Amazon.com video review:
Before they unleashed the idiotic mayhem of Independence Day
and Godzilla, the idea-stealing team of director Roland
Emmerich and producer-screenwriter Dean Devlin concocted this hokey
hit about the discovery of an ancient portal capable of zipping
travelers to "the other side of the known universe." James Spader
plays the Egyptologist who successfully translates the Stargate's
hieroglyphic code, and then joins a hawkish military unit (led by Kurt
Russell) on a reconnaissance mission to see what's on the other
side. They arrive on a desert world with cultural (and apparently
supernatural) ties to Earth's ancient Egypt, where the sun god Ra
(played by Jaye Davidson from The Crying Game)
rules a population of slaves with armored minions and startlingly
advanced technology. After being warmly welcomed into the slave camp,
the earthlings encourage and support a rebellion, and while Russell
threatens to blow up the Stargate to prevent its use by enemy forces,
the movie collapses into a senseless series of action scenes and
grandiose explosions. It's all pretty ridiculous, but Stargate
found a large and appreciative audience, spawned a cable-TV series,
and continues to attract science fiction fans who are more than
willing to forgive its considerable faults. --Jeff Shannon
