MYST POST #4: Starship Troopers 3

Since I reviewed the new Robocop, I decided to also review the third film in the Starship Troopers franchise. This film I like almost as much as the original due to its campy, low-budget yet big scaled, epic scifi feeling it gives. Heck, I may even like it better!! However, review sites like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB are literally split at whether the film is good or not. Half of the reviewers say yes, the others say not so much. This is why I want to review this one rather than the original. This one has more controversy, and boy do I like controversy!

Since most of you probably didn't even know there was a third, let alone a second Starship Troopers, i'll be sure give you a summary of the plot as we discuss this movie. The film takes place years after the original, and possibly ignores the second film, and mainly surrounds the federation learning more and more about the bugs. The film begins by mimicking trench warfare from World War 1. The bugs are surrounding the premises of the electric field guarded trench. We see a few propaganda videos from the Federation, the global government, which features Sky Marshal Anoke singing "A Good Day To Die". This could be a reference to the original film in its self because the director of the original and this one, Paul Verhoeven, stated that the original was supposed to be "playing with fascism or fascist imagery to point out certain aspects of American society... of course, the movie is about 'Let's all go to war and let's all die.'" It is also nice to know that even after centuries of research the government still can't give the military safe armor, for a guy early on gets impaled by one of the shovels given to the troops by the federation to dig up the trenches. This could be done purposely by the government for population control or something, but as it appears in the film, it could have been added just as a joke.

Now I would like to pause here and discuss one of the many lessons this film tries to get across. In a particular scene we are brought to the attention that the Federation is arresting and silencing people from talking against the war. While a hanging occurs on a TV in the bar that Rico and Dick are in (and I swear they called him Dick as a joke), a few redneck looking people talk about how displeased they are with the Feds. Once the people on the TV are hung, the rednecks go crazy and Dick orders Rico to arrest him. This is the scene where Rico realizes how wrong this all may be. Rico tells Dick that he's wasting his time and should spare them, but Dick takes offense to this and ends up arresting Rico as well! This shows how strict and dictator-like this government really is. It can, again, relate back to the first World War, or the Great War. Anyone who spoke against the war was threatened by the government. Even when the war ended, the Red Scare followed, which had people, thought to be communists, being silenced as well. Anyway, this is just one out of many symbolic things in this epic scifi flick!

After Rico is arrested, we further realize that something may be wrong with Sky Marshal Anoke. He is just not acting right. This somehow leads to a crash landing onto a local planet. Later on, Dick is driven to a restricted area (not Area 51 unfortunately) where the Brainbug from the first movie is kept....

Now that's one ugly mother. In fact, the design of the Brainbug was inspired by an anus or female genitalia. The reason was because the creators of the original wanted the Brainbuug to have an offensive face. Exactly why is not really known, but probably just for shock value and laughs. Compared to the original, this Brainbug looks very nasty and even more realistic than his cgi past. Moving on, Dick finds out that the Brainbug was using its telepathic powers against Anoke's, causing him to give in to the Bug's demands. The bug then screams and begins to break out of its poor quality cell until Dick shoots him to pieces with a rifle. With this new info, the audience can assume that something very bad is going to happen to Anoke's crew. It isn't until later, after an attack by an underground bug, that the crew finds out Anoke has Bug Religion. Yes, Bug Religion. Anyway, we find out that the Federation is covering up that Anoke has gone missing to the public. Obviously symbolizing how the news and media cannot always be trusted. We then finally return to Rico, only to find out he's going to be 'hanging around' the execution room. I know, bad jokes. As Rico is hung, his rope breaks and he falls into the pit beneath to find his former friend and commander, Dick. Rico is then sent on a top secret mission to the planet Anoke is on to save the crew. Here is where we see the shadows of the awesome Marauders. Then we cut back to Anoke and his crew.

"You will know the name of God, the one true god - Behemecoatyl. Brain of brains."

—Sky Marshal Anoke.

Probably the best part of this movie is the supposed "God Bug" Behemecoatyl. Yes, you heard that right as well. The bugs ever since day one have apparently been following a religion surrounding one giant huge bug. As ridiculous as this sounds, and probably is, there is a heavy moral behind it. After the destruction of the God Bug species (unless there are more of them, Who knows?), the Federation decides to bring back a religion similar to Christianity to the people to make them even more under control. Think of it like a dictatorship, but instead of worshiping the leader of the govt., you worship a being of higher power. You see, real studies have shown that people of religion can do more things during tests than those without. For example, a scientist once tested students to see which one had religion and which ones didn't. He then put up cups of orange juice and vinegar (bad combination) for the students to drink. Surprisingly, the ones with religion drank more than the ones without. Something similar to that was happening here. The bugs were losing the war at first, but once they gained Bug Religion, they suddenly started winning the war. But the moral of the story isn't that you should be religious, it's more of a "Freedom of Religion" type story. The government only gives people religion for their own needs, not for the people. Heck, the whole war between the bugs and humans started just so the government could have a stable economy! Basically, the whole war going on here is dictator vs dictator, it's just that one is a giant bug. Oh, and if you want to know how big this mortal "God" is....

All in all, Starship Troopers 3 isn't that bad of a film. It relates a lot to the first film, and may even surpass it at times. For the budget this film had, it did freakin awesome! I would highly recommend this movie to those who just love cheesy, yet at times horrific, sci-fi movies. 

Now i'd like to end this review bu acknowledging that they made a fourth one back in 2012. Yes, I did see it. I thought it was- decent. The one major problem was that they left out the propaganda bits!! Why?!?! Oh well, at least we finally got a 4th film.