The sequel, on the other hand, is a very different story. Not only did it remove the general style and feel of the first film (namely the comedy and propaganda footage), but it was just generally bad and painful to watch. At least Marauder makes up for many of the second film's shortcomings and feels much more like what Hero of the Federation should have been.
For one, Rico returns, this time as a Colonel in the Mobile Infantry. He and his crew are keeping the bugs at bay at an outer-rim farming colony. The farmers themselves feel the Federation has brought war to their home and are generally resentful of the local garrison, but for the most part, it's a stable front.
That is, until Rico's troops get a visit from The Federation's Sky Marshall (essentially their president). Sky Marshall Anoke (Stephen Hogan) is generally liked by everyone (or at least that is what the propaganda would have us believe), but when the bugs break through the electric barrier during his visit, all hell breaks loose. Rico is court marshalled for not performing his duties and the Sky Marshall, along with his ship's captain and a few members of the crew, are left stranded after the attack on a strange planet referred to as OM-1.
Quite frankly, while Casper Van Dien (Rico) has his name and face plastered all over the cover, he really doesn't have a lot of screen time. Most of the film focuses on Anoke's crew, which includes a long-time friend of Rico, Captain Lola Beck (Jolene Blalock), as they try and escape the bugs that have infested the planet they crashed on. When we aren't viewing the events on OM-1, we see Rico's other friend General Dix Hauser (Boris Kodjoe), who is Anoke's chief of staff, as he investigates why no one is really looking for the missing Sky Marshall.
Unfortunately, while the movie does bring in a lot of aspects that the first movie forgot (like the mech Marauders and the space base Sanctuary), there were quite a few aspects in the movie that would have Heinlein spinning in his grave, especially religious aspects of Marauder. The other part that annoyed me in this movie was its attempt to have a few twists, but they were all pretty obvious early on. Well, that and the fact that the CG just looks really cartoony. Now, I did have to go back and watch this movie on DVD to see how much of it was the graphics themselves, and how much is due to high definition, and I have to say the movie actually looks a lot better in standard def.
Marauder's Blu-ray release contains a Picture-in-Picture mode that lets you view trivia and commentary about the universe, as well as a featurettes about the new bugs in the movie and a full version of Anoke's music video "It's a Good Day to Die."
While Starship Troopers 3: Marauder has quite a few issues, it is still leaps and bounds better than ST2, and fans of the first one who were disgusted by the sequel should definitely see this one to get that bad taste out of their mouths, but get the DVD version. While it won't have a couple of features, you will at least be able to stand the bugs as they scurry after people a little better.
