The Starship Troopers franchise is starting to look a lot like the Highlander film franchise, with each chapter struggling (and usually failing) to live up to the first feature, often borrowing a different thematic tone, visual style or narrative structure from the previous chapter. Thankfully, the quality of each picture is a few shades better than most Highlander sequels. Still, the Starship Troopers franchise has struggled to find a decent follow-up to the original genre classic.
Starship Troopers: Invasion is the latest attempt, and like the second and third film, it's a bit more miss than hit. Instead of trying for another live-action picture, this fourth entry in the franchise mixes things up, swapping live-action visuals for computer animated carnage. And while this is a novel approach to the effects-heavy source material, the execution leaves much to be desired.
Sadly, Starship Troopers: Invasion looks and feels like a video game cut scene. Worse, it's clearly ripping off games like Halo and Resistance instead of following the satirical-meets-ultraviolent tone of the original film. What remains is a vacant picture that's sometimes fun, but more often a chore to sit through, especially during the lumbering downtime between action set pieces.
The film certainly serves up plenty of action and violence, at least, courtesy of the franchise's resident enemy, the bugs. There's also quite a bit of computer-animated T&A for those who find that sort of things appealing (I'll take my skin doses in live-action, thank you). And fans will enjoy seeing Johnny Rico, Dr. Carl Jenkins and Carmen Ibanez again, albeit with different voices and faces (to avoid likeness issues).
The story, involving a trooper team being sent to protect a Federation outpost, is thin and tiresome, but decent enough. The characters are layered with cliches, but it's not like the original film was a masterpiece of rich characters. Still, this film's idea of character development is giving a character a scar and a raspy voice.
If you enjoyed the Resident Evil animated movies, Starship Troopers might appeal to you. But, like the other sequels, it simply doesn't hold a candle to the first feature, with less engaging action, a worn story and lifeless characters. The film is gory, and occasionally fun, but it's simply missing the quality and crucial ingredients that separate a film from a video game cut scene.
Starship Troopers: Invasion comes to Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The combo pack includes a Blu-ray and UltraViolet cloud streaming digital copy of the film. The Blu-ray is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen, encoded in 1080p. The film's soundtrack is presented in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio.
Usually with CG-animated films, the transfer is clean, crisp and well-defined, with staggering visuals and a bold palette. Don't expect any of that here. Instead, the muddy transfer is lifeless, with flat images and little depth. A heavy fog of grain and noise plagues every single scene, rendering smooth images and little texture. What texture there is looks cancerous and ugly, highlighted by a nasty palette of grays and blacks. While a great many of the issues here seem to be the result of the animation style, they also permanently damage the quality of the hi-def presentation, rendering a transfer that almost looks like a shoddy SD-to-HD up-conversion.
Audio is slightly better, though it's not without its faults, either. Dialogue sounds hollow and lifeless, with that nasty echo that's common with lower-budgeted animated projects. Audio mixes for animated films should never sound like the dialogue was recorded in a sound stage, but that's exactly what it sounds like here. The mix also succumbs to quite a few high-end crackles and minor muffled distortion, thanks to the Halo-inspired suits our characters wear. Thankfully, the film compensates by delivering an aggressive, immersive mix during action beats. It's a shame the film's ugly animation can't match the atmosphere brought by the thunderous bass and explosive surrounds.
Extras are downright impressive. It seems studios are again embracing bonus material, even on smaller releases like this one. The disc includes an impressive 11-part 80-minute making-of documentary, chronicling the entire production, from start to finish (this track features English and Japanese audio, with optional subs). While certainly expansive and informative, admittedly, unless you're a die-hard fan of this film, the documentary isn't really worth watching.
The disc also includes a Japanese commentary with the filmmakers (with optional English subs). Again, unless you're a die-hard lover of all things Starship Troopers, this track'll probably play a little dry and dull. Extras conclude with a BD-exclusive conceptual art gallery, trailers, a gag reel and deleted scenes.
Become a friend of R.L. Shaffer on Twitter, Facebook or MyIGN for quotes, rants, reviews, news and more!
Starship Troopers: Invasion could have been interesting with the right hands behind the lens, guiding the story and characters to refreshing directions. Better animation would most certainly help, too. Instead, the film is quite reminiscent of a video game cut scene, sans the joy of any actual gameplay.
Source : ign[dot]com
No comments:
Post a Comment