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Reviews
Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (2008)
Better then the second one but what wasn't?
It was better then Starship Troopers 2. But the only thing that would have been worse would be a 90 minute film of someone taking a crap. The main problem with this film is it actually tries to be faithful to the first one and that's not good. The first Starship Troopers was made by Paul Verhoveven, a guy not as clever or smart as he thinks he is. It was clear that Verhoveven despised the book which the film was based which showed military service as a positive thing. The film he made was a deliberate spit in the face to the book, turning the concept of courage and service into being a duped fascist puppet. This sequel tries to do the same. It attempts to satire war and the role of religion during war. However the films level of satire are as complex and subtle as someone dropping their pants and mooning you. One of its selling points was the return of Casper Van Diem, the star of the first movie. This a bait and switch move. Van Diem shows up for the first few minutes and is seen for two minutes in the middle and then 5 minutes at the end. Really he looks like he's just waiting to get his money and leave. Most of the film involves new characters stomping through a desert on a remote planet which goes on far too long. The first movie at least knew to throw us a battle scene every 10 minutes to keep us from losing interest. This one not having anywhere near the budget of the first can't and we're stuck with people trying to act with a poor script. I will give the film points on not being completely predictable. I was sure the admiral played by Amanda Donohue was being set up to be the main villain of the piece. Turns out she isn't and her twisted logic makes sense considering the situation. Other then that the film is an attempt to be a sequel to an overrated first film done by people with even less talent and money.
Sands of Oblivion (2007)
Starts out promising then goes nowhere
Watching the first 30 minutes of Sands of Oblivion gave me high hopes. It seemed I was in for a cheaper version of the Mummy. The setup was promising, in the 1920's Cecil B. Demille makes his opus of the Ten Commandments. It seems in using real Egyptian artifacts for the movie set they unleashed an ancient and terrible evil (don't they always?). Aware of what had been unleashed DeMille orders the entire set buried instead of the usual practice of tearing it down. Hopefully the evil will be buried with it for all time. Then we switch to present day where a team is attempting to excavate the site (the movie's first mistake, but hey those period costumes are expensive and this is a Sci-Fi channel movie). The first sightings we get of the Anubis monster are well done and it's a costume that they put some effort into and not the usual cheesy CG effect. Then the body counts starts. This is were the movie went south for me. The reactions to the fact that people are dying in gruesome and strange ways gets a strangely subdued reaction. Once they realize that the ancient evil has again been unleashed and is on a killing spree what do the stock issue leading man and lady do? They make the usual stop to the "guy who knows the truth but never told anyone". After getting that vital information do they share it with the comrades at the dig site? No, they stop off at a hotel for a refreshing shower and some pleasant small talk. Really I'm not the most motivated person but if I knew a demon from ancient Egypt was on the loose and killing everyone in sight and would be coming after me I'd put a little hustle in my step to solve the problem. After this overlong and pointless middle section they get around to destroying the Anubis monster in the usual way, by racing around in dune buggies and shooting it with a rocket launcher while it's standing by a pile of phosphorous grenades. For a Sci-Fi movie it was above the usual crap they put out, which isn't saying much at all. What disappoints me is this could have been a lot more if someone had wrote a decent script for it.