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#384 - Stargate
Roland Emmerich, 1994
When an ancient Egyptian artifact is revealed to be a portal to another world, an academic must join the military expedition to join the other side.
I get the impression that this is supposed to be Roland Emmerich's "best" film in the same way that The Rock is Michael Bay's "best" film in that the respective filmmakers work with engaging premises while also dialing down the technical excesses that turned their careers into laughing stocks. Stargate's premise proved fertile enough to spawn an entire multi-media franchise, even though the actual plot of Emmerich's film doesn't exactly offer up much in the way of surprises with its extremely familiar plot and characters. James Spader plays one of the film's protagonists, a linguist whose left-field theories about ancient Egypt initially make him a laughing stock in his field but which also attract the attention of an old woman whose archaeologist father unearthed a mysterious circular artifact decades before. It is soon revealed that this artifact is a portal to another world that bears a considerable resemblance to ancient Egypt. Enter Kurt Russell as a bereaved Army colonel tasked with heading up a mission through the eponymous portal, bringing Spader along as a translator to help communicate with the other world's native population and, once they're trapped on the other side due to circumstances, figure out a way home - and that's before they have to face off against some genuine adversaries.
In all fairness, Stargate doesn't quite plumb the same depths that Emmerich and creative partner Dean Devlin did with Godzilla (it's been too long since I've seen Independence Day for my opinion on it to have much relevance, and I've managed to avoid everything else he's directed for all the reasons that you can imagine). Unfortunately, that doesn't make it an especially great film in and of itself. Spader and Russell are serviceable leads that do coast on their natural charisma and talent rather than any serious development of their characters beyond their basic definitions as socially inept genius and tough guy with a sensitive side respectively. Most of the other characters don't get much definition beyond some extremely basic roles - even Jaye Davidson as the film's nominal villain stands out mainly because of an excessively deep voice and some bad effects work that's supposed to give his character glowing eyes. Though it's not as focused on disaster imagery as the rest of its director's oeuvre would suggest, that does mean that there's not a whole lot of engaging material for much of the film - the effects haven't aged as badly as you would think, but the action still doesn't do enough to prop up the mostly unsurprising plot. Even so, I was at least somewhat pleased with the result and as such will not give it a wholly negative rating, but its "ancient aliens" premise only goes so far in aiding a somewhat run-of-the-mill science-versus-military-versus-aliens kind of sci-fi blockbuster that hits all sorts of familiar beats. At least it's better (and shorter) than Godzilla.
Roland Emmerich, 1994
When an ancient Egyptian artifact is revealed to be a portal to another world, an academic must join the military expedition to join the other side.
I get the impression that this is supposed to be Roland Emmerich's "best" film in the same way that The Rock is Michael Bay's "best" film in that the respective filmmakers work with engaging premises while also dialing down the technical excesses that turned their careers into laughing stocks. Stargate's premise proved fertile enough to spawn an entire multi-media franchise, even though the actual plot of Emmerich's film doesn't exactly offer up much in the way of surprises with its extremely familiar plot and characters. James Spader plays one of the film's protagonists, a linguist whose left-field theories about ancient Egypt initially make him a laughing stock in his field but which also attract the attention of an old woman whose archaeologist father unearthed a mysterious circular artifact decades before. It is soon revealed that this artifact is a portal to another world that bears a considerable resemblance to ancient Egypt. Enter Kurt Russell as a bereaved Army colonel tasked with heading up a mission through the eponymous portal, bringing Spader along as a translator to help communicate with the other world's native population and, once they're trapped on the other side due to circumstances, figure out a way home - and that's before they have to face off against some genuine adversaries.
In all fairness, Stargate doesn't quite plumb the same depths that Emmerich and creative partner Dean Devlin did with Godzilla (it's been too long since I've seen Independence Day for my opinion on it to have much relevance, and I've managed to avoid everything else he's directed for all the reasons that you can imagine). Unfortunately, that doesn't make it an especially great film in and of itself. Spader and Russell are serviceable leads that do coast on their natural charisma and talent rather than any serious development of their characters beyond their basic definitions as socially inept genius and tough guy with a sensitive side respectively. Most of the other characters don't get much definition beyond some extremely basic roles - even Jaye Davidson as the film's nominal villain stands out mainly because of an excessively deep voice and some bad effects work that's supposed to give his character glowing eyes. Though it's not as focused on disaster imagery as the rest of its director's oeuvre would suggest, that does mean that there's not a whole lot of engaging material for much of the film - the effects haven't aged as badly as you would think, but the action still doesn't do enough to prop up the mostly unsurprising plot. Even so, I was at least somewhat pleased with the result and as such will not give it a wholly negative rating, but its "ancient aliens" premise only goes so far in aiding a somewhat run-of-the-mill science-versus-military-versus-aliens kind of sci-fi blockbuster that hits all sorts of familiar beats. At least it's better (and shorter) than Godzilla.