Stargate (1994)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Stargate is a 1994 film directed by Roland Emmerich and stars Kurt Russell, James Spader, and Jaye Davidson. The film is distributed by Metro Goldwyn Mayer and produced by Canal+ and Carolco, being labeled as a Sci-Fi Action flick. I've always had this film in mind for movies I wanted to watch, but now since I've seen it, I will document my observations just for you. Stargate tells the story of an ancient teleportation device found in Egypt in 1928 finally being activated in the present day (of 1994). Daniel Jackson (James Spader) and a team of soldiers led by Colonel O'Neil (Kurt Russell) are the first to go into the portal. On the other side, they find themselves in a similar but otherworldly version of Egypt. There, slaves worship their master Ra (Jaye Davidson), who is the God of the Sun.The characters in Stargate are Roland Emmerich stereotypes that all started with this film. You got the nerdy guy (James Spader) who figures out how to start or stop the major event in the plot. There is also the hardened military "badass" (Kurt Russell) that should have some charisma, but this film doesn't . Because Russell in any other movie has likability. Here, he has none. This film disappointed me on plenty of levels. I really like a Egyptian/Desert setting remixed into Science Fiction like such as Dune. The film somewhat explores well. But as an action movie, it's loud, anti- climactic, and lacks to give me any emotions except annoyance and anger. It fails as good action shlock but almost delivers on the setting. And no, I'm not going to watch 10 seasons of SG 1 just so I can see the concept be executed better since it should work as a movie. Stargate just reeks of wasted potential.Stargate as I saw it is an amalgamation for the short lived "Gulf War" and "Desert Storm Ops" of the 1990's. We see imagery of soldiers in the desert being worshipped as gods. The film ends with the Slaves without a master to worship since the American soldiers practically invaded their homeworld. The lesson I got from the film is that big, loud, dumb, and anti-climactic films will do great in the Summer blockbuster range.As I watched Stargate, I realized that it was not for a more critical audience, such as those who read film like we do. But audiences of the lowest common denominators would like it the same way they will like a Michael Bay Transformers film. But those audiences are what give films today the most money. And that to me, is a problem i've had with cinema for a while, seeing as smaller avant-garde films go seemingly unnoticed by a huge audience.Overall, I give Stargate a

As a film, I see it primarily as a romance. In the end, a man out of place in one world, finds his place in another, and one man finds meaning in his own world after a very traumatic event. The central force is the romance that one finds in a place across the Galaxy. The film, however, is a stand-alone masterpiece. Emmerich and Devlin team up, and produce a film that works on many levels.The movie is careful to stay away from many of the clichés of most sci-fi movies but also stays away from having characters which are too simple. Both Daniel and Jack (played by James and Kurt) are real people, not cardboard cut-outs, with all the flaws and merits of our own reality. The natives are catch between trying to be friendly towards strangers and not pissing off their Gods. The science and technology used by Ra and his men look very sleek and very real. From the spaceship to the gliders, everything has a touch of old Egyptian myth mixed with advanced alien know-how.With a combination of good dialog, an interesting plot, a creative way to expound upon ancient mythologies, mostly engaging characters and good special effects, "Stargate" is a very entertaining film. Other important characters in the film include Skaara (Alexis Cruz), Sha'uri (Mili Avital), Lieutenant Kawalsky (John Diehl), Anubis (Carlos Lauchu), 'Good Father' Kasuf (Erick Avari), Nabeh (Gianin Loffler) and the leading alien known as Ra (Jaye Davidson), whom ancient humans thought was a God. The only disappointment is the last twenty-or-so minutes where the action is definitely progressing at a breakneck speed, but in all honesty, we never do care about the otherworldly extras enough to get lost in the suspense of saving their planet. However, this is definitely one of my all time sci-fi/action favorites.Overall rating: 9 out of 10.

now that the heading is in bold, we can get back to writing in normal letters. This is one of my all time favorite films. Everything in this film makes me appreciate it. From the great acting ensemble. To the amazing CGI that still holds it ground in today's cinema, to the incredible story. With a lot of people saying that it has similarities with Star Trak is just nonsense. While Star Trak is set in space, and deals more of racial sub topics and is more of a political drama based show/ movies. Stargate deals with other planets and Earth, not much in space. and it focus on ancient religion and believes of help from other beings.The story of the rings being used as gate way travel to distant worlds is pretty Awesome, and the film is also very smart on how they achieve communication between all the different species by having them all have some ancient language in common as they all have ancient gods who they fear or believe in.This is an incredibly awesome film, with some really cool action scenes, very well written dialogue and really great acting from Kurt Russell and James Spader

First of all: I love how this movie manages to make a scenario where a linguist somehow is the heroic explorer, much like Indiana Jones put archeology in the spotlight. In fact, a comparison with Indiana Jones is apt, because it's obvious that this movie is heavily inspired by that franchise - although it goes in a completely different direction.I have barely seen the TV-show, so I went into this knowing only somewhat what the stargate is. I love the premise of it, and how it manages to explore both mythology and sci-fi concepts. I can really understand that they decided to make a TV-show out of this.A last note on positives, before I go into the flaws: There's some really neat visuals in this as well, especially concerning the pyramids, and some of the villain henchmen's costumes.The flaws, though, are many and quite bad. For one, all characters are basically idiots that somehow seem intent on making the worst possible decisions. This is a really cheap trick for inducing conflict, it is also really annoying, and condescending to the audience. Most of it could be avoided by better writing. Just as serious is how this movie seems to parallel some big problems with colonialism without really noticing. There is literally a scene where one explorer is sick, sneezes, and then his handkerchief is taken by "indigenous"-like people that has obviously never been exposed to his germs (though the movie does not comment upon this at all). There's also scenes where the explorers give the indigenous weapons and cigarettes. Was it to build up a more direct colonial plot for a possibly sequel? For some reason, it does not feel like it. It seems more like dumb writing.There's also some scenes that have become a bit more uncomfortable due to modern conflicts. There are scenes set in areas resembling the middle east, where kids are handed automatic weapons to fight against what is basically drones.Despite all of these flaws, the concept (and the visuals) makes it worth a watch, perhaps to ponder what could have been?