Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars (2017) User Reviews

Great CGI, good action, but mediocre story...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 22 August 2017]

Another entry to the "Starship Troopers" franchise, and it is another CGI animated movie nonetheless. I can only speculate as to why they opted for a CGI animated movie and not a proper live action movie.

I found "Starship Troopers: Invasion" to be entertaining, and it was a definite improvement on the "Starship Troopers: Roughneck" animated series. So I was pleased to see that this 2017 "Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars" was very much in the same arena as "Starship Troopers: Invasion". So if you enjoyed that one, then you will definitely also enjoy this one.

The CGI was great, with lots of detail and great textures in every scene, ranging from characters and bugs to scenery and environment. It very much resembles the likes of the "Resident Evil" CGI animated movies in style of visual and design.

It was nice, of course, to have Casper Van Dien to return to reprise his Rico character, although the visual presentation of the character in the movie didn't really look much like Van Dien.

"Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars" is a non-stop action movie with focus on the battle of humans against the bugs. Which, I might add, it has essentially every other "Starship Trooper" addition to the franchise. So you should not expect a complex and deep storyline. You just lean back and enjoy the action of watching humans fighting bugs.

The dialogue in this 2017 CGI animated movie was somewhat stale and staggering. It didn't really feel natural and it was too simplistic, which was rubbing off negatively on the overall enjoyment of the movie.

This is definitely for the fans of the the "Starship Troopers" franchise. I was adequately entertained throughout the course of the movie, despite the fact that the storyline was unfathomably predictable.

And down we go again

[pway82 · 4/10 · 25 August 2017]

Enjoying the Starship Troopers franchise is a hard thing to do. From the excellent Paul Verhoeven live-action movie to the abysmal 2 sequels, the interesting Roughnecks animated series and the decent first CGI movie we now have again arrived at a low point. While the first CGI movie managed to combine elements of the book and the first movie into a gorgeous present to the fans, Traitor of Mars is a messy, hastily written mess, with dialogue so cheesy it makes you cringe. The sad part is that they clearly improved in the animation department, especially when it comes to the characters movements, which looked quite stiff in it's predecessor. You can also see that they spend a lot of time in designing believable equipment and sprinkling several nods to the franchise into the world. But all of this effort is negated by a lazy script, the unnecessary addition of one of the most boring villains in movie history, and voice acting so horrible it reminds you of children's cartoons from the 80s.

If you were a fan of the 1st one, don't watch this one

[bencex · 3/10 · 25 August 2017]

I'm giving it 3 stars because of the voice actors (original cast). Other than that, the film is garbage. I'm no military expert but the military/logical errors in the movie are terrible. It feels like the who script, story was written for some 10 year olds. Full of boring, old clichés and jokes that makes you want to fall asleep. If you really have nothing else to do, watch it, but even brushing your teeth for 1,5 hours is more entertaining than this. Such a shame they killed this great franchise after the first movie.

A good 2nd CGI addition to the franchise.

[frankblack-79961 · 7/10 · 10 August 2019]

Glad they continued the CGI movies as they seem to be putting some good ST material out at long last. Don't listen to the pretensious reviewers picking apart every little thing that didn't give them the same experience they got from Verhoeven's adaptation or Heinlein's book (which was mostly about politics and not much about the bug war). It's a worthy addition to the ST storyline. Yes, it's got some cheesy voice acting. Really not that bad though. Casper Van Dien was nominated for a voice acting award for gods sake. LoL. Give it a chance you apes! :)

sad entry to the franchise

[missionary · 3/10 · 23 August 2017]

Serious funding was spent on the CG and the storytelling, only to be ruined by third-rate dialog. Would have been an asset to Starship Trooper if they had invested in better scriptwriters. I realize the cost restraints and the enormous effort in the creative department and voice actors. But to neglect in spending in a decent dialog writer is just a shame....

Starship Troopers Traitor of Mars: Best ST movie since 1997

[Platypuschow · 7/10 · 12 October 2018]

Starship Troopers has a long history dating back all the way to the tail end of the 1950's, it's movie's started in the 80's and ever since it's been a very rocky road. They hit pay dirt with 1997's Paul Verhoevens epic but after that it all fell rather flat.

In 2012 they released Invasion which was the first animated Starship Troopers movie and it wasn't bad, in fact it was the best since 1997 as parts 2 & 3 of the live action were pretty terrible.

Here in 2017 with Casper Van Dien returning as Rico and oddly Dina Meyer returning as Dizzy they succeeded again as this is the best Starship Troopers movie they've made (With the exception of 1997).

Also returning for the ride is Carmen and Carl, but don't expect them to be voiced by Denise Richards or Neil Patrick Harris.

The plot is a conspiracy regarding a bug outbreak on mars and it's actually not all that bad. The animation though not entirely fluid still looks the part and even if it is a tad cheesy the voice acting is on point.

Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars is a rather enjoyable addition to the franchise. More of this would be greatly appreciated.

The Good:

Looks great

Some oddly good humour

The Bad:

Dizzy looked weird

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Kicking someone to the ground who is in possession of a nuke makes perfect sense

Battlesuits come standard with butt cheeks

Approval ratings are monitered active and live at all times

Great Action, Fine Animation, Decent Plot

[wwkirk · 7/10 · 26 December 2019]

Both "Starship Troopers" the book, and the 1997 movie, are classics. The present movie in no way measures up to them. But it's a decent sequel. It has great action, good graphics, and despite what many others reviewers have said, the plot is not bad. It highlights important themes in the Starship Troopers universe, and sets up possibilities for future sequels.

It is great seeing Casper Van Dien back in action as the heroic Johnny Rico, even as an animated avatar. It's also nice to have Dina Meyer return as "Dizzy" Flores, in a significant role.

As strange as it may seem to say this, I actually prefer the two most recent animated offerings in the Starship Troopers franchise to live-action sequels 2 and 3. With animation, extraordinary sci-fi action scenes don't seem as unrealistic as they can in some live-action films. It's also easier to accept them as fun. Since it is unlikely that any further sequels will be able to come close to the success of the original film, animation may be the way forward for the franchise.

Better than the non-cgi sequels!

[rsvp321 · 25 August 2017]

I enjoyed this, and I hope more cgi animation sequels are produced, as the quality from computers continues to get better by leaps and bounds.

I don't think it was meant to be a sequel, per se, but just a treat for the fans. The Rbt A Heinlein book is awesome, nothing like anything yet put on video, but the original movie and this one have some elements from it.

Fun, goofy, entertaining

[mightymothra · 8/10 · 22 September 2017]

I generally watch the Starship Troopers CG movies looking for ridiculously over-the-top action shlock I can put on with friends and laugh at while being entertained. Traitor of Mars does the trick on this front, but it actually has a pretty good story this time with a cast of lovable shlubs. Whoever came up with the concept of a makeup-caked bimbo Space Marine is exactly the kind of person who should be leading the charge on these Starship Trooler CG flicks.

These sequels are, as you might expect, nowhere remotely close to the verhoeven classic in terms of tone or message, but they surprisingly do a pretty great job of keeping up that same dumb fun 90's shlock feel that the surface level of first flick had: troopers are sent into the meat grinder time and again by incompetent superiors who are wholly detached from the reality of war. The difference is that, in these CG flicks, Rico will get launched 15 feet into the air, do a flip and jump-kick a giant bug to kill it, and it'll totally work. Everyone has anime plot armor and every dumb tactical decision can be fought through by shooting enough bullets at it.

In short, it's close enough to the surface level of the original to keep true, while also being wholly enjoyable shlock to watch with friends. Thought they did a good job with this one.

Simply awful

[[e-mail] · 1/10 · 15 September 2017]

I can't believe they spent more than $50 on the computer graphics for this movie. Like a poorly done first person shooter from the 90s. Story bland. Total waste of time.

Watch the original - it's a classic. Don't bother with any of the sequels.

Anime meets Metal Gear in this misguided movie.

[meritcoba · 10 September 2017]

Whatever meaning the novel and original movie Starship Troopers had is lost in this anime sequel that borrows its main character from Metal Gear Solid. This is not Rico, it is Big Boss. I wonder when the legal battle will ensue.

The whole political, moral and philosophical implications of an society dominated by the military and drenched in warfare is pushed to the background and so much so that merely making a reference to it seems to score favorable with the anime crowd. Oh blimey, they just quoted a line from the original movie! Awesome! As long as it is anime, which means over-muscled though guys, dramatic looking characters, supposedly funny nerds and long slender blacked hair girls with big breasts wearing suggestive outfits and anime haircuts. I swear that the air marshal is Lightning from Final Fantasy.

What we get served is a trashy story of a bunch of stereotypical newbies that get dropped in the midst of a surprise attack on Mars by aliens nobody except the audience saw coming. There are issues over Mars trying to gain independence for the federation, but this is never addressed properly because it is just required as a plot device to get the newbies fighting giant bugs over a planet and for a population we never see or hear from. It is just shallow window dressing.

What is even worse is that almost all the characters are boring run- of-the-mill anime tropes which is exacerbated by a shallow story-line that is goes something like: bunch of newbies wise up under stress to the surprise of their though as nails commander Rico.

This movie is best avoided for anyone but die hard anime fans.

Actually I do not dislike anime, but it ill fits with Starship Troopers. By all means, make a movie in which a bunch of staple characters fighting insectoid invaders. Just call it something else but Starship Troopers if that is all you want to do.

ST feeling with new elements

[karolypeti · 7/10 · 19 January 2019]

Really enjoyed this one! It sets on a bit different path from the original movie but it has a great contstruct and gets some elements from the original novel too. The atmosphere and story brings a good follow up to the first movie. Recommend to watch this one some time after the first movie and you'll get a real treat in ST! 😉

This is rated too high

[bwc-maneke · 3/10 · 15 April 2021]

While the animation is decent at best "Sgt Rico" wouldn't be commanding a squad full of cowards! It wasn't even 5minutes in and the feminist sexism was already glaring at you daring you not to notice it while its slapping you in the face. With its bold statements like "Marines are apparently all cowards" except Rico which I take personal offense to and "Marines will stand there in shock while their team gets killed right in front of their eyes" then lastly only women are somehow immune to this with a bug seemingly barking at her like a dog instead of taking that same exact time to rip her apart. Im sorry but this is bulls***.

The first two movies were an allegory for the military indoctrination of youth and the military complex at large. If you were quick you caught what the writer and director were saying. We are the bugs, we move from place to place consume the resources and move to the next area and do it again while we destroy everything in the path even if its the planet its self.

This animation did not land close to the tree that spawned it. The viewer might enjoy this if your IQ is low or your below a 12th grade reading level.

Most like the book

[brianmlucas · 7/10 · 14 August 2020]

This is not your father's Starship Troopers, the OG movie that still stands up today despite its many flaws. This CGI version is very much more like the original 1959 book. Also a flawed classic that has held up well. It's too much to compare either to this. This on it's own is a fine little CGI movie that has the benefit of the original voice actors. It does convey the books esprit d'corps of the Mobile Infantry and the ahead of it's time tech powered suits. I liked it. It was is fun sci fi military bang bang shoot 'em up on Mars with the voices of actors I remember fondly in the same role. I did not expect anything else and was not disappointed.

Good but crippled by the script.. such a shame

[dave-35295 · 7/10 · 27 August 2017]

Its another one of those.. "oh it could have been so much better" films. I really do want this type of Annie film to succeed.. why ? because it has so much potential and I expect in the future , if done right will fill the gaps between big blockbusters and a need for "more" at a reasonable price. Starship troopers was my late fathers favorite Sci fi film. There were very few films he would repeatedly watch but that and Independence Day where two of them. Why.. because they were fantasy silliness with no need to engage your brain. It fell short of the book by a mile, which in my opinion is one of the best Sci Fi books written, however you have to actually engage your brain the same as when reading Forever War or An Old Man's war. All have deep and symbolic subliminal messages that can cause a paradigm shift in ones perception of modern conflict and society's concepts of morality. Back to the film sorry for the monologue lol The CGI was great.. had no problems with that at all, in fact some parts where excellently executed, however you had a feeling the budget had been spent and they were filling if the background in some parts. Casper Van Dien was fantastic.. had no problems with his acting.. your only as good as your script and I would think the co-stars may have been better had they had one. Great sound effects.. music etc was fine. I had absolutely no expectations for this film, but I wouldn't say it was a complete waste of my time. I think one of the animators had a serious crush on (Sky Marshall) Emma Watson.. post if you agree ! A big problem I had was its school boy/girl mentality, and parts where just pure juvenile. Yet other parts where violent and visceral… I would have liked them to stick to latter and made a gritty slugfest of a war film. That's the great thing with Man versus bugs, you just need a start and victorious end scatter with some dark humor and a bit of nakedness.. nothing much more. Less dialog would have been more and would have improved it 10 fold. Also would have been a good idea if they have left out the mentally addled despot as it did nothing for the film at all. Conclusion.. it's a shift in the Star Ship Trooper series, and one that could have been so much more entertaining .. but still worth a watch if you like this type of film … get it together and you could have a winner next time.

Voice acting was the biggest problem.

[RafVne2 · 5/10 · 15 February 2019]

I'm a fan of CGI movies, unfortunately, there was one BIG problem... Voice acting suuuuucked. I could barely watch it. Storyline wasn't too engaging either, or maybe I just couldn't get into it because of those voices.

Animation is quite good though (except for few segments), and it was somewhat visually pleasing. but that will not save that movie... those voices were so fake, it was unbearable. Also, considering it's a 2017 production, I would expect better emoting from the characters. They weren't horrible, but if you compare it to "Final Fantasy", they fall short, and FF was released in 2001

A properly fun bug bash

[eydryan · 8/10 · 19 March 2018]

A masterpiece, this isn't, but it's a damn entertaining movie that doesn't take itself too seriously, and for that I think it deserves some credit. I can't imagine this had a big budget, but the graphics look great, the voice actors play with heart, and the in-movie propaganda is funny yet realistic enough that it doesn't feel forced.

Yeah, it's full of tropes and other weird bits, and it introduces some characters only to ignore them for the most parts, but for what it is, it's pretty well made. Don't go into it expecting a true successor to Starship Troopers, just watch it like you'd watch something like Final Fantasy the Spirits Within; suspend disbelief and enjoy some bug ass-kicking.

I liked it, and I really think you might too, so give it a shot!

The best sequel

[joakim589-1 · 7/10 · 30 January 2022]

This is the best sequel to Starship Troopers. It has some good action moments, and the story is ok. The length of the movie is good, one and a half hour.

The word we are looking for is "lazy"

[SebastienSpa · 25 September 2019]

It's hard to find a worthy introduction here because this is more of a mess than a movie. After everything that spawned after the original movie, everyone was so much in hope that one day there will a sequel or spin-off that kinda got the idea of part one and continued it in a decent manner. Well, we are still waiting...

In times where computer games cinematics are made in a very sophisticated way this movie looks like it's been made by fans using a game engine. Some animations and (bug) walk cycles look so bad, you can literally say "my playstation graphics look better". Things we have to distinguish though is effects quality and cinematography, and the cinematography is quite ok at some points. I actually found the music quite fitting at most points and the theme(s) of the original film received a passable makeover, except for when the music department decided to make a dream-metal version of it. It's one of these many moments where you just look into the sky and scream "whyyyy"?

But the most annoying two things are the new characters (their interactions, their models - some much less detailed than others -, their dialogue, etc...) and the (missing) logic of some scenes. The most prominent point in my opinion is time: Time is so scarce in some scenes, the bugs are advancing fast in vast numbers - it takes forever to just kill one - and yet the characters find lush windows of time to spew out dialogue that is, and here we are again, duller than in most mediocre video game cinematics. Certain decisions made, some serious lag in reaction times and some immediacies of unfoldings in situations just make no sense at all. And as much as I tried - it killed the atmosphere, credibility and legitimacy of this film for me. You may get through with in video game cutscenes - but not in a movie.

All in all: Here and there a scene is nicely set, here and there an effect actually works, here and there something not completely predictable happens and here and there story proceeds in a way that actually would make sense on a larger scale of tolerance. But most of the time this is just an empty movie that decorates itself with names that we once learned to love - only to find dull shells of the past. Yes, this one is lazy, very very lazy.

Another waste of time

[troyandberyl · 1/10 · 10 January 2021]

What is it about Starship Troopers that film makers just can't get right? From the grotesquely awful piece of schlock that was the 1997 version to this waste of time, Hollywood just can't get it right. Don't waste your time with any of the these films. Go read the book instead.

Convoluted plot, but still enjoyable

[rich7354 · 6/10 · 19 October 2021]

The animation in this movie was top notch and, at times, very realistic. Too bad the same can't be said for the convoluted plot. Additionally, the voice acting for the Lost Patrol members made it seem like I was watching an old Saturday morning cartoon.

Nevertheless, it was still fun to watch; but, it could have been so much better with a decent script and better voice acting.

Not much to like in this comic book

[drystyx · 3/10 · 27 February 2022]

Another of the mundane sequels to the sci fi giant alien bug invasion.

This one is on Mars.

It could have been good. It begins with what I thought was obviously a training mission, since the recruits in the mission were totally out of their element.

That's okay. We know it's a training mission.

What's wrong is the poor writing about these "inferior" people who were raised on Mars. They're not treated as human even by the writing/direction team. They're just things less than insects.

It's the sort of self righteous superiority complex that alienates any viewer who isn't in the special clique of Hollywood elites. Another of those "If you're not from LA, New York City, or Chicago, then you're a goon" bits of hate that the most hateful terrorists on Earth are adamant about preaching.

The visuals are annoying. It's an attempt to blend animation with some kind of realistic look that only serves to make it look ridiculous. And frankly, it's too annoying to watch straight through.

Everything is comic book predictable. Not a terrible movie, but well below par, and with no risk taking at all, it's super "run of the mill" formula.

Good animation, moronic dialogues

[recca1224 · 3/10 · 22 April 2021]

The animation looks like a decent game cut scenes but the dialogue through out the whole movie is just moronic. Killed the moments that were supposed to be exciting or sad.

Not bad at all, if you ignore the bland animation and the half speed

[siderite · 7/10 · 5 December 2020]

I noticed this trend with game animations, then CGI movies, just like this one: everything happens slower than in a real film. You can test that by playing a film at 2x speed, then at 3x speed. If it is still understandable, then something is definitely wrong. Traitor of Mars could have been watched reasonably at twice the speed, maybe even faster, which in my mind makes it a 45 minutes film. Also, the 3D animation, while professional, was not inspiring in any sense.

That being said, the story and voice acting was quite OK. I was glad to hear van Diem and Meyer themselves voice their characters. The film is consistent with the original movie's mythos, the Fascist Federation, the political machinations - now upgraded to the present by a Sky Marshall that only cares about viewer ratings, the bug infestations, the psychic core. It is not smart by any means, but it's entertaining as a military survival plot against terrible odds. I do dream of an intellectual remake of the whole thing, though, something that takes into account the bugs motivation as well, more Starcraft (the story) and Ender's Game (the book) and less Metal Gear and shooter games.

Who wrote this trash?

[sirwulfrick · 3/10 · 20 February 2021]

Such a shame, this could have been a great animated film. To be fair to the film the quality of the CGI is really rather good: animations are smooth and natural and the graphics for want of a better term are excellent. The voice acting is also pretty good.

The major problem here is the quality of the script writing and dialogue. The plot is one lenthy cliche. The attempts at humour are both ill-timed and juvenile at best. The antagonist is frankly assinine and the story itself is incoherent and has very little to do with the wider Starship Troopers franchise.

Potentially good film ruined by abysmal writing.