Stars: Richard Burgi, Colleen Porch, Bill Brown

Director: Phil Tippett

Summary: Once again humanity is at war with the Bugs. A small group of soldiers find themselves trapped on a remote outpost battling their cunning and deadly enemy. In order for the human race to survive they must join forces with a traitor to the Federation...

In this big-screen sequel to Paul Verhoeven's cult sci-fi hit STARSHIP TROOPERS, the alien Bug horde is still the number one enemy. This time, directed by Phil Tippett, the visual effects wizard from the original movie (and also STAR WARS and INDIANA JONES), HERO OF THE FEDERATION sees the mobile infantry unit of the Federation, isolated light years away from reinforcements. They must seek the help of a Federation traitor if they are to have any hope of saving themselves and the human race.

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Reviewed by: philreyn
Posted on October 13, 2005 7:53 AM

As cheesy as it was, I loved the first instalment. This second helping is more of a baby version, in that it's a low budget, less action movie. I don't believe this was even made to show in the cinema, as it went straight to video. The down side, is that most of the movie is set in the dark. The up side is that it does attempt to take the bug - human battle to the next level with an interesting development in the bug evolvement. This movie is OK, but only for fans of the original.

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Allowing for all the low-budget shortcomings that plague any straight-to-video production, Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federationserves up 92 minutes of passable SF action. Parlaying his veteran status as an animator, special-effects wizard, and stalwart survivor of the CGI revolution, Phil Tippett (with returning screenwriter Ed Neumeier) makes a woefully uninspired directorial debut with this makeshift sequel to Paul Verhoeven's 1997 blockbuster, retaining the jarhead militarism of Robert Heinlein's original novel while serving up more bugs, an all-new cast of attractive young stars and all-too-familiar plot elements borrowed from a dozen better movies.

"Bigger is better" is out of the question under such meagre budgetary circumstances, so Tippett and Neumeier compensate with gruesome bug fights and gross-out effects at regular intervals, some standard-issue nudity and escalating paranoia (echoing Carpenter's The Thing) when a new breed of bugs use human hosts (à la The Hidden) to overtake a stranded platoon of Federation soldiers on a bug-infested planet. Relying on murky confinement to hide nondescript sets, Starship Troopers 2has three engaging leads in its favour: US TV regular Richard Burgi is solidly cast as the titular hero (he's the military equivalent of Pitch Black's Riddick); Colleen Porch is engaging as the most sensible Federation survivor; and screen veteran Ed Lauter makes the most of his salty role as a battle-hardened general. Unfortunately, they're adrift in a knock-off sequel (shot on high-def digital video) that could never do justice to its energetic predecessor. --Jeff Shannon

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Director Writer And Producer Commentary, From Green Screen To Silver Screen Featurette, Theatrical Trailer, Inside The Federation Featurette, Photo Gallery
Subtitles:	Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Turkish
Year:	2003
Release Date:	May 10, 2004
Runtime:	88 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	C D R 35142
Keywords:	Hero, General, Fiction, Starship, Science, Troopers, Federation, Horror, Futuristic, Sci, Fi
Genre:	Science Fiction