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While Crave was visiting Sony at IFA, we were shown a trailer for a new Blu-ray movie — it was none other than the third instalment of Starship Troopers and a landmark for both silliness and interactive features. So impressed were we, that we asked for a copy of the film to peruse, and Sony Pictures obliged.
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.
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 timewasting we’ve ever seen. We couldn’t load the disc in our PlayStation 3 quick 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. The trailer Sony produced for the release is also entertaining, and well worth a minute of anyone’s time. –Ian Morris
