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Stargate Movie Review

Stargate is a 1994 science fiction film directed by Roland Emmerich and starring James Spader and Kurt Russell. It is an underappreciated, solid genre effort.

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“Give my regards to King Tut, asshole“

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Dr. Daniel Jackson is asked to decode an old hieroglyph in a military facility by a mysterious woman. He discovers important information about the device, which was found during an expedition in Egypt. Then, a team of military men and this scientist go through the titular gate to land on an Ancient Egyptian planet ruled by a despotic alien leader.

This is a polarizing movie that received mixed reviews upon original release, but is now gaining traction among more recent reviewers. It was infamously hated by Ebert himself, but it was a huge box-office success and it spawned an entire media franchise consisting of a couple of long-running shows. I personally find it to be flawed, but quite solid and certainly the best movie that Emmerich has ever directed as the man never hasn’t done anything better than this high-concept movie afterward.

I loved the central idea. As a guy who loves Ancient Egypt and adores the SF genre, of course this movie that was the mixture of the two appealed to me greatly. It was a phenomenal idea to make these Egyptian gods basically alien and to have an entire planet like Egypt. The idea of this gate that transports you to another planet was also phenomenal and it is easy to see why it spawned an entire franchise and was so influential.

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My main issue with the movie is the overly militarized approach that is a double-edged sword narratively speaking. It would have been a much better choice to just feature a team of curious scientists visit this planet and explore it instead of these frustrating military men who are only looking for conflict and shooting first, asking later. Now, that just might have been Emmerich’s commentary on American bravado, machismo and militarism, but this type of text reading is probably giving the man too much credit.

James Spader is by far the most interesting character of the bunch. He is the only scientist on the team, thus he gave the movie an inquisitive, open-minded perspective. His relationships with the planet’s residents were also well realized. Kurt Russell, on the other hand, is very annoying as this highly obnoxious American soldier archetype. I wanted to punch him in the face for how unlikable he was.

Jaye Davidson of ‘The Crying Game’ fame played Ra here to mixed results. He was a good casting choice in terms of the looks, but acting-wise he did not deliver a particularly strong performance and this villain needed more development. He was cool, menacing and visually interesting, but he needed a much better arc overall.

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Stargate features phenomenal effects for its time. I would even call the movie visually arresting even today as it has aged like fine wine. The production design is wonderful and the Egyptian hieroglyphics, architecture and the sand all looked terrific. The same goes for the ship and the gun effects. The score is overly bombastic at times, though it has its moments. The second half resorted to way too much action, but the first half is a visually arresting, intriguing SF adventure that I just enjoyed seeing.