Starship Troopers is one of my favorite sci-fi films, which isn’t surprising considering the idea kind of reminded me of StarCraft when I first saw it. As much as I wanted a sequel to the original back in 1997 I hated Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation. So why did I watch Marauder? Call me crazy, or just call me a completionist. Either way.

Right off the bat I’ll say that Marauder is a hell of a lot better than Hero of the Federation, though it’s naturally not as good as the original Starship Troopers. It’s still got that tongue-in-cheek attitude that the original had with its “Would You Like To Know More?” commercials, as well as returning soldier Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien!), but other than that it still feels like a cheaply made sequel, barely above the level of a SyFy original movie.

The story is slightly more epic in scope than Hero of the Federation‘s claustrophobic setup, but it feels like an excuse to “up the ante” of the war with the bugs and introduce new elements. Also, the characters themselves all feel … well, kind of stupid. You have to wonder how these people can be so high up in the military, even a fictional, futuristic one that the film itself makes fun of. *Half of the cast are just way too unlikeable, and the other half aren’t even given an ample amount of screentime to make up for it*.

My advice is this: if you haven’t already seen Hero of the Federation or Marauder, DON’T WATCHEITHER. All it will do is taint the greatness of the original film. If you HAVE seen Hero of the Federation, pop Marauder into your Netflix cue so you can at least wash away some of the bad taste left in your mouth. Trust me, it helps. I know.