Stargate

When you combine Kurt Russell and James Spader in a movie directed by Roland Emmerich and featuring an alien explanation for Egyptian civilization, the results are truly awe-inspiring. Maybe not sublime, but definitely staggering. Such a movie is Stargate, the Science-Fiction blockbuster of 1994 that spawned a television series, which in turn spawned another television series. Stargate will go down in history as one of the most brilliantly realized science-fiction movies of all time whether it deserves it or not — although of course, it does.

By now, if you haven't seen Stargate, you're probably at least wondering what the fuss is about. I suspect that everyone knows at least one rabid fan of the Stargate: SG-1 series that resulted from the popularity of the movie. I am not one of those people, so I can't explain that to you, at least yet. (I've been too busy with movies to get into any series, lately.) The movie, on the other hand, is easy to defend.

Unfortunately, it's also necessary to defend it from the cries of "predictable schlock". After all, the Earth is threatened and saved, the good guys save the day after some of them are killed while being heroic, and the primary protagonist grows cojones and gets the girl. All in a day's work, right? I'd like to say that this movie is saved by something other than brilliant pacing and visuals... but I can't. All I can say is that they are enough, and that the movie tends to keep one interested even when the plot has been detected. There's enough science-fiction goodies waiting for you, enough suspense, and enough beautiful set and costume design to keep eyes goggling. The special effects are beautiful and will never look dated, which I have always considered to be more important than just about any other aspect. When you watch even the "restored" version of the original Star Wars movie, for example, and have to suffer through the still-awful compositing of the TIE fighters in the main battle scene, you can't help but wince no matter how much you are enjoying the rest of the movie. Here, of course, one might say it is the opposite.

Stargate gets extra points for the nerdy main character, who is neither so pathetic that it hurts to look at him, nor does he become so badassed that the story is utterly ruined by unbelievability. I felt that the back story for Kurt Russell's character (the somewhat elder military man with a reputation for getting the job done, of course) was weak and tacked on to the story, and probably represented its weakest point. The science, such as it is, is relatively reasonable and mostly explained by handwaving ("alien technology") which is usually considered to be an acceptable dodge, so long as you don't come up with B.S. mumbo-jumbo explanations about how it works, and they don't. Thank you, Devlin and Emmerich, on behalf of geeks everywhere.