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September 11, 2008 12:20 PM PDT

Blu-ray interactive silliness: 'Starship Troopers 3'

by Ian Morris

While Crave UK was visiting Sony at IFA, they were shown a trailer for a new Blu-ray movie--it was none other than the third installment of Starship Troopers and a landmark for both silliness  and interactive features. So impressed were they, that they asked for a copy of the film to peruse, and Sony Pictures obliged. Here's what ensued.

If you haven't seen the original Starship Troopers, you're missing out on one of the best B-movie action-sci-fi-comedy romps of all time. A movie that never takes itself too seriously and a genuinely enjoyable hour and a half, with plenty of bug shooting and some hilarious gore. If you haven't seen the second movie, good--it was little more than a cynical attempt to milk a successful title and should be ignored. But the third seems to be more in the spirit of the original.

Blu-ray interactive features (Credit: Sony Pictures)

It stars Enterprise's Jolene Blalock, a woman of several talents and one sure to adequately replace Denise Richards in all important areas. Denise, of course, was unavailable due to making a reality TV show and because she no doubt believes she's above such piffle.

This movie is both written and directed by Ed Neumeier, who wrote both the first two films, as well as being responsible for the original Robocop movie. This chap certainly has his own style. Anyway, the story revolves around a crashed ship deep in bug territory and a mission to rescue its crew. But who really cares? The point of this movie isn't the story--it's the horrific car-crash of bad acting and low-budget effects that we all came to see.

By far the most exciting and innovative feature is "Put Yourself in the Movie," where you, the viewer, can upload a shot of your head to the BD Live Web site and then, brilliantly, appear in a few select scenes.

Of course this feature is almost totally pointless, but frankly it's some of the best time-wasting we've ever seen. We couldn't load the disc in our PlayStation 3 quickly enough, and our hands were trembling with excitement as we uploaded our photo. Bingo--as if by magic, there we were in the thick of the action.

Other interactive features include a director commentary and something called Marauder Mode, which is essentially the traditional picture-in-picture behind-the-scenes affair we're pretty used to on HD discs. You'll need a profile 1.1 player to use this mode, and profile 2.0 to appear in the film clips. So a PS3 is still the best way to watch this film.

Anyway, if you liked the first one, there's every chance you'll get a kick out of this movie.

Via Crave UK

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by CmdrRickHunter September 11, 2008 5:05 PM PDT
The movie may be enjoyable if you've never heard of Robert Heinlein before. If you're like me, and read his Book "Starship Troopers" before watching the movie, you'll be so disgusted with their choice of naming that you won't finish the movie. The movie relies on Heinlein's good name, but the only things that make it into the plot are "we're at war with aliens" and a few main character names (but none of the main character personalities or back stories)
Reply to this comment
by solblack September 12, 2008 1:10 PM PDT
That's the book this is the movie.
CHILL
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