Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
Sony has made a nice little niche for itself with these animated films based off of popular movies. The Resident Evil animated films have been going strong for almost 8 years, and is the most popular along with the Final Fantasy movies, but 1997’s Starship Troopers actually fell into that pattern a few years back with 2012’s Starship Troopers: Invasion of Mars. I thought that was a one and done deal, but it seems that after the success of the other films, the Starship Troopers universe deserved another little sequel as well. I won’t say that the animated films for either the Resident Evil franchise OR the Starship Troopers world are all THAT great, but they’re fun little action/adventure movies that act almost in an alternate universe to the actual movies, allowing them to take on a life of their own.

Traitor of Mars is a simple film, and really just ignores the events of the 2nd and 3rd live action films (most people would be better off just forgetting the live action sequels ever existed) and continues the adventures of Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien reprising his iconic role), Carmen Ibanez and Carl Jenkis (sadly no Neil Patrick Harris) and the invasion of the bug army from hell. 20+ years have passed and the war is STILL going on, with the bugs invading farther and farther, with humanity spreading forth into the galaxy as well. Right now Johnny is in charge of training Mars colonists to become troopers after a botched mission that puts him on the outs with the higher ups, and his recruits are a little less than up to snuff. However, things are going to hit the rotary oscillator when Carl (Justin Doran) contacts Carmen and orders her to go to Mars, as Johnny is about to be in over his head.

It seems that the new Sky Marshall is a hot shot woman by the name of Amy Snapp (Emily Neves) and she’s been planning a nasty little secret for the Mars colonists (who have been deciding that they want to be free of the federation) by way of secretly withholding the knowledge that bugs have been hiding under the mars surface for years. When the bugs come to the surface, Johnny and his team of under prepared Mars troopers have to put their money where their mouths are and get to cracking bug skulls.

There’s not a WHOLE lot of depth to Traitor of Mars. It’s a simple action movie with more of the standard over the top political mumbo jumbo that Starship Troopers is known for. Ironically, the 1997 live action film was not anything like the book, but it became a cult classic due to Paul Verhoven making the movie a satirical take on fascism and over reach of government among the military. It was wry and darkly humorous despite the extreme violence, and was basically a space version of Robocop, at least in the sense of being satirical. None of the other movies have ever been able to capture the raw honesty of Verhoven’s original film, and instead just end of aping the film’s style without capturing any of the meaning or satire that he so intricately wove into the live action movie. Traitor of Mars luckily tones it down JUST a little, and leaves the military machinations to explain themselves instead of trying to play the tongue and cheek game that some of the live action sequels devolved into.

While Traitor of Mars is not exactly complex, it is straight forward and simple. This is a rescue mission movie with Rico opening up a can on the bugs, and Carmen and Carl trying to help him out as best they can. It plays out like a double length TV episode, and while that means it’s not exactly a big story teller, it is fun as exactly what the movie was designed as. A simple blow em up adventure in the Starship Troopers universe. Casper Van Dien has fun as Johnny Rico once more, this time giving him a weathered and weary tone to the voice in stead of the over enthusiastic tone he had in the live action films. Dina Meyer actually comes back in a hallucination sequence as Dizzy Flores, but the rest of the voice actors are your standard B-level animated voice actors.




Rating:

Rated R for some sci-fi violence, and for language




Video:

The 1.78:1 framed animated film looks pretty impressive for its Blu-ray debut, and given the fact that it’s only an 88 minute film on a BD-25 it looks very solid. It’s got an edgy looks that is a little rough around the edges in the animation department, but looks smart on Blu-ray. Colors are well saturated and the film does more with the red color tones of Mars than they did with Invasion. There’s still some color banding and a little bit of noise, but the overall looks and clarity of the animated film is solid enough. Fine details are solid, but the creators didn’t use a style of CGI animation that uses copious amounts of minute details. It’s a low budget CGI film, but the Blu-ray only suffers from some minor artifacting to really fault it for anything.






Audio:

Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars blasts onto Blu-ray with a very nice sounding DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix that isn’t overly aggressive and nuanced, but quite competent in all that it does. There’s lots of gunfire and explosions going on, and the track engages in quite a bit of rumbling low end, but it also isn’t wildly bassy or incredibly immersive either. Explosions light up the sub amp a lot, and the surrounds get a ton of play, and the track certainly gets lively, but I felt like the audio just wasn’t trying to be THAT aggressive and engaging, if you know what I mean. Vocals are crisp and cleanly replicated up front, and everything sounds great to my ears, even if it does feel a bit laid back in the execution of some of the more action oriented scenes.





Extras:

• Traitor of Mars: A Look Inside Bugs and Powered Suits
• Traitor of Mars: A Look Inside Story and Characters
• Expanding the Universe
- 20 Years and Counting
- Continuing the Universe
- Traitor of Mars
• Deleted Scene
• Photo Gallery

Final Score: ​

Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars is a fun little story in the Starship Troopers universe, and I like how they were able to find a logical way to bring Dizzy and Johnny back together, even if only for a short time. These animated films based upon popular action/sci-fi properties are never overly intellectual or complex, but they certainly are fun for what they are. Sony has done well with these ventures and I foresee more of them in the future. Audio and video are very solid for a small animated film and there’s actually a nice array of extras to enjoy as well. Worth checking out if you enjoyed the previous animated film, or if you just enjoy the Starship Troopers universe.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, DeRay Davis
Directed by: Shinji Aramaki, Masaru Matsumoto
Written by: Edward Neumeier
Aspect Ratio: 1.78.1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish DD 5.1
Studio: Sony
Rated: R
Runtime: 88 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: September 19th, 2017

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Fun Diversion

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I will check this one out once available on amazon prime/netflix.