Eye Candy #379 - "Starship Troopers 2 - Hero of the Federation"

Starship Troopers 2 - Hero of the Federation: Saw that there was a new ST movie coming out direct-to-video, so I figured I’d get caught up on the gleefully fascist adventures of the bug-hunting mobile infantry.  Made 7 years after the original, the cast is loaded with people who were (at the time) on the cusp of more high profile work: Kelly Carlson (Nip/Tuck), Brian Tee (F&F: Tokyo Drift), Ed Quinn (Eureka), Richard Burgi (Desperate Housewives), amongst others.  We are back to being knee-deep in homicidal alien bug hijinks again.  Gone is the fun sense of humor from the first film, the tongue-in-cheek absurdity of the newscasts, etc.  But since this was made for about 5% of the original, it feels like a Sci-Fi Channel production.  This time around, an infantry unit is holed up in an outpost surrounded by bugs, waiting for evac.  However, not everything or everyone is as it seems, a la “Alien“ and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers“.  Swerving more into horror than sci-fi, it’s only partly successful. This was directed by Phil Tippett, an Oscar-winning visual effects artist.  Not a flaming pile, but certainly a step down from Parts 1 and 3.  Woodchuck sez, “Worse movies exist, but not in this series.”