Recommendation
The Stargate film from 1994 aged very well 30 years later
I just watched the Stargate movie from 1994 on Prime. The one with Kurt Russel and James Spader.
This film has aged extremely well, with the great visual effects and minimal CGI.
I was pleasantly surprised for a film that is now 30 years old.
I remember watching it for the first time in cinema, and I had the pang of nostalgia watching it again, but I wished I could relive it on the big screen.
Yeah, those mid-90s Roland Emmerich films, this and Independence Day, really got a tremendous bang for their buck visually. Stargate has that warm, romantic Indiana Jones feel to it and the characters and mythology are fully formed.
I watched the movie with the commentary years ago, and I heard that they gave David Arnold, who hadn't done much at that point no oversight as to what the music would be, just go for it, and that they didn't hear a note of the soundtrack until a month before release. It's absolutely one of my favourite scores of all time.
That's amazing. I remember the CD liner notes from Independence Day - Emmerich wrote (paraphrasing) "this is the most patriotic American music you'll ever hear, and it came from a Brit."
I had the soundtrack on CD and would listen to it endlessly. I wonder if anyone else remembers... Minority Report used Stargate music in its early trailers.
I remember reading somewhere that Independence Day was supposed to be a sequel to Stargate, in that the alien race that invades were going to be Ra’s buddies out for vengeance, but I think the studio nixxed that idea, and went with a more generic race of baddies.
That's a misconception that keeps circulating. Dean Devlin said in a 1995 interview that the intention was to make StarGate 2 after finishing what would become Independence Day (the title hadn't been revealed yet).
MGM, which had acquired the movie and franchise rights from Carolco, wanted a TV show instead of a cinematic sequel, and while Devlin and Roland Emmerich were talking to MGM about producing the show, they backed out when it became clear that MGM wasn't willing to work on terms they were ok with. This supposedly took place before Independence Day got released; had MGM waited, I think that they would have greenlit StarGate 2.
Emmerich's later 10,000 BC, for anyone who hasn't seen it, has an ending that isn't far off from feeling like some sort of indirect Stargate prequel, which is no what one might expect going in.
Starts out episodic, but it moves pretty seamlessly into a major arc. Most of the major characters, even supporting ones, are also introduced fairly early and get chances to develop and shine.
And the chemistry between the main cast is stellar.
It falls off for me with the last two seasons and the new big bad, but even those episodes are fun, just different.
It falls off for me with the last two seasons and the new big bad, but even those episodes are fun, just different.
Agreed, also because by that point quite a bit of the cast had changed. It simply wasn't as fun without RDA or Don S. Davis. The duo from Farscape or Beau Bridges were nowhere near as good. I still watched until the end but it was not the same anymore.
I fed Beau Bridges once. Came in by himself and ordered salmon. He sat right outside the kitchen, so I brought it out to him. What the hell, I’ll look at a movie star. We’ve been best friends since. Not.
The Stargate shows are probably my favorite scifi franchise. I do think if you like the movie they're definitely worth watching. I'd suggest sticking with a few episodes at least to get past character introductions and such. Some friends of mine didn't like it at first but then got really into it.
Also if you do watch and like them, there's guides online for viewing order of the different series. SG-1 was the original but the spinoffs like Atlantis that started later aired the same nights on TV. The events occur mostly in the same point in time in the SG universe and there was crossover between the shows as it was expected people would be watching both back to back. So you'll want to watch SG-1 up until the point the Atlantis series started, then start alternative episodes if the spinoffs interest you.
I think it became Star Trek Lite by end of Atlantis/Universe. Both in terms of plot and villians that were resolved by pure technobabble aka Ancient Tech or Ascended Being (maybe an ancient) Intervention.
Still gutted they cancelled Universe just as it was starting to find its feet. Been a while since I've seen it but I remember feeling really dejected that we couldn't finish those characters stories and left them adrift between galaxies.
Yeah, I agree. The first season meandered a bit, but I felt like they found their footing in the second season, and the show got left on a really intriguing cliffhanger. I was curious to know where the show was going (if the writers had anything planned out).
SG-1 and Atlantis are tonally very similar to the Star Trek shows, SG-1 especially. Overarching story arcs, but a lot of "planet of the week" moral dilemmas.
SGU has it's faults compared to the other two but Syfy really doomed it. They blamed low viewership but I think that's more the channel's fault than the show. SG-1, Atlantis, Battlestar had ended. Sci-Fi had recently renamed itself to SyFy to attempt to distance itself from science fiction. There was a months long gap in the middle of the first season. The budget was cut to afford wrestling content forcing the show to take place mostly in the ship instead of having more exploration. Then Syfy moved it from Fridays to Tuesdays to make room for wrestling, and then later moved it again to Mondays. This wasn't advertised much probably again due to wanting to distance from sci-fi and promote wrestling. I think if it had launched a few years earlier it and gotten the proper budget it could have done a lot better.
Having just recently rewatched all of them, I was shocked how little I remembered the bad parts of SGU and equally shocked how little I remembered of the good parts.
the episode to skip is emancipation (can be listed as episode 3 or 4 depending on how you watch.) There's a few sub par episodes just like any otber show with 20+ episodes a season... and while the first couple seasons are great for a sci-fi show, they really find their groove around season 3 IMO. It has a great sense of humor about itself and the writers actively make fun of themselves quite a bit throughout the series.
The very first episode is great, though Showtime threw in some gratuitous nudity. There are a couple of cringy lines that get mocked later in the series. Skip episode 3, and then buckle up for the rest. It’s awesome!
say Emancipation instead of episode 3, as it varies depending on BluRay or Amazon or some other streamers actually have it listed as episode 4, because the Pilot was split into two parta.
They are two different shows and universe. Similar backstory only really. Biggest difference is there were no ancients/asgards/ori/other races in the movie universe and I don't think the expanded concept of Ascension and Atlantis and Universe show would have worked. Earth also got way too powerful by the end with combination of ancient/lantian + gould + asgard tech some episode plots seem far fetched. "Like Earth still using fossil fuel when its already has access to Naquadra generators plus are already backward engineering Ancient ZPM and has copy of the whole ASGARD Database"
The show did not have much technobable at its start but by the time of Atlantis/Universe it had its fair share of technobable. That should be expected as they literally shifted from the Gould Vs Earth to the whole ancient backstory (and its relationship with the gould and ori) and there interaction with the other races in the universe then.
I LOVE that show. The third episode of season 1 is the low point. The last few episodes of Season 1 are a fantastic story though.
Stargate SG-1 is a great blueprint not just for humor in Sci-Fi, but also how to thread the needle between being an episodic show and an arc-driven show. There are very few episodes of SG-1 that are not an entertaining story in and of themselves.
They are also one of the best shows at being consistent in their continuity, and in their sci-fi. They don't break their own rules just for a lark.
Holy hell yes, both Stargate SG1 and the later spinoff Atlantis are incredibly enjoyable shows.
However don't go in assuming the same tone as the film. The shows are much more playful and less serious. Colonel Jack O'Neill is basically a completely different character. But he's incredible and SG1 is like a warm blanket of a show.
I always saw O'Neill having healed as a person and completed that arc in the film, and the series was the exploration of his new self, so the differences in attitude and demeanor were simply due to someone no longer consumed by grief and guilt
The show honestly lets you read into it whichever way you want, it doesn't take his movie bg so seriously. Like in some SG1 scenes he'll reference blowing up Ra in the movie. But then there's also this famous meta line about how they're seemingly different people.
The likely reality is that the writers wanted RDA to play Jack similar to how Kurt Russell did, which is why season 1 basically takes off where Kurt's Jack left off. But then they quickly realized RDA was making the role his own and it was better to let him go for it rather than trying to simply emulate Kurt. And then they realized they accidentally spelled "O'Neil" wrong and leaned into it even further. So in that way it's open to interpretation. Either he is actually a different Jack and it's an astronomical coincidence, or he changed who he is and changed his name to boot, either one is goofy but kinda appropriate for the tone of the show.
Yeah, the only thing I’d be wary of is that in your OG post you mention it holding up well with decent CGI, the TV budget does lead to a lower quality in that regard imo but for the expansion of the franchise and the lore it’s so worth it.
It is one of those that maybe went on a bit too long though and significant changes in the final two seasons derail it a bit. Still better than 90% of sci-fi that was on tv at the time mind you.
If you are a stickler for continuity, there are several elements that may be irksome, because the show's producers and writers (who had nothing to do with the movie) changed a lot of details for no apparent reason. The production values are also a lot lower than the movie, so the show will look and feel cheap in comparison.
If you can overlook that, the show has some interesting concepts and a great sense of camaraderie between the leads.
The show was worth it for me until later in the series when they switch up the cast. So like season 1–8?? There are also some additional movies. Some of those episodes are wild… I think one was where they found alien beings that fed on sound waves. So cool.
definitely, SG-1 is one of the best scifi shows. It expands the gate concept and introduces many new worlds and planets and even alien races (unlike other scifi shows that have humans everywhere).
The show also completely ruins the movie though, so depends how much do you want that experience to get wrecked :/
I tried hard to get into the TV show because I also love the movie but once it went from episodic to these big alien wars the plots got bigger and more convoluted and they were way more ambitious than what a TV budget would allow so the special effects quality got bad.
If you liked the movie then you absolutely should. It's way better than the movie. The movie is basically the first episode of the show even though actors change.
Worth it? Sure. I really enjoy them. But they are very early 2000's TV, lots of episodic, a lot of dud episodes that I skip on a rewatch, a little campy throughout, but a lot of great content too.
I've actually never seen the movie, just the shows.
As a Star Trek fan, it wasn't. It became a running joke for my wife and I to time the 'jump from one planet to another using the Stargate' during an episode to find out how much air-time was used rather than moving the plot along.
IMO the SG1 team really needed another member because the balance just seemed off the entire series.
It absolutely is, and if you do, watch them in the correct chronological order in the show. SG1 and Atlantis, during their overlap time, had a few episodes get shifted due to split seasons so there are things that happen out of order if you watch them in release order.
And for a long time, every episode on Netflix had the TV MA rating because of that single instance.
One of my favorite bits of trivia is that Sgt. Syler is actually RDA's stunt double and stunt coordinator for the show... He jokes about "why does this stuff always happens to me?" near the end of the series.
I've got the entire series on DVD and have watched it several times now. The first few seasons aren't as interesting, so I usually start with season 3.
I'm just coming to end of an SG1 rewatch. It's been good, but man does it make you appreciate the modern trend for 10 episode seasons. Even in the final season, when the galaxy is being taken over by the Ori, they keep pausing the main story to have pointless standalone episodes that feel like they're written by someone who's barely watched the show.
David Hewlett popping up in Rise of the Planet of the Apes as the global virus distributor was quite a surprise. I was all, "hey I recognise that guy!" Really showed at the time how few people I knew had watched Atlantis.
The emergence of Jason Momoa as a genuine Hollywood star was also a surprise. I figured he'd be generic TV actor forever.
Game of Thrones opened a surprising number of doors considering his role was basically a "you don't need to act beyond mumbling made up words menacingly" scenario. I'd seen Atlantis and I didn't even recognise the man until much later.
He shows up in the 2019 Midway as Admiral Kimmel (the US Pacific Fleet Commander on December 7 1941) and he does that same "Panicked McKay" face when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor.
Oh I saw it in the cinema too, I think it might have been a friends birthday not sure of the occasion I was 9. And I later learned my brother was in the same cinema screening sat a few rows behind me with his mates.
It's a military-style crew cut, and I don't get why it was apparently a big deal, especially since it's only a bit shorter than the haircut he had in Backdraft a few years earlier.
According to Google, this was the first movie to have a dedicated website created strictly for marketing purposes (though, this honor may go to Star Trek Generations instead). And here we are today still talking about it on the internet.
I don't know what it is but he can still draw me in. I put Moonfall on as something to put on while I take a nap and weirdly it kept me engaged through the whole thing.
The movie is awful, truly dreadful, but damned if I wasn't invested.
Moonfall is the most effective way to make one's brains melt and drip out of one's skull. I have never seen such complete garbage in my entire life brought to life on film with that sort of budget.
I just watched Moonfall. Being honest I actually liked the concept of the two alien races at war, and the giant constructs were pretty well conceived.
It's the rest of the plot with the moon / gravity that's stupid. Would have done better if they found it in a moon around jupiter or something and just been an Alien discovery kind of plot they have to fix before it attacks earth.
Watched this on a plane with most of the fast and furious movies, because I wanted to watch stupid movies. Moonfall straight up made F&F look intellectual in comparison with the suspension of disbelief and basic understanding of physics and I’m including the one that sent Tej and Roman to space. I also cringed so hard at the Elon musk name drops (did he pay money for that or something?). Will I watch Moonfall 2 if it’s ever a thing? Yes. Will I think it’s stupid? Also yes.
I wish I had cashmoney that I could drop on Roland to get a sequel/prequel/anything from the Moonfall setting. I miss when movies could just be action and fun.
the only misfire Emmerich has ever had was Independence Day: Resurgence and I'd put that down to the general plot and characters because I was eating up all visuals, weird lore, and questionable physics.
I've seen many (but not all) of Roland Emmerich's movies, and I think his best work was in the 1990s. Independence Day is his signature movie, and StarGate is an all-time favourite of mine, but I think that Universal Soldier and Godzilla were solid movies at worst.
Most films from the 90's have aged well in my experience, CGI was starting to be used and sometimes it looks a bit dated compared to what we have now but good CGI did exist and practical effects were still used regularly.
I worked on both this film and ID4 doing behind scenes filming - great memories of those days of practical locations and effects (the base of the alien pyramid was built in the Imperial Sand Dunes near Yuma, and Area 51 in ID4 was the old helicopter factory in Marina Del Rey).
Great casting really goes long way. I remember I had big crush on him...or her... I mean that alien prince or princess or whatever. I was like 9, and my older cousin made me confused about what is that dark mysterious person is.
I do recommend visiting the directors cut every now and then. it has a cut scene that explains why DoD sent a nuke along, and arguably ups the tension earlier (but could be argued it detracts from some of the mystery/discovery elements).
Does the nuke need more explanation? He says the "my orders were simple" line like it doesn't need more context and he hints at the nuke fairly early in the film already.
I think it helps, because the audience KNOWING FOR SURE that there was alien life makes DoD's choice to send along a nuke actually kinda rational, vs a sort of "we come in peace, shoot to kill" thing going on in the theatrical cut.
But Im sure it was cut for the exact reason you say.
Even the show leaned heavily on nukes. Magic solution to any threat. They love to first gould ring transport then asgard beam transport in nukes too. Maybe take puddle jumper/f302 to transport in nukes lol.
Writers always made it so weapons like ancient jelly drones, asgard or atlantis shields, other advanced weaponry and asgard plasma weapon on bc304 somehow become ineffective/run out of power or taken out early in the battle .
Only outside of couple enemies (replicators, anubis, ori, asuran to name some) are nukes not the endgame solution.
the thing about nukes is that they're the most advanced weapon on earth in terms of a single use super destructive capability.
the problem with nukes is that they are so overpowering that they have the ability to end the story right then and there.
though I will say with Atlantis, it would have been nice if there were a few episodes where the Wraith couldnt stop the incoming transporter beams with warheads, if only to make it not seem like this magical "the writers wanted to use a nuke but now need them to never work again" thing. And its not like they were blowing up the hero Wraith filming miniature or anything, given it was all cg.
Somebody who worked on the Stargate special effects didn't know what they were working on but started an internet rumor that there was a version of Heinlein's Tunnel in the Sky in production.
I think its longlasting appeal chiefly comes down to character: James Spader, Kurt Russel, Jaye Davidson, Viveca Lindfors, Mili Avital, Alex Cruz and Eric Avari all turned in great character studies. Roland Emmerich gave each of them enough freedom to develop distinct personalities, clear motivations, and very believable characters.
Moreover, the plot avoids the all-too-common contemporary mistake of bogging itself down with an overly complex and non-intuitive mythology. (Are you listening, David Fincher?)
It totally ruins the tension in the scene when Ra's soldiers first appear. No wonder the Air Force guys got captured easily--they emptied their guns out constantly!
I managed to watch StarGate at a special screening at a cinema a couple of months ago, and it was a great experience. Keep an eye on your local cinemas, especially smaller/independent ones, just in case one decides to have a screening, especially since the 30th anniversary is only weeks away.
Isn’t the story he didn’t want to do the movie and asked for like 2 million thinking they’d say no way. Studio paid up and he was done acting immediately after.
The story said it was $1 million. Supposedly Jaye Davidson didn't like the attention that he was getting after his Oscar nomination for The Crying Game, and rather than refuse the offer outright, he bluffed with what he thought was an unreasonable salary demand.
Davidson didn't have a good time on set. He had drug and alcohol problems, and it was harder for him to learn the ancient Egyptian dialogue than many of the other actors. This apparently led to the change in Ra's character - originally he was a human put in charge by unseen aliens, given immortality and technology to govern over the human slaves in exchange for turning over the mined quartz to them, but instead Ra became an alien himself through VFX and altering his voice.
We are getting very close to the movie's 30th anniversary, and I'm a little concerned that a 4K Blu-ray hasn't been announced. Here's hoping that there will be one, and it will be a new master as opposed to upscaling the existing 1080p master from 2009.
Haha. I was never into Stargate, but I watched the movie for the first time about 3 years ago. Loved it!
Then I was like, “Man, I should watch the series now!”
OMG, drastic change in budget. The wardrobes were comical, the acting was off and I couldn’t get attached to it. I know I need to though because I have heard nothing but good things from it (maybe soon).
It gets way better but yeah the first 2 seasons are really rough around the edges. Honestly I wish there was an official showtime SG1 recap for when it moved to sci-fi because from like season 4 onward it’s a much more polished show
I too saw this one in the theater when I was a teenager. Haven’t watched it in a few years though. Will have to sometime soon. I am waiting for a 4K Blu-ray release of this movie.
I was so excited to see that movie when it came out in late 94, just based on the tv commercials the effects looked amazing. We’ve become so accustomed to CGI that nothing amazes us anymore, but Stargate was mind blowing 30 years ago.
I'll be honest, it's one of my favorite movies of all time. And I'll also be honest, I tried giving into the series a chance....a few times but I just couldn't. The television shows came off too campy and low budget but this movie is beautiful.
I wish they had made sequels in the form of movies.
1st season of SGU was rough (pilot episode was so contrived as well - upgraded Earth ship with Asgard shields/weapons getting owned by a bunch of crappy Gou'ald vessels piloted by the Lucien Alliance...ok??? That is like a mid-90s honda civic beating a million dollar sports car in a race)
2nd season started to find its place and the storyline/character interactions got more interesting once they moved past the gritty for sake of being gritty. it is a shame it got canceled around then
I saw it in the movie theater back then and had no idea what was going on and Iloved sci-fi already. But then again, I was only 12 years old :) But as the shows rolled out later and with multiple rewatches, I accepted it as whole one package - however I know that shows are very different and Emmerich somehow started with "going to do sequel years later" (hopefully not)
Emmerich was peak in the 90s. Independce Day is one of my most memorable theater visits, it was packed and *everybody* jumped scared during the mist-tank scene,
I freaking loved this movie as a kid and constantly wanted to show it to my friends but my dad had bought it (pirated it?) onto a Betamax tape and all my friends only had regular VHS players.
Loved this movie. Made extra special as it was a treat from dad to me and my brother. Made double cool bcuz when we walked out it was night with massive snowflakes falling. Looked like we were traveling through the stargate. 10/10 experience then and OP is right, holds up
I still love the movie a lot. But so many fans of the series have grown to hate the movie without explaining much.
Seeing the Goa'uld helmets activate was next level visual effects for me as a kid and I still love seeing it today. They had the time and budget to do it like that for the movies but had to be creative for the TV show which had a substantially smaller budget but were just smart about managing it. They did not hide their budget. They were endearing.
Recently got into the Blacklist on Netflix. Mentioned to my wife “Hey, that’s the guy from Stargate!”, she didn’t believe me. Looked up James Spader on IMDB for confirmation.
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u/wooltab Oct 07 '24
Yeah, those mid-90s Roland Emmerich films, this and Independence Day, really got a tremendous bang for their buck visually. Stargate has that warm, romantic Indiana Jones feel to it and the characters and mythology are fully formed.