through the first half hour of 2, I'm just gonna skip it.

[Eric]

there was also an animated television series (computer animated). I remember seeing a half an episode or so of content. I don't know if it furthered the entire series along, but it was called "Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles".

It was actually a pretty solid CG series.

The problem was for some reason they showed it from Monday-Friday, and it only had like 13 episodes for the first season, so everyone saw the entire series after 2 and a half weeks and kept seeing it again and again, and got sick of it lol.

It was cancelled for the 2nd season I believe.

[Zeus]

For the second film, I thought the whole bug infiltration and the extension of the "Do You Want To Know More?" was relatively well done. So did a lot of others which led to its relatively strong sales and paved the way for the much increased budget of the third. That didn't happen until after they got inside the complex so for the first 20 minutes you had some VERY brutal soundstage "bug attacks", it was fucking awful. Most people don't even get past that. But that's what each of the direct-to-DVD sequels does, it expands a bit on certain plot aspects of the original. I think that's why I like them

Roughnecks was a pretty solid series. Verhoven even exec produced it. It definitely got screwed around a bit schedule-wise but I think up here it got a bit more play since it was made by Mainframe, the Canadian boys who did Reboot and Beast Wars. Everything those guys did was pretty solid. It aired quite regularly on YTV.

[Blotus]

Reboot

I remember when Reboot looked amazing. Probably looks like a bad PS1 cutscene now.

[Zeus]

Reboot

I remember when Reboot looked amazing. Probably looks like a bad PS1 cutscene now.

Yeah, that and Beast Wars are not exactly cutting edge anymore. But they're still great shows

[SineSwiper]

Meh. The plot to Reboot just made me cringe. All of that PC jargon thrown in like a stream of really bad puns. (Yeah, yeah, I'm aware of my avatar.)