Being
a big fan of Battlestar Galactica, I was looking for another Science fiction
that would fill up the hole that the legendary series had left in me. But it is
hard to find something that you do not know clearly what it is. I have heard of
Stargate series before, then about the movie inspired the series but I did
imagine that the franchise is not of my taste and seemed dull and old. But then
again I thought the same thing about bsg before watching it. And lately, I came
to realize what did I like about bsg and the science fiction in general, it is
its sub-genre, something called space opera. Collins dictionary defines space
opera as a highly melodramatic science fiction novel film, etc. about adventure
in space travel. This was agreeable as it also relates to other science fiction movies that I liked such as Prometheus, Starwars (the original and prequel and not the
trash that was the prequel series), Star Trek, John Carter and even the the
Guardians of Galaxy. Therefore by knowing this and reading a ton of fans opinions on the series (Stargate sg1), I thought of giving a shot by dipping the
toes with the 1994 movie and then maybe
go for the 10 season series.
Even at the beginning of the movie, I found an extreme resemblance to something that I used to watch in my childhood. The resemblance was to the power rangers tv series called Time force. I think now that Time force was a spin on Stargate as all power rangers were (Mystic force was of harry potter, Operation over drive was of Indiana Jones and Megaforce was of One piece ). And
if you are a fan of Starship trooper, Halo or Edge of Tomorrow, there is a good chance that you may like this movie as most of the tropes that define them are in this movie too, the military bravado, evil aliens Fueled with destruction, cheesy combat, and alien weaponry, etc. These tropes are characteristics of another sci-fi sub-genre called Military science fiction which I find now as my second favorite sci-fi sub-genre.
Even though it is a cheesy 90s popcorn film loyal to the action movies of the time, the story is quite cool, something straight from the format of Ancient Aliens in the history channel: An Alien, "Ra" from an obsolete planet finds his refuge on a newly budding civilization of ancient Egypt, he transfers his consciousness from his original form on to that of a fearless human boy and started to rule the people with fear and under slavery. Our heroes from the future - a linguistic genius, James Spader who decoded the ancient hieroglyphics to initiate the stargate (A circular arch made of alien tech. which when placed at correct 7 symbols acts as a portal to a different time or world) and a tragic relieved military hero, Kurt Russell who is mourning the death of his son who was shot (like all authentic 90s action hero should be) and his lackeys visit this empire of the alien god king using the stargate and their encounter and its result is the basic jest of the movie.
Nitpicking
- · The action was boring and made me skip
- · The movie was pg, I presume that as all the gunshot in close range were bloodless and resembled like a fire cracker being burst.
- · The motivation and logic is questionable throughout the two hour time span.
- · And most of the characters were stereotypes similar movies of the time.
Bottom
line
If you like sci-fi movies with aliens and military with no real social commentary and present itself as just a popcorn action flick of the 90s, then you should give it a try. It is no "The Mummy" but still a decent film for one timeviewing experience.
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