Starship Troopers: Invasion (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed)
	Actors: -
	Country: J, USA
	Genre: Action, Animation, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 08.09.2012, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Killing Bugs is still part of the day-to-day life of the Federation Trooper. The Psychic Carl Jenkins dissapears while on a secret mission to defeat the arachnid, and we follow a bunch of Troopers going to his rescue.
Review: I didn't expect much of this fourth episode of the saga, fully computer-generated, but it turned out to be the best since the first, which is one of my favorite movies ever. It is true that the second film (Hero of the Federation) was very cheap, and the third (Marauder) started to get better but still a B-movie, but this Invasion is a grade-A action movie. It is not exempt from defects but is quite well done, the images are good-looking, and I was holding my breath during some excellent action scenes. The storyline and character design is quite OK, which is always the risk with Japanese Anime. The action scenes and bug attacks are sometimes confused, due to the choice of having most of the action taking place inside a crowded spaceship.  The 1.5-hour making-of on the Blu-ray is quite instructive and explains the sources of inspiration for the movie, that we could already guess while watching it. The first film of course was used as a reference for the "look" of the whole thing. The original book and the Marauder movie are quoted for the introduction of the armored suits, while the design of the suits themselves is more inspired by recent video games (the similarity with the suits in the Lost Planet: Extreme Condition game is striking). Some details and story points are also taken from the TV series (Roughnecks). Thanks to the making-of we also learn how the Americano-Japanese collaboration on the movie went, and the problems caused by the cultural differences. Note that Casper Van Dien, the Johnny Rico from the frst and third films, is producer on this one. I will probably soon write an article about the saga, from the book to the TV series and the films.
Rating: 7 /10