Director: Roland Emmerich
Cast: Kurt Russell, James Spader, Jaye Davidson, Alexis Cruz
Have I Seen it Before: For someone who only very recently and casually got into the vast television franchise this film launched, the VHS of this film was on regular rotation during my childhood, so much so that while watching this Director’s Cut for what I think is the first time, I was able to figure out what scenes had been rearranged and added in.
Did I Like It: As my wife and I have started our way through the long (too long? I assume we’ll find out) multiple television series, I can’t help but be consumed with one overwhelming thought:
This needs a little more James Spader*.
And the movie is more than willing to provide. It’s ultimately a B-movie that would have felt right at home with a z-grade budget produced by the studios of yesteryear, but with Spader’s unpredictable, sort of slithering movie-star quality, the film unfurling is more interesting to watch than the standard sci-fi fare of the era.
The special effects don’t age exceptionally well, but that can hardly be held against the film as the more time passes the more films produced in the 90s are going to look like garbage graphics from a local news station. The shimmering water of the Stargate itself, or the slightly hypnotic screensaver quality of the transit between gates, and the shifting nature of the villains masks are just a couple of things that make the film a relic of its era. It’s strengths lie elsewhere. With sweeping epic desert shots that couldn’t be faked with CGI—and, admittedly were yanked directly from other, better films like Lawrence of Arabia (1962)—the film has a more interesting visual sense than you might expect from other big budget films, especially these days. It may derivative, sure, but at least it reaches for something a little more than its trappings.
*In case you’re wondering, as far as television series needing a certain degree of James Spader included, Stargate functions better with some Spader, Boston Legal cannot function at all without wall-to-wall Spader, and The Office would generally be better without Spader. It’s not a universal constant.