Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers has finally found the appreciation it deserves, with the razor-sharp satirical sci-fi blockbuster proving a lot more popular among modern viewers than it did back in 1997, when it drastically underperformed at the box office and left critics confused by its unique blend of big budget intergalactic violence and jet-black comedy.
It may have been a critical and commercial disappointment at the time, but that didn’t stop Starship Troopers from going on to launch a long-running franchise, even if it surprisingly hasn’t been subjected to the remake and/or reboot treatment as of yet. The saga spans three movies and two animated features in total, with 2008’s VOD threequel Marauder currently slicing and dicing its way up the streaming ranks.
As per FlixPatrol, the return of Casper Van Dien’s Johnny Rico has surged on the iTunes worldwide watched-list this week, and it was actually a surprisingly decent B-level genre flick. In fact, Marauder even landed a Saturn Award nomination for Best DVD Release Category, so it’s hardly the cynical and thoughtless cash-grab that it easily could have been.
Original screenwriter Edward Neumeier pulls double duty on the third entry by penning the screenplay and directing, with the return of Van Dien painting the picture of a genuine labor of love, as opposed to a cash cow being milked entirely dry for the sake of an IP that holds some name value among its diehard supporters.
It’s a standard military vs. aliens shoot ’em up at the end of the day, but it could have easily been so much worse than it was.