I've had this for quite a while but only got around to watching it last night. Starship Troopers: Invasion seems to be another sequel to the 1997 live-action movie. The similarities are not strong, however. The only thing it really has in common is some of the designs (mostly of the Bugs) and three characters; Johnny Rico, Carmen Ibanez and Carl Jenkins.

The movie is animated in a style that reminded me of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within . The anime influence is not too strong, fortunately, and the computer animation allows the creation of dramactic sets and action. Many new characters are introduced and some effort is made to keep them from being stereotypes. The plot is spun off from some elements from the first movie, which provides continuity but also could make it obscure to anyone who is not familiar with the story. I thought the plot was just a bit too convoluted but is also predictable. I enjoyed it anyway.

The movie starts by quoting the opening lines from Heinlein's novel and I was momentarily excited that maybe the movie would be more true to the book than was Verhoeven's hatchet job. Unfortunately, that did not prove to be the case. Like the first movie and its live-action sequels, it uses the background of the Human/Bug war and some characters but not a lot else. On the plus side, it does not include the political commentary and "satire" that was so irritating in the earlier movies. It is pretty much a straight-up sci-fi action movie.

This is still not the movie we'd like to see made from Starship Troopers but it probably won't offend any serious Heinlein fans. It is closer to Starship Troopers Chronicles in style and content than to Verhoeven's movie. I did enjoy it and don't regret seeing it, which can't be said for the other sequels.

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention is that the movie does include a capsule drop from orbit to a planet's surface. It's not shown exactly as Heinlein described it but it's very close and it looked cool.

I just saw this, but more out of a misplaced sense of duty than any kind of enjoyment. The CGI is ten years behind the times and squarely at the bottom of the Uncanny Valley. The dialog is painfully stereotyped, the lip sync spotty, and the voice acting juvenile. There's more than a gratuitous amount of cheesecake and nudity to divert the viewer from the deficiencies. The whole thing seems to have been a Japanese-driven anime project.