Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation

"You mean we didn't kill them all?"
"You never kill them all."

release year: 2004
genre: sci-fi/action
viewing setting: home DVD 1/9/23

synopsis: The battles against the bugs continue, in this case on a remote planet where a bunch of soldiers hole up as the alien creatures attack.

impressions: This movie used the basic background material of the original and then took things in a new direction...one more like a horror/monster film, given the forcible death/possession of human hosts by small bugs that get in through the mouth. It had some other elements too: a rookie soldier with some measure of psychic ability, a disgraced but veteran soldier, an idiot officer who doesn't know how to run a unit, and more. Overall, it was entertaining, if different...definitely not the best in this series.

acting: Richard Burgi is the skilled soldier who faces a court-martial if he survives this. Colleen Porch is the semi-psychic one. Lawrence Monsoon is the incompetent officer. Kelly Carlson (who looks like a lower-budget clone of a young Ashley Judd) is a soldier whose perpetual horniness masks something else. Ed Lauter, older and bald compared to his many roles in the 1970s and 1980s, is the general who must be rescued. Ed Quinn is a low-budget clone of Bradley Cooper.

final word: Worth seeing once, although it may bug you.

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