Review of Stargate (1994) by Lee V — 21 Aug 2009

It will take you a million light years from home. But will it bring you back?

An early Emmerich sci-fi blockbuster that spawned a popular franchise.

In 1928, Giza, Egypt, a team led by Professor Langford, uncovers a massive stone ring. For fifty years it remains under lock and key, and next to nothing has really been discovered about it. Egyptologist Daniel Jackson is recruited to the team to help decipher mysterious symbols that may hold the key to this ring. Daniel Jackson realizes what the symbols mean and by using the correct combination of symbols on the ring, unlocks a portal to another world millions of light years away. Colonel Jack O'Neil is tasked, along with a small cadre of soldiers and Daniel Jackson, to go through the portal and see what is on the other side. The group makes it through in one piece and they arrive in a desert. They find thousands of people living there, along with massive pyramids. The locals are peaceful and they speak a different language than these travelers. As time goes on, O'Neil and his crew learn that these people are actually enslaved by an alien in human form calling itself the sun god Ra. Ra wants to eliminate these intruders and send back the nuclear device the crew brought with them, through the portal they came through which is designated as a 'Stargate.' Outgunned by an alien being with superior weaponry, Jack O'Neil, Daniel Jackson, and the people who are enslaved, decide to make their stand against Ra and hopefully find a way home.

One of the first big blockbusters that Roland Emmerich and crew helmed together, Stargate has spawned a TV series, books, video games, direct-to-DVD movies, and so forth. This is not necessarily a horrible film but it would have been if it did not have an interesting concept, a unique blend of Egyptian mythology and extraterrestrial life, and good special effects for its time.

The main cast includes, firstly, Kurt Russell as Colonel Jack O'Neil, the man in charge of the military recon mission through the Stargate. O'Neil is a man dealing with depression over his son accidently shooting himself with his father's pistol. O'Neil has become so depressed that he is near suicidal. When he is asked with partaking on a mission through the Stargate - a mission of no return, O'Neil obviously has no problem with it. Russell fits the role of this military man and doesn't do a bad job. He even tries to throw in some one liners like, "Give my regards to King Tut, asshole." James Spader is Doctor Daniel Jackson and his performance is 'meh.' His character starts off as someone gaining little acceptance in his field of study for trying to make people understand that the pyramids are much older than believed. The U.S. government certainly understands him and enlists him to be part of the team decoding the Stargate relic. After both he and his group make it through the Stargate he begins a relationship with one of the women living there. This relationship doesn't really work in the movie and didn't have to be here. Finally, the villain is an extraterrestrial named Ra portrayed by Jaye Davidson. Ra is a very old being who ventured through the stars looking for a host to sustain its dying form. It eventually landed on the planet Earth and used one of the primitive humans as its host. Jaye Davidson could only have done so much as his character is speaking in some bizzaro world language and doesn't really move around a lot. The whole concept of the villain is interesting, as is the whole Stargate universe, but the look of the human form is lacking and for some reason, Ra has a bunch of young boys around him...Pedophile alert!

When this movie came out, it had some good special effects. The costume design of Ra's henchmen is awesome and so is their weaponry. A really big drag of the film is that there are no subtitles so you don't understand what the hell they are saying. I didn't really care what the slaves were saying, but it would have been nice to understand what Ra had to say.

This movie has an interesting concept but too many corny parts to it hold it back from being really entertaining. If you want to know what Stargate is and where it all began, then check out this flick.