Stargate (1994)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1994
	Director: Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, 2012)
	Actors: Kurt Russell (Big Trouble in Little China), James Spader (Crash), Jaye Davidson
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF
	Conditions of visioning: 27.03.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: An expert in Egyptian language (Spader) is called to help deciphering markings on an ancien piece of technology, the Stargate. Once open, a team led by Jack O'Neill (Russell) is sent to the other side.
Review: I loved this movie back in 1994 for its mix of Egyptians Legend and Science Fiction. And I was probably not the only one as Stargate (the movie) generated an increasing number of TV-series, actually four now: Stargate SG-1, Atlantis, Infinity and Universe. I only know the Star Trek franchise to have to many spin-offs. I enjoyed prolonging the experience of the movie with the SG1 series (with Richard Dean Mc Gyver Anderson replacing Kurt Russel) of which I watched the first three seasons on TV, and I have been thinking for a while about starting over again with all the series. But back to the movie, the story becomes more and more exciting as we slowly understand the workings of the far-world, culminating with the arrival of Ra. The morphing effect of its helmet being retracted (a first at the time) contributed to my admiration of the movie, although when watched today in HD it looks full of defects. The story is told simply and efficiently and the character of O'Neill has an interesting background. Stargate contains a nice mix of adventure, discovery, action, romance (between Daniel and the slave woman), history, and a solid core of Science Fiction. For me Roland Emmerich was at his best and he continued with Independence Day before loosing his talent for producing the mix mentioned above, and becoming too repetitive in his movies. I hadn't watched the movie in years and this time I found the rhythm to be too slow with respect to what I remembered, and the "jokes" not really funny as I knew they were coming ten minutes ahead. Stargate remains a milestone in the Science Fiction cinema History nonetheless.
Rating: 7 /10