Starship Troopers: Invasion Review by Bobby LePire. Edited by Courtney McAllister.

 

This review focuses on the fourth “Starship Troopers” movie, a CGI animated anime, from Shinji Aramaki, of the “Appleseed” motion pictures fame. It brings back Carl, Carmen, and of course, Johnny Rico! Ed Neumeier and Casper Van Dien both have producer credits, and this is an all out guns blazing, actionfest. Does this pedigree make it a worthy follow up? Does the animation style suit the already established cinematic look? Yes, yes, and a third yes for emphasis!

 

The plot goes as such:

After a devastating loss at Fort Casey, the “Alpha Team” gets left behind as Carl Jenkins (Justin Doran) commandeers the John A. Warden, for nefarious means. Captain Carmen Ibanez (Luci Christian) and her comrades are rescued by the Alesia. Pursuing Carl, a terrible and dangerous secret comes to light. To help combat this Johnny Rico (David Matranga), now a general, attempts a space battle with the Warden. It fails, as the ship is sent on a collision course with Earth. Can Rico, Carmen, and the crew stop it in time? Has Carl actually turned evil?

 

The voice acting is strong across the board. Doran lends credence to Carl’s stubborn ways and self righteous zeal with a very confident, and authoritative, performance. This makes his cowering in a shipping container, panicking, all the more believable and urgent. As Ibanez, Christian brings a sense of fun, without sacrificing the take charge attitude that got her her own ship.  Carl and Carmen’s CGI avatars don’t look like the actors that previously played them, which helps because the actors aren’t trying to do impersonations, thank goodness! Matranga has the hardest job, as Rico’s animated counterpart looks quite a bit like Mr. Van Dien. This makes one expect Van Dien’s voice, and that is not what we get. Happily, Matranga is skilled enough to make the role his own, and the initial oddness of the look and voice incongruity dissipates after a short while. The voices of the various members of the “Alpha Team” are equally impressive, with David Wald as Hero and Emily Neves as Trig, being my personal favorites.

 

The animation is fluid and moves quite realistically. The characters have weight when they move, and the zero-g stuff looks convincing. Alpha Team has power armor- not Marauder suits, that’s later- which are more in line with the original book. The design of the armor is nice, with it being just clunky enough to be realistic, but still maneuverable. The power armor and clean floors have a bright, metallic sheen, that contrasts nicely with the atmosphere. The character designs are all well thought out, and no one looks too similar to tell apart. There is nudity, and while not bad enough to bring down the level of animation, no matter how well rendered animated breasts are, they always look weird to me.

 

Aramaki’s direction keeps things swiftly chugging along. The action never feels repetitive, and the tone is kept in-check. There is some of the best use of bullet-time since the original “Matrix”, and it is an amazing sequence. The movie is fairly plot-lite, and very action-heavy, so all of that is a good thing.

 

Tonally, this is more like the super serious second film, but unlike that one, this earns it. That this is a different medium- animation- certainly helps, as the tone fits the lighting, and long shots of empty corridors. There are actual moments of humor though, and they never feel out of place. Also, this doesn’t expo dump with a text crawl only to launch into Federation News bits. This movie is telling more of a darkside of the Federation’s secret plans, and racks up quite the body count, so it is never dull or and the humor keeps it from being too grim. Yes, the news segments are missed, but the line, “Would you like to know more?” does show up though; it is a pretty awesome use.

 

I realize that this is a fairly short review, but the fact of the matter is that this movie is great fun. The plot has no real holes, the animation is amazing (weird CGI boobs aside), and the voice acting is excellent. All involved should be damned proud!