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Wednesday, July 12, 2006

"Stargate" review

Stargate (1994)

Directed by Roland Emmerich
Writing credits Dean Devlin Roland Emmerich

Kurt Russell.... Col. Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neil
James Spader.... Dr. Daniel Jackson
Viveca Lindfors.... Catherine Langford, Ph.D.
Alexis Cruz.... Skaara
Mili Avital.... Sha'uri

James Spader and Kurt Russell travel through the Stargate. They land on a planet on the other end of the galaxy. This planet holds many answers as to how the pyramids were made and other tidbits of Egyptian culture. Conflict arises when they upset the "God" of this new world.

Well I was disappointed. This is a typical problem with science fiction. You have an idea, (Guess where the pyramids really came from? Outer Space! Isn't that cool? Let's make a movie about it!), but it's not enough to sustain interest for 90 minutes.

So they're working on the Stargate, wondering what does it all mean etc. I'm sitting there hoping there is something cool to see on the other end of the galaxy via the Stargate. When they finally reach their destination, it's a very mundane world that awaits them. There is barely any action in the flick as well which is also a letdown.

I mean, couldn't the Stargate have led them to a planet full of monsters? Or maybe a robot planet? Anything but humanoids under the "Ra" dictator. So this is where the pyramids come from eh? That's great. Really. Yeah....

SCORE: 2 out of 4 intergalactic portals to nowhere

1 comment:

Junior Bruce said...

Watch the TV shows, "Stargate SG-1" and "Stargate: Atlantis." They're a lot better, as they don't take themselves too seriously. The premise works best with a tongue-in-cheek approach. Both shows nail that style of execution.

I'm a huge Kurt Russell fan, but he was completely wrong for this movie. Notice the similarities between his performance here, and his later performance in "Soldier." Both promising concepts, but poorly executed.