Let's be frank, this movie is fan service for anyone who likes the franchise. As such, it does a decent job at giving fans a fun, visually appealing action ride. Alone, this movie belongs well at the bottom of the B-movie list.
THE STORY follows a group of troopers who get caught up in a mystery involving a missing starship, a secret experiment, and of course, bugs. The plot is very basic and serves to lay down a framework for the action to make sense. While I did not watch this film for the story, I will say that because the basic outline is so solid, I was actually disappointed by its failure to develop. There is a very interesting premise that I believe could have been explored deeper, but woefully it was not. Instead, the movie opts for cheap, no-brainer cliche storytelling and even worse dialogue to drag itself forward. I believe that if they had spent the money on the writing instead of the truly pointless nude scenes, this would have had a decent story. At least the pacing keeps you interested. Fans of the original 1997 movie will get the most from this film as there are several nods to the source film.
THE ART is purely computer generated. While it's certainly not on the caliber of Pixar or Dreamworks it is certainly better than what I usually come out of Japan. In particular, the starship, space craft, and set designs are truly epic, and the effects are very well done. The characters all look too similar to each other (except for the females) and their animations are rather stiff. Still, the art is overall very good.
THE SOUND is a lot better than I expected. The version I saw was in English (I believe that is the original language of the film), and the voice acting was pretty good. The only shame is that the actual dialogue is pretty dumb, cliche, and hammy. The sound effects are good, and the music is definitely nostalgic as the theme from the 1997 film is definitely audible.
THE CHARACTERS are shallow and bland. There are really too many to be introduced and thoroughly explored in the span of the film, but it does not excuse the fact that whatever semblance of personality they have was merely written in to have some truly awful dialogue. It is a shame really because at face value, some of the characters seem interesting enough to get to know deeper, but there is no character development. Also, their fates will make the audience feel the authors are cheating.
I ENJOYED the film. It is a brainless action movie with guns, spaceships, and aliens. The film distills all the fan service you would want from a sci-fi flick into a fairly slick production. The film is certainly watchable, but don't expect much more than a cheap, but satisfying, action thrill. That said, I really think this would have worked better as a miniseries. I suppose I just feel bad that this could have been something more, something better, and a decent addition to the franchise.
