Stargate (and Roland Emmerich in general)

[Alan Smithee]

I don't know whatever compelled to see this movie in the theatre.
This was back in the early-mid 90's when CGI was really beginning to take hold and I was in the mood for one of these "popcorn movies". I guess it was the commercial that sold me.

I spent 2 hours of my life watching a tedious, braindead, by-the-numbers, movie.

I mean, the movie had a somewhat intruiging idea. But the movie was so empty-headed, assembly line, cliched that whatever "virtues" it had was flushed down the toilet. The villian wasn't compelling enough and the um, flavor of the month, Jay Davidson (or whatever his name is) was wasted. Kurt Russell did his usual tough guy schtick. The alien world was bland and unimaginative.

Need I go on?

It's a bad movie. But not a wretched, unwatchable movie.

This is the type of crud that Roland Emmerich is known for. Or shall I say, when his name is mentioned, it conjurs up images what the worst Hollywood has to offer, cough*Michael Bay*cough.

Emmerich produces one after another of these assembly line, big budget, big Hollywood, big whatever, movies it gives Hollywood a bad name.

You walk into a Blockbuster and a whole wall contains millions of copies of The Day After Tomorrow.

His movies are bad and tedious. They're not bad in a fun way. But not so rotten that you never watch a movie ever again.

[BoyScoutKevin]

I find myself agreeing with the previous poster. At least about the film, if not about the write/director, as this film is the only one of his I've seen. It may be a bad movie, but it was a surprise boxoffice hit. Enough of a hit, that it spawned a long running television show. And not many films do that.

[Mr Hockstatter]

I thought the first half of the film was excellent, really liked it.  But once they got to the planet and basically just sat around for quite a while, it got rather boring.  Good ending though.

[Ash]

The scene in Stargate where the retarded tribe kid gets killed and his helmet goes flying off was one of the most unintentionally hilarious scenes I've ever seen in a movie.
I laughed my ass off!

If you have the DVD, go to that scene and watch it again.
It's the scene where they fight outside the pyramid near the end.





Post Edited (03-26-05 21:47)

[dean]

I am a huge fan of the TV series, and I loved the concept for the movie, though I did think that the general handling of the movie was as previously mentioned: by the numbers.

Overall it is by far a classic, but I enjoyed it [don't have it on dvd though if the price drops will consider it]

Roland Emmerich seems to have a knack for finding good concepts and then making the film rather standard and similar to most other films instead of taking a few more risks, and departing from the beaten path.

[ulthar]

FWIW, I enjoyed Stargate at the theatre when it first came out.  I was wrapped up in the story itself, not particularly the minutiae of the production details.  Emmerich does have a rep of 'by the numbers' formulaic film-making; that in an of itself is not to say his movies cannot be entertaining.

I also like Independence Day; it's just a fun flick full of plot holes, effects that are not realistic, corney dialog and is, well, also very formulaic.

This is one of those cases where different folks view movies differently.  I own Stargate on VHS, and while we do enjoy a re-watch occasionally, it will never recapture the "awe" I felt in the theatre of "what an interesting story."

(Please note, I was not awed by fx and direction, etc, nor even dialog; just the imaginative, not-so-Hollywood story...well, at least until the girl saved the day by being able to read and Daniel gets killed then brought back to life, etc, etc).

Also, I should point out that I went to see Stargate without having ever seen a trailer for it.  Maybe that helps keep the expectations low.

[dean]

Seeing movies without seeing a trailer or even any information is a calculated risk, it can either be really bad or really good experience:

Good Experience: Knowing nothing about either Eternal Sunshine or The Life Aquatic, I found both to be great movies.

Bad Experience: Wrong Turn, as in I made a wrong turn driving to the cinemas, I should have pushed the pedal to the floor and headed for the state line.  Thank god my B-movie sensibilities kicked in and I was laughing at all the 'scary' parts, including the giggling inbred hillbilly.

Oh, and I liked Independence Day, even if as a War of the Worlds rip off it could have better.  It was just great to watch.

Also I really like the theme music for Stargate, I've been humming the main theme as well as the Jurassic Park theme for the last days now.  Its driven some of my friends insane, though I still say its worth humming...

[Yaddo 42]

Some of the blame for Roland Emmerich's suckiness goes to his frequent producing partner Dean Devlin. I thought "Stargate" had potential but wasted it. Having seen other earlier Emmerich films like "Universal Soldier" and "Moon 44" (where Devlin proved to be an annoying untalented actor), he has an innate ability to ruin interesting premises for scifi movies, I'm still trying to figure out what the characters in "Moon 44" were supposed to be doing before the criminals versus computer geeks action kicked in.

At least Emmerich seems to have found his fixation now, destroying NYC over and over while bland characters go through the motions of being scared and running a lot.