{"id":78921,"date":"2026-01-05T21:42:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T11:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/?p=78921"},"modified":"2026-01-05T21:42:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T11:12:51","slug":"movie-review-stargate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/2026\/01\/05\/movie-review-stargate\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review – Stargate"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Principal Cast : <\/strong>Kurt Russell, James Spader, Jaye Davidson, Viveca Lindfors, Alexis Cruz, Mili Avital, Leon Rippy, John Diehl, Carlos Lauchu, Djimon Hounsou, Erick Avari, French Stewart, Christopher John Fields, Derek Webster, Rae Allen, Richard Kind.
\nSynopsis:<\/strong> An interstellar teleportation device, found in Egypt, leads to a planet with humans resembling ancient Egyptians who worship the god Ra.<\/h3>\n

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It\u2019s been a very<\/em> long time since I last sat down and watched Roland Emmerich\u2019s mid-90s Egyptian sci-fi blockbuster Stargate<\/em> with any real seriousness \u2013 arguably twenty years since I snapped up an exclusive US DVD copy \u2013 and my nostalgic eyes were pleased to discover that the film\u2019s sense of fun and adventure remains just as strong, and just as kitschy, as ever. Stargate<\/em> has been available in high definition for some time now, but my memories of the film were tied firmly to the soft, murky experience of standard-definition DVD. Revisiting it on a crisp 4K screen was like watching it for the first time all over again.<\/p>\n

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While the increased resolution inevitably exposes some of the seams in the early digital visual effects, Stargate<\/em> holds together surprisingly well given that it arrived barely twelve months after Jurassic Park<\/em> and only a couple of years removed from Terminator 2<\/em>. Bolstered by David Arnold\u2019s hugely engaging score and a wealth of gloriously overcooked exposition from James Spader, Stargate<\/em> is a raucous, half-serious, and unapologetically racially stereotypical event film from the man who would soon crown himself Hollywood\u2019s reigning maestro of large-scale destruction.<\/p>\n

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The franchise-building plot follows Egyptologist Daniel Jackson (Spader), who is recruited by the US military to unlock the secrets of a long-hidden artefact uncovered on the Giza Plateau in the late 1920s. The discovery turns out to be an apparently alien \u201cStargate\u201d, a device capable of transporting matter across the universe in seconds. When the machine is activated, Jackson joins a crack team of US Air Force hoo-rahs led by suicidal Colonel Jack O\u2019Neil (Kurt Russell, sporting one of the most magnificent GI Joe haircuts ever committed to film) and steps through the portal to a distant world eerily similar to our own ancient past. There, they encounter a population of humans who worship a god resembling the Egyptian deity Ra \u2013 revealed to be a powerful, orphaned alien of malign intent. This parasitic creature inhabits human bodies to house its spirit, and upon detecting Earth\u2019s advanced weaponry, decides our planet must be destroyed.<\/p>\n

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While Emmerich\u2019s film is often overshadowed by the multiple television series it spawned in the late 1990s, the original Stargate<\/em> remains a genuinely fun, slightly camp action-adventure that rarely takes itself too seriously. It represents one of Spader\u2019s earliest forays into mainstream cinema, following a career largely defined by indie fare, while Russell\u2019s stoic, deadpan Jack O\u2019Neil is perhaps the least fully developed element of the narrative. O\u2019Neil\u2019s backstory \u2013 a grief-stricken soldier whose young son accidentally shot and killed himself \u2013 feels like an oddly grim way to open such a breezy romp. The film gestures toward a more introspective character arc, but this emotional groundwork never really pays off. The double act between Spader and Russell never meaningfully engages with this trauma beyond providing a thin motivation for O\u2019Neil\u2019s willingness to sacrifice himself. Noble, sure, but dramatically undercooked.<\/p>\n

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Almost everything else, however, works rather well. Spader\u2019s \u201ccontroversial\u201d Egyptologist is a laughably contrived creation, written purely to deliver exposition and keep the story machinery ticking over. While Spader remains an engaging screen presence, he feels underserved by a script that saddles him with a perfunctory romance with Sha\u2019uri (Mili Avital), which blossoms out of nowhere and exists largely to satisfy blockbuster box-ticking. Emmerich and co-writer Dean Devlin \u2013 who also serves as producer \u2013 are clearly following a Hollywood checklist here.<\/p>\n

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To their credit, the film works despite<\/em> its generic genetics, blending mythology and antiquity with sci-fi futurism and humanity\u2019s persistent fear of extraterrestrial life. Emmerich revels in the fantastical nature of the premise, showboating with confidence. The off-world design is richly Egyptian in flavour, with just enough alien variation to feel distinct, while the film also drops a hefty white-saviour trope into the mix with barely a shrug. No, Stargate<\/em> isn\u2019t doing anything particularly new, but the alchemy of familiar ingredients proves both effective and entertaining. It also helps having a solid cast at your disposal – Richard Kind is always watchable and he pops in early, and Erick Avari cements himself as “oh, it’s that guy” again, while a young Djimon Hounsou plays one of the aliens’ human guards, and Swedish-born Old Hollywood actress Viveca Lindfors has a prominent early role. Again, even if the material ain’t Shakespeare, having a cast able to work this material as well as they do is a blessing for both the film and the viewer!<\/p>\n

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Revisiting the visual effects also proved particularly interesting. I\u2019d long remembered Stargate<\/em>\u2019s CGI as being more impressive than it actually is. Viewed now in high definition, the film\u2019s relatively limited digital work is far more apparent, and yet \u2013 with a few exceptions \u2013 it still holds up remarkably well. Some matte paintings and model shots don\u2019t quite click, and the digital helmet effects and wormhole sequences (predating Marvel\u2019s nanobot mask removals by two decades) lack the suspension of disbelief they once had on DVD or in my hazy memories of its 1994 cinema run.<\/p>\n

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That said, there\u2019s far less overt artifice here than I expected. Much of Stargate<\/em> relies on practical effects, and that tangibility is key to why the film still feels grounded. The set design, both interior and exterior, is first-rate and often jaw-dropping given the budgets of the era. Jaye Davidson\u2019s performance as Ra \u2013 a malicious, eternally sinister alien wearing a human body \u2013 is magnificently over the top, and his climactic demise, complete with Emmerich\u2019s now semi-patented digital bomb clock countdown clich\u00e9, still drew a clap and “yeah, you’re fucked<\/em>” from me.<\/p>\n

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Though Stargate<\/em> now reads as a clear template for Emmerich\u2019s later career \u2013 right down to the reappearance of grey alien imagery in Independence Day<\/em> just two years later \u2013 the film remains an absolute belter. Crowd-pleasing, top-notch Hollywood hokum of the highest order, there\u2019s scarcely an original idea to be found, but the mix of Spielbergian ancient-meets-modern adventure, 2001<\/em>-era cosmic awe and echoes of Universal\u2019s classic monster films (The Mummy<\/em>, Dracula<\/em>) wrapped in David Arnold\u2019s tireless, heavy-lifting score makes Stargate<\/em> a bona fide 1990s classic.<\/p>\n

It remains one of Emmerich\u2019s best films, and arguably a crucial stepping stone in the redefinition of blockbuster cinema that Hollywood is still trying \u2013 and often failing \u2013 to replicate today. Terrific fun.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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