The original “Starship Troopers” was a fun sci-fi/action flick that also had some rather clever satire of fascism. “Starship Troopers 2” fails on just about every level to capture any of the elements that made its predecessor enjoyable. It’s a shame because it starts off somewhat promisingly but with mere minutes, it becomes clear that this is going to be a disappointment. This is low-budget, direct-to-video at its worst.

In “Hero of the Federation”, humanity is continuing its war against the bugs. It appears the bugs have adapted as they now have a new way to wage warfare. The bugs infect humans and now it’s hard to tell who your friend is and who your foe is.

The characters in this film are just horrible and so are the performances. There is just nobody here that is remotely engaging and nobody looks like they want to be there. I miss Casper Van Dien from the original. We see very little of the bugs compared to the previous film. They look okay but considering how cheap the rest of the film looks, I wouldn’t be surprised if the filmmakers did not just lift animations from the first film. The new bugs don’t look so great.

“Starship Troopers 2” is an awful sequel that fails to capture the satirical tone of the first film. It also fails as a sci-fi/action flick because the action sequences are so weak and the set design is some of the worst I’ve seen. The creative violence has also been severely toned down, most likely due to budgeting reasons. It also just has very little to do with the first film. Given some of the plot elements, it almost feels more like a sequel to “Screamers” with Peter Weller than part of the “Starship Troopers” franchise. This is terrible picture with so very few even vaguely decent moments.