Stargate

	Review by Howard Anderson © 2000 Howard Anderson

Synopsis

1928: Archeologists on a dig in The Valley of Kings make a startling find. After thousands of years of lying hidden beneath Egypt's barren soil, an ancient artifact unlike anything else on this earth has been uncovered.

Present Day: When a mysterious woman makes Professor Daniel Jackson (James Spader) an offer he can't refuse, he ends up deep within the bowles of a secret Air Force military base, faced with the task of decoding an ancient artifact known as the Stargate.

The mission leader, Colonel Jack O'Neill (Kurt Russell), is a man whose tough as nails exterior serves as nothing more than a fragile fasade, as his guilt over the death of his son has brought him to the brink of suicide.

Now these two men from completely different worlds are suddenly dependant upon each other, as they travel through the Stargate and find themselves stranded in an ancient and oppressed civilization on the other side of the universe. There they must battle the astoundingly powerful Sun God, Ra, before they can re-open the Stargate and get back home.

Review

"Stargate" is a thrilling and highly entertaining sci-fi/adventure movie, with a grand and epic feel to it and some very original concepts injected into the classic story of good vs. evil, or David vs. Goliath.

Originality. That's a phrase that's been strangely missing ever since in vocabulary of film makers, Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, thus making "Stargate" their finest hour, so far...

Kurt Russell does a fine job throughout as Colonel O'Neill, and comes across as something much more that just your stereotypical man of action, but for me, the one who really stole the show was James Spader as Professor David Jackson.

Here's a guy who's played nothing but unsympathetic yuppie bastards ever since "Pretty in Pink" and "Less Than Zero", and with "Stargate" it looked like someone in Hollywood had finally made the startling realisation that he might in deed be what they refer to as an "actor", and can therefore play a wide variety of parts, be it naughty or nice, good or bad, saint or sinner. Wow. Can you imagine that...

Spader is absolutely perfect as Professor Jackson, and my sympathies are completely with him from the get-go. His frequent absent-mindedness and all of his little quirks just brings so much to the character, and he quickly becomes the one whose eyes you are seeing this incredible world through. Now, which version of the movie is the best: the theatrical cut or the
special edition?

As always seem to be case, the special edition is the winner. With "Stargate" the editorial differences have no bearing on the story itself, other than a completely different opening, but I feel those little differences can still do a lot, such as the introduction of a strange fosil found along with the Stargate. That's just fascinating stuff.

Image

The movie comes in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and is not enhanced for 16:9 TVs. That's a shame, as it would have really made all of those desert sequences shine, as with Universal Pictures' "The Mummy: Collector's Edition".

Not that the picture in its present state is a sorry sight. Quite the contrary. The blacks and shadow detail remain strong throughout, and there is very little, if any, color bleeding, even in the harshest desert scenes. A great-looking DVD, in other words.

Sound

My, God! Was that a pyramid that just landed atop of me, or what? This film will not only make itself heard, but you will feel the bass grabbing a hold and squeezing the life out of you. This is Dolby Digital 5.1 in the agressive mode.

The spilt surrounds are used frequently and to great effect, and the frontal soundstage is as powerful and wide as they come. One of the stand-out demo scenes is, of course, the journey through the Stargate, and when that baby comes alive you better have full-range speakers all-round. And throughout all of this audible mayhem the dialogue remains clear and firmly placed i the center. Even if this movie had stunk up the place, the sound would still have made it a treat to behold.

Features

What makes this a special edition is the 9 minutes of additional footage on the Director's Cut, along with inclusion of the Theatrical Version, and not the bonus materials by themselves.

Other than an audio commentary with Writer/Director Roland Emmerich and Writer/Producer Dean Devlin, which, by the way, is very informative and never dull, there is not much else here that'll make you go ga-ga.

There is a cool theatrical teaser and trailer, and the standard fare of production notes and cast & crew information, but that's about it.

One thing that is worth mentioning and that I really liked was the animated menues, and especially the chapter selections with the marked out additional scenes.

Overall Opinion

"Stargate: Special Edition" is a great sci-fi movie and a great DVD from Artisan Home Entertainment. This film has something for just about everyone, and the fact that you get two versions of the same film on one DVD, and a audio commentary with the film makers, make this a very nice package, indeed.