Stargate

Introduction

Roland Emmerich first came to attention with 1992's sci-fi action film Universal Soldier and before he became king of the big budget disaster movie with Independence Day, Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow, made a expensive epic sci-fi film in 1994 which he co-wrote with Dean Devlin: Stargate.

The film begins in Africa circa 8000BC, when a pyramid shaped spaceship comes to Earth and a dying alien possesses a local boy to prolong his own life, declares himself the sun god Ra and enslaves the local population.

In 1928, an archaeological dig uncovers a massive ring covered in hieroglyphics, beneath which lie fossilised remains of strange creatures and more stones on which are engraved hieroglyphics and some unrecognised symbols.

Fast forward nearly 70 years to the 'present day' when Dr. Daniel Jackson (James Spader) is giving a public lecture on his belief that the great pyramid is older than commonly accepted - a theory met with derision and a mass walk out. A woman, seen as a young girl in 1928, offers him the opportunity to prove himself right and gives him pre-paid travel plans. Being homeless and penniless, he follows them and finds himself part of a secret government project to decipher the hieroglyphs and symbols on a stone circle. In 14 days Jackson succeeds where the current team has failed for two years and identifies the mysterious ring as a Stargate and discovers how to activate it.

In steps Colonel Jack O'Neill (Kurt Russell), almost suicidal after the accidental death of his son, who takes control of the project and leads a reconnaissance team, which includes Jackson, through the gate to a planet on the other side of the known universe. Jackson had hoped to be able to activate the Stargate on the other side but the necessary symbols are absent and, in the hunt for them, they discover a civilisation much like ancient Egyptians and enslaved by the god Ra.

Video

The 1080p picture is stunning in parts, noisy in others - the desert sand and clear blue sky look fantastic but interior shots fare less well. The improvement in quality is a double edged sword as it is so clear that it is possible to see the strings holding Ra's spaceships up when they are attacking the soldiers and slaves! The CGI occasionally shows its age and as a result the journey between the two Stargates is dated. That said, most of the effects are physical and on the whole look good - the active Stargate looks amazing - though the desert animals are extremely unconvincing - perhaps they were believable in 1994.

*The pictures contained in this review are for illustrative purposes only and do not reflect the image quality of the disc.*

Audio

You have a choice between DTS HD Master or Dolby Digital 5.1 English soundtracks, both of which do a good job of presenting the soundstage. The surround speakers are used well with crowd scenes, gunfire, wind and other atmospherics coming from all directions and involving you in the film. Of the two options the DTS has the edge with much more bass and packs a bigger punch than the Dolby surround track.

Sadly and inexplicably there are no subtitles on the this Blu-ray disc - an omission made all the more puzzling by their inclusion on the 2001 Momentum DVD release and the greater storage capacity of a BD.

Extra Features

The 52 minute Making Of is a comprehensive and revealing piece about the film, with some behind the scenes footage and interviews. As these sorts of featurettes go, it's not bad and will depend on your interest in the film as to how much you take away from this.

The interviews with Kurt Russell, James Spader and Roland Emmerich are taken from the Making Of and so are largely, if not completely, irrelevant. The same can be said for the Original Stargate previews (Story, Cast, Production, Design, Director) which mix snippets from the film and Making Of. There is 6 minutes of B-roll footage which I have always found to be mostly pointless and is, in any case, largely duplicated from the Making Of.

The 12 minute Is There A Stargate? documentary is comprised of an interview with Erich von Däniken whose book 'Chariots of the Gods' claimed that the Pyramids in Egypt and Mexico, together with the Nazca Lines in Peru were either made by Aliens or created by ancient civilisations to communicate with extraterrestrials who had previously visited. Sceptics, like me, will find this amusing and the sort of nonsense to be ridiculed rather than investigated further.

There is, of course, the semi-compulsory trailer.

Oddly, the commentary with Emmerich and producer/co-writer Dean Devlin that is on the DVD hasn't found its way onto the Blu-ray Disc.

Conclusion

Roland Emmerich probably didn't plan this, nor had any idea of what he had created, but Stargate really spawned a monster with an enormously popular and long running television spinoff (Stargate SG-1) which, in turn, led to another spinoff (Stargate: Atlantis) and even a straight-to-video film (Stargate: Continuum).

This is the Director's Cut of the movie and having last seen the film - probably the theatrical cut - over a decade ago, I'd be pushed to tell you the difference between the two, which scenes were new or integrated and whether this is an improvement.

Stargate is undoubtedly the only Roland Emmerich film that I can sit through without cringing, laughing at the awfulness or simply finding something better to. That said, Kurt Russell's haircut is unintentionally comical, reminding me of Guile from Streetfighter on the SNES!

I've always found James Spader to be slightly creepy (he's better in that kind of role: see Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Crash and Secretary) and even here he manages to be weird whilst playing a dorky scholar. He is however very good in the role and manages to ground the film, giving it a credibility that prevents the whole thing imploding in its own ridiculousness. This was influenced by the books by Erich von Däniken and, if you take it at face value, Stargate is propagating von Däniken's beliefs but, if you treat it as sheer science fiction (rather than science fact), then it is enjoyable nonsense rather than sinister propaganda.