Not to state the obvious, but the order of release is probably the best way to watch these films if you’re planning on watching all three. The original, released in 1997, is easily the best of the bunch. In fact, if I were you, I’d just watch that and skip the sequels. But if you want to keep it going, follow it up with 2004’s “Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation.” This sequel actually has some mighty talent behind the camera: it was directed by Phil Tippett, a legendary special effects artist who worked on “Star Wars,” “Jurassic Park,” and Paul Verhoeven’s “RoboCop.” He also directed the stop-motion nightmare that is “Mad God.” Sadly, the presence of Tippett isn’t enough to save the film, which is rather bad. To make matters worse, it more or less jettisons the satirical angle of the first film to go for a more straightforward action sequel route.
Then there’s the next film in the series, “Starship Troopers 3: Marauder.” While nowhere near as good as the original film, this threequel does attempt to recapture some of what made that movie special. The satire is back, and so is Casper Van Dien, who reprises his role from the first film, Johnny Rico. Van Dien was reportedly down to return for part 2 as well, but the script didn’t call for his character at that time.
But wait, there’s more! If you’re still not satisfied with your “Starship Troopers” fix, there are animated options, too! There’s the 2012 adult animated flick “Starship Troopers: Invasion,” helmed by Shinji Aramaki. Then there’s the 2017 animated feature “Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars,” directed by Shinji Aramaki and Masaru Matsumoto. These two films feature characters from the live-action movies, but they also stand on their own (provided you know the basic set-up of humans vs. bugs). There was also an animated TV series, “Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles,” which ran for 1 season.