how is this better than ST2?

I'm wondering the same thing. ST 2 was terrible, but this is even more of it. This is unwatchable and one of the worst movies I've ever seen and I've seen many pieces of *beep*. And I know it tries to be a satire, but it fails really bad to even be somewhat good in that.

Neither film fared well with critics, but they seemed to respond to the style of the film, with its satire, and tongue-in-cheek treatment of military intelligence, religion, and nudity in film, all elements of the original film, which is by far the best of the three.