Stargate (1994)

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

Curiosity: It’s Kurt Russell in a Roland Emmerich film. Hell. Yes.

Plot: Controversial Egyptologist Daniel Jackson (James Spader with bangs) is on the verge of complete financial ruin when he meets Catherine Langford (Vivica Lindfors), someone who believes his theories about the pyramids being built by aliens. Turns out her father discovered alien technology – a circular construction of some sort dubbed a “stargate” – nearly 70 years prior in Egypt. Langford and a team of scientists suspect it could open a portal to another world, perhaps to the alien civilization that created the pyramids. When Jackson actually does figure out how to use the portal, a military team led by Colonel Jack O’Neil (Russell) travels through it with him. There, they find plenty of constructions and desert surroundings similar to ancient Egypt, as well as a primitive human city. Oh, and then the naked dude from The Crying Game (Jaye Davidson) tries to take their souls or something.

Thoughts: It’s kind of obvious now given that it has spawned four TV shows and counting, but the first time I saw Stargate, I thought it would’ve worked better as a show. The movie is self-contained, but there are so many ideas that I thought could have been expanded upon well beyond the time limits of a movie. I want to know more about the alien planet Spader and Russell land on. I want to know about the alien race Davidson’s character comes from. Hell, I wanna know what else can be done with the stargate technology.

That said, Stargate is one of writer/director Emmerich’s smarter films. The action is slightly lacking, but the plot is solid. Russell doesn’t get enough screen time, in my opinion, although it was fun watching Spader go from being a wiener to a sex symbol in the eyes of the locals. I also enjoyed how Emmerich avoids racist caricatures by inventing a new ethnicity to stereotype as idiotic. While it doesn’t top the wild antics of Independence Day or Universal Soldier, Stargate is still a solid sci-fi picture.

Reflection: True or false: There is no way French Stewart could get cast as a soldier today.