Review of Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (2008) by Allan C — 05 Jan 2019

Written and directed by Ed Neumeier, co-writer of "Robocop" and the writer of the original "Starship Troopers" (as well as the first sequel) made his directorial debut with this solid piece of direct-to-video entertainment.

This sequel sees the return of Johnny Rico, Casper Van Dien from the first film, leading a dangerous rescue mission against the monolithic space bugs. Compared to the first sequel, this one is much closer in both tone and story to the original film, which was a satire of gung-ho jingoistic military films like "The Sands of Iwo Jima" or "The Green Berets," peppered with some over-the-top gore and violence, as well as corny and titillating romantic subplots.

I kind of liked that the first sequel took such a left turn from the original and was more of a siege horror film along the lines of "Aliens" and less goofy than the original, but for fans who preferred the tone and humor of the original film, this sequel's tone will probably be to your liking.

Neumeier is nowhere as talented of a director as Paul Verhoven when it comes to action, but he does deliver competently done action sequences, as well as some clever black humor, making this a surprisingly decent direct-to-video sci-fi flick.

Jolene Blalock ("Star Trek: Enterprise") and Amanda Donohoe ("Lair of the White Worm") also appear in the film.