Stargate

"Stargate" has a few inventive moments but it feels bland. I've always thought that the character designs were interesting and the sci-fi Egyptian aliens work to make this a picture you feel excited to see. The quality of the special effects and story… not so enticing; more like hit or miss. The titular Stargate is an ancient device, discovered in the sands of Giza in 1982. With the help of linguist Dr, Daniel Jackson (James Spader), we are able to determine that the ring can be activated as serves as a portal to a different world. A place where Egyptian gods are real (well, they're aliens) and where a whole civilization of humans serve as their slaves.

The writing is where the real problems lie; the characters are thin (James Spader plays a typical nerd who nobody takes seriously and Kurt Russell is the no-nonsense tormented soldier that follows orders to the letter) It's the same kind of people that you will see in every single one of these Roland Emmerich pics. When it comes to the obligatory love plot (because every Hollywood movie absolutely requires one) the love interest has no personality whatsoever and is included for absolutely no good reason. The comical sidekicks are introduced purely for phony dramatic purposes (when there is real peril you can easily tell what is going to happen to them) and the villain is incredibly bland. I have a hard time believing that aliens who can create worm holes, have giant pyramid ships and can fool an entire civilization into believing that they're ancient middle eastern deities actually need all of these human slaves for example, unless they just want to be evil for the sake of being evil. The sun god Ra (Jaye Davidson) seems to have little motivations for all of the actions he takes (besides one that once again, I don't buy and isn't even that important in the grand scheme of things) As an extra bonus, he punishes his loyal minions harshly (as all comically written villains do) with an incredibly bizarre device that makes no sense and when he decides to unleash his doomsday weapon, it isn't at the earliest convenience or for maximum damage potential, but when the plot demands that he does.

The movie looks cool, so you would hope that if the story is kind of floppy, the action sequences and special effects would make up for it. The effects, I'll give it a half-and-half. The CG is pretty good, but I saw at least one scene where the strings on a space ship were blatantly obvious. I can forgive that in a film made in the 50s, but this is 1994! As for the combat or flashy chases, forget it. Most of the would-be adrenaline pumping moments are dull and often seems to make little sense. Even if the concept sounds like a lot of fun you're better off skipping this one. How this picture became a monumentally successful TV series, I have no idea. (On DVD, January 5, 2013)