Review of Stargate (1994) by Alex L — 17 Jul 2011

Best science fiction movie ever! No not really, but one of my favorites. Yes it has many action movie cliches, but there is a really cool story within all that. The movie itself could have been done better, but the story is a great one in the scifi world.

The score by David Arnold is pretty amazing, one of best movie scores ever and it does a lot for what is an average screenplay. The concept is fascinating and mysterious, and the villain is awesome, even if the actor is a little too feminine.

Overall, it's unique in the Scifi genre at the very least. The Stargate itself is the coolest thing about the whole story, an alien device from ten thousand years ago that instantly transports you accross the stars where exists an ancient alien being poses as a god and is responsible for the ancient Egyptian culture on Earth.

This movie thrilled me as a kid and I still never tire of watching it, but it's not really because it's a great movie, but because it's an extraordinary re-imagining of what first contact could be like.

And if you want to know how it really ends, read the 5 novels that follow. The expansion on Ra's back story and what of his world still exists is fascinating. And, whether you like SG-1 or not, don't equate it to Stargate because they have little to do with each other if you know the facts.

The TV series just took the Stargate then made up an evil alien race that didn't exist in the film and ran with it all. Stargate is a cult classic that deserved to be made into a really awesome trilogy.

It's one of the best scifi movies of the 90's but it's mostly forgotten and totally overshadowed by Independence Day, which if you pay attention, is FULL of Stargate sound effects, music, and visual effects (namely the mothership being destroyed by a nuke going off in an aliens face).

Oh well.