User Reviews

Series note: Although this film is something of a train wreck, it would be even worse if one didn't watch the original Starship Troopers (1997) first. The first film is excellent, and will help you figure out what is supposed to be going on in this film.

A group of Starship Troopers becomes stranded while engaged in warfare on a "bug planet". They make it to a mostly abandoned makeshift fort and succeed in holding the enemy at bay outside, only to discover that they may have enemies just as lethal amongst themselves.

Phil Tippet may be a genius with visual effects in other films, but in his first turn as a director, he's made a mess of Starship Troopers 2. Admittedly, it's not a complete loss. I actually ended up giving the film a 5 out of 10, even though that is a rating I usually reserve only for "so bad they're good" films. No, Starship Troopers isn't really good, but at times it threatened to get a 3 out of 10, while the closer it got to the finish line, the more it started seeming like a 7 out of 10 to me. I decided to average it. Keep in mind that in my rating system, a 6 is equivalent to the grade of D.

Oddly, I thought that the script was almost worth a C (or a 7) throughout the film. The biggest problem script-wise, aside from the fact that the tone of this film is completely different than the first (a fact that will turn off many viewers, but for which I wouldn't subtract any points in itself), was that the dialogue is overburdened with pseudo-militaristic gobbledy-gook and there are far too many characters to keep track of and care about. Towards the end, when the film turned more into a horror film than its previous contentment with being a war flick (this one is never really sci-fi), I thought the ideas were actually very good. I'm a huge horror fan, and the horror material worked for me. There was a nice amount of gore and decent suspense.

But those are the positives. Let's get to what the film does wrong. The biggest problems are the cinematography, lighting, and production design. For some reason, the opening scene of the film, which we could say goes on for maybe 40 minutes (far too long), is almost exclusively close-ups. We routinely have a screenful of someone's nose, mouth, or some other body part. Close-ups aren't bad in general, but when that's all a viewer sees for 40 minutes, and in the midst of what's supposed to be a grand-scale war with hundreds or thousands of combatants, it's awful. Everything is also too dark, and when it isn't dark, it's usually too bright, in that Tippet has a light or two pointing directly at the camera. And during fight scenes, we only get to see troopers face-on. We hardly ever see what they're shooting at.

Now, being generous, we might say that the point of all the above is to convey the claustrophobia and chaos of war. But that's being far too generous. The original Starship Troopers conveyed the chaos of war very nicely. In Starship Troopers 2, Tippet is really trying to cover up the fact that they had no budget to build sets, acquire props, hire many cast members, pay for cgi-rendered environments or even matte paintings. There are some cgi-rendered bug aliens (and maybe a couple small things done with mechanicals) and there is one set, but that's about it. Most of the film is poorly lit and backlit so that we can't see that the actors are on a mostly empty soundstage. The close-ups are an attempt to distract our attention from the small, low-budget scale of things. All of these aspects fail miserably. At least until halfway through the film, when we begin to see some cinematography and lighting on the single set that we could call "almost competent".

Even though I wouldn't subtract points for the difference in tone, it is quite a shock if you start watching Starship Troopers 2 expecting anything even remotely resembling the first film. The first film is a clever satire on society and militaristic thinking via its depiction of a future, war-hungry culture. We see clever commentaries on behavioral norms in our culture via different norms depicted in the film. We see funny things that are very similar to our present culture, but that are underscored by their temporal alienation. The first film is an ingenious, fast paced, epic scaled sci-fi/war/horror extravaganza.

This film on the other hand is just about as pedestrian as you can get. Even though the horror material is good once it finally arrives, it isn't exactly groundbreaking. There is no satire here, no cleverness, it's not fast paced, and it's the complete opposite of epic scaled. Even the tongue-in-cheek military/war advertisements shown on a computer-like screen from the first film fall flat here because they're presented more like television commercials with no window dressing or explanation for context.

Starship Troopers 2 isn't a complete failure, but I can't recommend it beyond its curiosity value, or for die-hard horror fans who are slightly masochistic and don't mind sitting through the war material to get to something more interesting. If a Starship Troopers 3 is ever made, more than likely you'll be able to skip this entry. As things stand now, 2 is not at all necessary to the story. This is more like an obscure footnote to the first film, about some long lost troop that no one really cares about. Only the new kind of "monster" may be of any interest.

I wouldn't say this was a disappointment from the point of view of being a feeble follow up to the original which, satire or not, wasn't *that* great. I would say the disappointment comes more from internal flaws. On the surface this is far better than most DTVs, several aspects of the production cleverly mask the film's low budget, and initially you might be forgiven for thinking it was a theatrical release. Unfortunately four fairly major flaws quickly arise: 1) The film is very boring 2) It doesn't make a lot of sense 3) Even if it was interesting and made sense it would be hard to tell because the camera wont stay still for five seconds 4) If the camera stayed still for five seconds you might not notice because the lighting is so poor.

So, not really worth bothering with then.

"Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation" is unlike your typical sequel to a big budget sci-fi action film. It is not surprising that this film is released 6 1/2 years after the original one(the first film was released in November 1997). However, I will not say that I was ecstatic about hearing about a sequel to one of my favorite movies of all time. I was much disappointed that none of the lead characters from the first film did not return for this sequel(if they would ever). Getting pass it, the film picks up after the first film,with a whole new gang of troopers fighting the monstrous alien bugs. You would think this movie would just be like the first "Starship Troopers:" excessive gore, gratuitous nudity and romantic subplots, but it is hardly any reflection on the first film. This film is darker in it's tone and nature. I went into watching this movie with a open mind, because I knew it would not be better than the first "Starship Troopers." One thing I did like in this movie is the twist. I was not expecting that to happen. I'm not gonna say anything else because I don't want to ruin anything. Anyway rent it or watch it on t.v.

In the past few months, a bunch of direct-to-video sequels to highly successful movies have been released. There has been WILD THINGS 2, there has been CRUEL INTENTIONS 3, there has been THE SKULLS 3, and now there is STARSHIP TROOPERS 2: HERO OF THE FEDERATION, a disappointing follow-up to the science fiction classic STARSHIP TROOPERS. There was really no reason for this movie to exist. A sequel was not necessary, but for some odd reason, this sequel was made.

The original STARSHIP TROOPERS was a big-budget extravaganza with a budget around $105 million. STARSHIP TROOPERS 2: HERO OF THE FEDERATION has a budget of a around $6 million so naturally the special effects in this one look like crap. The special effects are not the only poor-looking aspect of the movie. In fact, the whole movie just looks terrible. The cinematography is awful as is the acting, writing, and directing. This movie is as bad as a sequel can get. No stars.

From the very first frame of this film to the very last, it's completely obvious that it's a B-movie. A modern, low-budget, direct-to-video no less, action-B-movie. As a follow-up to the first, it's very bad. It turns the plot and theme of the first completely around. The plot is lame, and very unoriginal. The acting is horrible; there were times when it felt like a comedy, or a parody of the first. The characters are badly written cliches, derived from war movies and other B-movies. The cinematography is amateurish and lesser than that of the typical level of early film-student test film(believe me, it really is that bad). The director(or possibly the director of photography, or maybe the cameramen) seems to have a fetish for pointless and very quick zooming shots, and there seems to be quite a lot of camera angles that are zoomed much too far in. I also hated a few of the pan shots, but there were not as many as the zoom shots, and they were somewhat far between. The special effects are quite awful, though there were one or two effects that looked decent. The heroism and stereotyping of the main character/hero is ludicrous. I couldn't stop laughing at the scenes where he tries to look heroic. The whole film is quite laughable. The attempts at humor are cringe-worthy, and almost every scene that is supposed to inspire fear, tension or horror, inspired laughter and mockery instead. The dialog is ridiculous, and very badly written. The action is tame and never really intense. The horror elements are derivative of several much better movies, and generally don't work like they're supposed to, for various reasons(bad special effects,bad acting, bad camera angle). I know that this was direct-to-video, low-budget, and was possibly even intended as a B-movie, but come on, you can do better than this. Almost anyone could. I would guess that, given the same budget(about six million dollars, I think), I could have supplied a better, more interesting 90 minute flick. None of the limitations can be used to excuse how bad the film is. Direct-to-video? Please. So was Children of the Corn IV and American Psycho 2, and at least they were somewhat entertaining and much more professionally made. Low budget? Two words: El Mariachi. B-movie? Honestly... there are plenty of much more entertaining B-movies out there. Take Barb Wire, for example. All in all, a pretty bad film, but fans of B-movies might enjoy it. I recommend this only to fans of B-movies, and people who wished the first had been more like a B-movie. Fans of the first should stay away. I don't regret watching this, though. It was good for a laugh, and knowing that it's so bad is better than wondering about it. If you somehow, as a fan of the first, see this movie, try to think of it as comic relief, a spoof of the first. It'll soften the blow. 1/10

This movie is unwatchable. I found every single feature of it to be revolting.

For one, we have the effects. Every single bullet shot is a lame CGed blue pulse.

Two, they obviously didn't have anybody research military tactics. When the bugs are about to attack, instead of holding out inside the base and killing the bugs in hemmed-in territory (a la Sun Tsu), they move outside the base and massively expand their front. When the troops send a runner to inform someone that the bugs were coming, they send a heavy weapons operator, complete with his heavy gun.

Moreover, the behavior of the General is completely stupid. He acts like a Corporal at BEST.

The music is VERY poorly chosen, and never fits the scenes. Foreshadowing is very overt. Even the directing is shoddy... when the psychic fellow hallucinates, they use very ambiguous effects to signify it.

Please, avoid this movie at ALL COSTS. I swear, it couldn't have cost more than $50,000 to make...

I mean, really now. Flood the market with a good name... 2 Million people each spending 3 dollars to rent this movie, and you have made your budget. Easy right. Easy for the filmmaker. This movie was the equivalent of putting out a LOTR movie made with stick figures. Just terrible. I'm sorry, but there is something seriously unethical about doing this sort of thing to the consumer... But they don't care, all they want is stupid money.

And that's a good hour and 20 minutes of my life I'll never get back... Thanks. Seriously consider not buying, or renting this movie. This movie was quite possibly one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life. Yet because of this it still lingers in my mind. Not cool. And I will forever remember the horridness of it. Unnecessarily gory, horribly dark action scenes where you can not see more than 3 bugs at a time, and really, really, really cheesy guns... "Hey, let's fire light at the bugs, maybe that will scare them!!!" "OK!!!11!!1!" Like really, are blanks that expensive?

This weak excuse for a film insulted the good name of Starship Troopers. Not only does it have very little to do with the book, but it's plot is stupid as well. Good performances by the actor/actresses can't get past the pointlessly excessive violence and several frankly disturbing video sequences. This film has none of the style or comic timing of the first, just an unnecessary amount of murder and worrying sections. I'm a teenager and I thought this was over-violent for crying out loud!! What happened to the direction and writing teams of the original anyway? Why is the audience forced to endure this piece of trash. Many people, like myself, probably only saw this film because of the brilliance and originality of the first, but are instead subjected to this low rubbish. Yet another unneeded sequel,thank you so much Hollwood!!

Firstly I have to make something clear I loved the first movie,it was a sci-fi masterpiece.

This sequel does something no other sequel has ever attempted to do......and thats were it all went wrong,the plot has absolutely nothing to do with its predecessor it stumbles along at a very slow speed which becomes highly annoying due to the incredibly bad script which is badly performed by very poor actors who included BRENDA STRONG! the reason i have placed an exclamation mark after her name is due to the fact that she died in the first film and played a completely different character.One thing this film is said too have going for it is the high level of quality CG effects but if you actually watch the first film you will notice that every good CG moment is repasted into this production and changed in no way whatsoever.

OK lets talk about the directing,actually lets not because in my view this director seemed like he was trying to make a soft corr porno movie and not the sci-fi action film that most had hoped for,why do i say this you?well when you take in all the unnecessary nudity and cheesy as sin sexual innuendos it seems that the alien bugs have no interest anymore in getting into our galaxy and destroying our planet they seem too have more interest in getting into the Troopers pants.

This film supposedly cost $3,000,000,Hmmmmmmmm it would seem to my that Glenn S.Gainor should learn to spend his money more wisely

Obviously this movie (produced directly for TV) wouldn't be as good as the previous one (Starship Troopers). Other reviewers of this film must have had their expectations set a little bit too high...

Anyways, Richard Burgi does a nice job playing Captain Dax and Mr. Ed Lauter is always good to watch. The story is good but doesn't have the budget to back it up (A recommendation for those who like this film is Screamers). The CGI effects are not as bad as stated in previous reviews. They're not top notch but they're not too shabby either.

All an all, a pretty good b-rated action movie. And a must for any sci-fi lover.

Title: Starship Troopers II: Heroe of the Federation

Director: Phill Tippet

Stars:Bill Brown, Richard Burgi, Kelly Carlson, Cy Carter

Tagline: They are coming back to swipe us out!

Review: I love it when I have exceedingly low expectations for a movie then it just ends up being so good that it just takes me by surprise just how much I am enjoying the movie that I'm watching....this is exactly what happened to me with Starship Troopers II. From the moment that they started to shoot this film I thought that it had that "cheap movie aura" all over it from the very beginning. And since the first one was such a grand spectacle of monsters and fx...well hell, how could a straight to video, low budget sequel of it ever come close to pleasing us? Well..I was proved wrong.

This story focuses on a bunch of troopers who dive down to planet P to squash some more bugs...only thing is they end up stranded on an abandoned outpost in the middle of nowhere with thousands of hungry bugs just waiting to attack. The movie started with a bang! Good intense moments...and then the crew has to shack up in a claustrophobic environment and wait for a rescue. Will the bugs make it past the barricades? I loved this movie because of all that it accomplished with so little. This movie didn't have the mega budget production that Paul Verhovens first film had. That one was a huge summer movie and it showed, there were hundreds of extras and fx shots, galactic battles and spaceships blowing up and what have you. But now with Hero of the federation, the budget has been sliced, the situation isn't as grand and the production values have gone way down...still the movie managed to maintain a level of quality that is very astounding.

Phill Tippets a visual effects genius having worked on such films as Jurassic Park, The Star Wars trilogy and many others, so he puts all that knowledge to good use here. From a fx standpoint the movie is great! It has some decent looking bugs that looked just as good as a big budget picture. I was amazed at some of the sequences and the level of quality that they had for a film with such a small budget. Even the shots of exteriors done in CGI were impressive. Also Tippet did a few nudges to Paul Verhovens version by keeping a lot of the visual gags that appeared on the first film like for example the military news flashes. All in all Id say this is a very well directed flick, there was nothing that got in the way of the storytelling and it had some pretty cool camera shots.

The trick they used to bring down production costs was, basically the same trick that all small budget horror movies use. Trap you characters in a confined space (or the woods) and make the power go off at some point and use the advantage that the darkness and shadows give you. This was done on this movie, and very effectively. But you know what, even the sets where great! The lighting was perfect.

Another thing which I highly enjoyed about this flick: the acting. It had some good actors which were obviously committed to giving their best for the movie. Of special notice was Brenda Strong as Sgt. Dede Rake. She's always playing strong female characters and here she does it with a little extra gusto. Shes a kick ass chick...yet shes extremely likable. Also the conflict and the unease between some of the characters was very palpable. Good stuff.

The story will really grab you, I liked the twist the film takes and it goes into Invaders from Mars and Invasion of the Body Snatchers territory with the introduction of a new bug which makes from some really intense and gory sequences! I was amazed at the really gory scenes on this one! Its more of a horror film then the first one ever was. In fact the first one is not a horror film, it could be considered more of a straight sci/fi flick. But with this sequel a more intense horror element has been introduced and I dug it lots! I mean the blood really pours near the end and you my horror-loving gore-searching friend will love it.

All in all, I was very impressed with this film, I loved it from beginning to end and was surprised to see that it was done so well. I was really expecting a royal piece of bug crap. Instead I got a really gory and enjoyable flick.

Rating: 4 out of 5

The movie concerns about a team of soldiers who are surrounded in a shelter by an army of bugs formed by thousands of giant insects . The group is led by the hunk starring , Richard Burgi , along with Sandrine Holt , Porch , Lawrence Monoson and a general , Ed Lauter . But some officers become disenfranchised and feel betrayed by their own military . They'll take on too much dangers . The confrontation will be terrifying and lethal . The fighting will be terrible . The final showdown between the soldiers and contenders is breathtaking .

The film mingles shootouts , emotions , violence , struggles and a little bit of gore . This follow-up is made for 5% of the cost of Starship Troopers (1997) and shot in just 26 days . From the beginning to finish the warlike action is continued . First-rate special effects , they are made by means of computer generator by Eric Leven though there are Animatronics , as well . With the exception of stock footage used for the Fed-Net opening , no visual effects shots were recycled from the previous film ; they were all newly created by Tippett Studio . However , the storm clouds are actually toilet paper tubes with cotton stuck to them , slowly rolled forward , they were darkened and layered digitally.

Phil Tippet's direction (he created FX of the first part) is average . The movie is a bit boring , because developing itself in locked and shut scenarios . The cast is mostly formed by secondary actors and little known ; thus the starring , Richard Burgi , has appeared in several television series , only Ed Lauter has been acting in many films , but as support cast . The ¨Starship troopers I¨ by Paul Verhooven was much better with lots of action , tongue-in-cheek , irony and more spectacular , this second part is cold , tiring and claustrophobic , though there are enough thrills and action . The picture will appeal to commandos movies buffs and science fiction fans . Rating : Average but entertaining .

Not since Adonal Foyle has 6 million dollars been more wasted. I generally sit through an entire movie no matter how terrible: see Mr. Wrong, but this movie pushed me to the breaking point. I fully understand that "we're in it for the species" and with the amount of fornicating in this film procreation seemed mandatory but the mobile infantry has to be good for more then just this. What would Rico think? I'm only glad that Flores and Lt. Ratjack didn't live to see this abomination. Starship Troopers 2 is a Species meets a massive pile of elephant crap. Every soldier is infected w/ a parasite and apparently the only method by which the parasite is transfered is w/ gratuitous sex scenes. I emplore the Federation to go back to Planet P, use Neil Patrick Harris to find the brain, and end this before we are cursed w/ Starshp Troopers 3. Please if you value your time and sanity avoid Starship Troopers 2 at all cost for watching the entire movie will leave you feeling like the enson from the SS Roger Miller after his encounter w/ a brain.

let me begin to start about how the original movie was the best i ever seen. this shames what i ever heard.the story was just garbage, if this was from the same director, then he must have gone crazy

the movie sucked, now I'm for action movies, but this is just painful. the whole time i was watching this, i was praying to god it would get better. things this movie need work on, bigger budget maybe. the story needs more help. the design of EVERYTHING needs to be in the crap bin and replaced. the gun fire should be faster, assault rifle should be shooting faster then a b.b gun. too much romance and not enough actions. there's seem to be growing numbers of women each day, they seem to replace the men(not thats a bad thing). too much sex. the director from the last film should be redirecting this one, if this is the same director, then he should be shot. over all, this movie sucks, never watch it. so bad it don't even should get a rating.

Starship Troopers 2 should be avoided at all costs by all starship troopers fans and non-fans alike. If you hated the original, you will hate this. If you liked the original, you will hate this even more. It completely fails to do justice to the original. The first of many disappointments is that the story of the characters from the first film is not carried on in this one. Secondly,they could have had some great action scenes of armies of humans and bugs battling each other, but instead decided to go for a small group of people hiding in a building. Thirdly, the special effects are just awful, the acting is poor and the plot line poor. The decisions made by the characters at various points in the film seem unrealistic at best. To sum up, It Is Rubbish!!!

i picked this film up cheap on DVD not long ago, mainly down to the fact that the 1st movie was a blast, mindless gory sci-fi fun...iwas pretty much hoping the sequel would provide the same thrills...did it? yes and no let me say, the first half of this movie is pretty dire, it involves the small fleet of soldiers trying to fend off the bugs from a base they've taken refuge in, whilst there they release a prisoner (+ expert soldier) who was kept at the building. It's all kinda crap, bad acting, no real story, it's all abit boring. I thought at this point id be flogging this DVD on ebay as soon as it finished, then...

the 2nd half of this movie friggin rules, a story starts to unfold and the gore levels go through the roof. Suddenly this film is a lot of fun...some of soldiers you see are affected by bugs, and they who are want to infect the rest of the crew, queue some really cool special effects and some bloody death scenes and this film has suddenly been saved. Avoid the ridiculous OTT heroic ending and you'll be OK.

still this ain't gonna be for everyone, i think some people will give up on it in the first half hour, but don't! hae patience with it and you might start to enjoy this film as much as i did.

7/10...fun gore, cheese, fun!

Visual effects guru Phil Tippet makes his feature directorial debut with this direct-to-video sequel to Paul Verhoeven's 1998 space epic. This time around a Mobile Infantry unit is trapped at an outpost, far from any reinforcements and up to their eyeballs in bugs. But the soldiers hit a snag when a new bug shows up within the safety of the bunker and threatens to destroy the Federation. If you had to describe the film in a sentence it would be Aliens-meets-The Hidden. Tippet does a good job with the significantly smaller budget sequel which mixes up CGI effects with some pretty good practical effects. The script is pretty basic, not as much political commentary as the original. Basically a standard action flick with science fiction trappings and a little horror to boot. A cast of relative unknowns do a good job and the camera-work was pretty good. Since this is an action flick the audio design hits pretty good with plenty of directional effects and good bass response. A good but unspectacular sequel.