For those who don't know......(and that seems to be all of you)

The script for Starship Troopers 2 was dreamed up during the filming of the first one, but it was never intended to be the sequel. The filming the first film had gone over budget by several millions of dollars and someone came up with the idea that they could film a scaled down second movie(no gore,no sex) with a 2nd set of actors, using the existing already built sets while those sets were still standing and show it on T.V. as a made for T.V. movie called "Starship Troopers: The Lost Platoon" ......and then debut the Made for T.V. movie on television two weeks before their release of Starship Troopers in theaters. Somehow the made for T.V. movie was going to be a advertisement/marketing tool for over-the-budget studio nightmare "Stardship Troopers" which cost over $126 MILLION to make .....and because the costumes and sets already existed,the T.V. movie was going to cost pennies on the dollar to make..............COLUMBIA/TRI-STAR Pictures was never able to secure a prime-time air date with any of the major networks and henceforth the T.V. movie idea never happened! ! ! !

Exit 1997, Enter 2004

In 2003 Phil Tipett brought the "Starship Trooper:The Lost Platoon" idea back to COLUMBIA/TRI-STAR attention and they green lighted it, but only if it could be done for around $5million (only 5% of what the first film cost to make).. because the sets of the original film were tore down years ago... they had to create a whole new set, all done in a studio(Low budget style) and the script had to be re- written.

The body snatchers storyline was never part of the original script- that storyline was added later because their budget constraints prevented then from filming an hour(or more)of bug battles/action scenes. after the script was re-plotted and re-written, the title was changed to "Starship Troopers 2:Hero of the Federation" and the whole movie was filmed in only 26 days using just 2 sound stages...... ....And now you know the truth about this film.

There's no denying that this film is a huge disappointment, and the sole reason for that is the budget. Whereas Paul Verhoeven's original sci-fi masterpiece was blessed with hundreds of millions of dollars with which to create a fantastic action epic, this has about a twentieth of that film's money. So what happens? The film doesn't even try to copy the original film – except in the lame opening scenes, which 'use' effects from the first flick – instead it decides to copy ALIENS instead, just like 50% of all low budget sci-fi outings of the last twenty years. There are a few of those big bugs here and there, along with lots of wandering and talking in a dark, one-set location and some of those scanners that pick up the alien menace. EVERY scene is under shot with almost zero lighting in an attempt to hide the shoddy set, no doubt.

So far, so mundane. Interesting characters are missing and there are only a couple of notables in the entire cast. Chuck Bronson regular Ed Lauter, for instance, as a typical hard-ass; Richard Burgi, the movie's only three-dimensional character, as a put-upon 'traitor-turned-good-guy'. Director Phil Tippett is best known as an effects man for the likes of ROBOCOP, but his directorial skills ain't much cop. The low budget is extremely evident in the poor action scenes, where the soldiers' gunfire is represented by a blue flashing light at the end of their guns.

Somewhere in the last third the film decides to get a little more interesting as it turns into a virtual reprise of THE THING, as soldiers in the compound are possessed by bugs that live inside their human host. There are some icky bug-transferral scenes copied from '80s cult classic THE HIDDEN and then all manner of extremely unpleasant death scenes. Really, I was surprised and also pleased: at least something was happening. Heads explode in welters of gore and bodies disintegrate to disgorge hideous alien parasites. There's a kind of sinister nihilism that makes the film interesting, even if the cast remains interchangeable. The gruesome highlight is when a guy pulls the top of a corpse's head off in a sticky, slimy effect – nasty stuff. Vapid Kelly Carlson (of the execrable THE MARINE) wanders around as a naked vamp and there are a few decent set pieces. Not enough to make this a decent film, but at least they tried something different, and it kind of worked there for a while – cool ending, too. Just not a cool movie overall.

None of the characters who survived in the original Starship Troopers got into this sequel. By accident or design. Good thing Casper Van Dien didn't get into this dreadful and cheap mess.

Hero Of The Federation has a group of Troopers separated from the army that captured the brain bug where the original film ended. They take shelter in an abandoned fortress surrounded by the infamous arachnids. Left in that shelter locked in a cold furnace is Richard Burgi, a most unorthodox trooper who was to be disciplined. Turns out he's the one with the best survival instincts.

But the supersized arachnids have hatched a plan which I will not reveal but it all ends in a bloody mess with most of the cast killed.

This one was done on the cheap and a lot of it in darkness and shadow like those old noir films. But back in the day that was done because those old poverty row studios had minuscule budgets. This was probably done for the same reason. I have no doubt footage from the original was recycled and outtakes as well.

Done on the super cheap Heroes Of The Federation ain't a patch on the original.