Stargate Prewatch: Stargate the Movie!

[LightofXion]

Light, checking in! Excited and ready!! Happy to have everyone that could join us.

[LightofXion]

I'm going to start off with the positives of this movie. I like the realism in their having to caravan through the desert from base camp, to the outpost, again to the village. Makes me think of what SG teams really do every time they go through the SG off camera.

Not sure if the color is off but it looks more green behind the village indicating a possile water source which answers a few questions. Never noticed it before.

Also really like the animals, the bison/camel very realistic as well as the iguana like creature they ate. Wis there were more animals, not from Earth in the series. Always wanted to see the 'T-Rex' from atlantis.

[LightofXion]

I really enjoy the adventure feel of the movie. It is something great that the series took with it and only expanded more upon.

[garhkal]

I'm going to start off with the positives of this movie. I like the realism in their having to caravan through the desert from base camp, to the outpost, again to the village. Makes me think of what SG teams really do every time they go through the SG off camera.

I always wondered how "Long" they were supposedly traveling in that clip.. Seemed quite a long way.

Not sure if the color is off but it looks more green behind the village indicating a possile water source which answers a few questions. Never noticed it before.

They would need some sort of water to grow the food they ate and to keep them alive.

[Falcon Horus]

Here we go peeps!

I've seen the original cut once and unknowingly watched the director's cut this run through.

It looks like I watched the director's cut -- I didn't even know that existed but it is the DVD that's in my sister's collection. Now, this also means that there are scenes which were colored differently and it did make the whole thing a bit jarring at times. However, it didn't do anything to the overall story which I have to say is quite linear, almost boring. Not that the story is boring but it feels like it's unnecessarily long (if that makes sense). If anyone's familiar with the UK show Strictly Come Dancing, you'd be familiar with Len Goodman who was sometimes unhappy with dances when there was too much mucking about and not enough dancing. Well, I think that a lot of times in the film there was too much mucking about and not enough moving forward.

I haven't seen this film too many times -- about three times I think, and the first time I saw it was somewhere between season 4 and 5 of SG1 and I didn't like it then. I guess, I gotten used to O'Neill with 2 L's and Michael Shanks as Daniel Jackson. However, I did very much like Ra's guards and I still do, the Anubis ones and the Horus ones. They tickle the little prop-maker in me.

Onwards to the story...

It's pretty straightforward with the alien coming to earth, taking over the boy and using it's advanced stage in evolution to control the humans until the humans rise up and chase him off. They bury the gate (and flatten two guards in the process) and all stays hidden until 1928 when Langford's diggers uncover the Door to Heaven Stargate.

Sidenote: there's a scene when Daniel is telling the story to Jack where we see the rebellion on Earth, where people are carrying a jaffa, which is repeated when the Abydonians rise up against the two guards in the end.

From there we jump a couple of years and go straight into trying to figure out what this thing is supposed to do. A translation team, we learn, has been working on it for 2 years and Daniel solves the mystery in two weeks (give or take).

Sidenote: ... and the time jump gives me pause because where is Stargate Origin going to take place in this timeline. If we look to the casting of Catherine Langford, I'm assuming it's in her early twenties and there's no indication in this film that she worked on figuring out what the ring does previous to the project in the mountain.

By this time the military has taken over and what do the jarheads in the military do -- they don't think outside the box, and think there's only one doorway so they want to blow it up. Good plan, flawed of course, but what else are you going to do with something you don't understand... Yeah, study it -- that's one option but it doesn't involve enough of BOOM!!!

Cheeky Daniel claiming he can get them home, sneaky little fella... just to get onto the team. It's cute that he's the only one to test the eventhorizon before stepping through, and I always LOVED the long trip. It's like a freakin' rollercoaster ride. The effect of the gate, when Daniel's face is ripped apart and send forth. Amazing effects for the time.

Visually, this film is stunning. Lots of cool shots and pretty cool VFX shots and the glider models are a bit wonky, but looking good. Though I'm sure I saw the lines which were making it fly at least once. Also, totally wicked that the movie gliders don't actually have cockpits but are like cabriolets, open roof and you see the helmets of the pilots instead. Also, lots more color in Ra's jaffa than any other we'll see in the future. Man had style.
I also really dig Jay Davidson's acting. Graceful and very expressive in his ways. He might no longer be active as an actor but damn, he was good.

Anyway, onwards... where were we... oh right, they arrive on the other side of the wormhole and the fun begins. I forgot about the teammates and the interactions. And then we meet the Abydonians and Daniel gets married. He's the one to get the girl.

Which basically is what this film is really about. Daniel Jackson is the lead character here. The rest are just along for the ride. And of course, he dies for the very first time. A moment we should remember... it's beginning of so much dying yet to come.

I forgot about Shau're dying though. But I guess, not having seen the film that many times might work against me in that area.

I really enjoyed all the interactions between Daniel, Jack, and the team and the Abydonians. The kids with Skaa'ra leading them on, Shau're and Daniel in the cave and together in the room when he confronts her about their marriage. The interpersonal relationships of this film are far more outspoken than the adventure which is unfolding. It's not a fast paced adventure, but slowly grows towards a climactic ending... a big boom in space.

Also forgot they lost the bomb and Ra changing it to make it stronger. It sure worked as planned, except for the part where he got blown up instead.

In the end it all works out fine... Ra defeated, the team can go home, Daniel still has the girl and decides to stay behind, and then it ends. Not even a last scene at the mountain on Earth to finish the day, like nobody would want to know what was on the other side of the wormhole.

That abrupt ending wasn't what I'd call great but okay... it does leave a great opening for SG1 to pick up so I shall forgive it.

And now... onwards to Stargate SG1: Children of the Gods.

For anyone interested I shall come back with some questions but I have to think on a few first.
Only virtual cred can be won though, no real prices.

[LightofXion]

Wow, that was really good. About the visual effects, I noticed the rings beaming up to the ship looked the same as in the series which I hadn't noticed before.

I really like the old-style cheeky animal puppetry compared to new-age CGI creature's liked the aliens created for SGU. I feel like I get a better idea of what they look like. In SG1 the ashard puppets do the same for me and I feel they lost a little when they went CGI but that is for another episode.

@FalconHorus, I loved your synopsis. I too agree the ending wasn't mindblowing, but as it did 'open the gate' for the series (which is all I really care about) I too will forgive them.

When I first watched this movie, I think it was before I saw the series. I did enjoy it but it also wasn't a 'gotta see it again' film. The series does so much more justice.

See you at S1E1!

[aretood2]

So um...how fast is this rewatch going to be?

[garhkal]

Nice rundown falcon. I especially like the small texts almost like a thought bubble..

[garhkal]

I love the deleted scenes in the extended cut that show the jaffa helmet and armor. it's also weird seing some of the things that got changed. for instance, the movie says that the gate sent them to the other side of the known universe. when the show has Abbados in our galaxy.

great movie though, its what sparked my interest for sure. i have always loved egyption/alien theories.

It always irked me that they had that biggest of guffaws.. Along with Ra's alien looking like the Asgard..

Watching it right now. I remember seeing this movie title on the marquee at the movie theater nearest to my little Vermont home-town (30 miles away). Of course the title made me think Sci-Fi but the "Kurt Russell" & "James Spader" underneath convinced me that it was a hoax designed to lure Sci-Fi lovers like me into a movie about some talent agency.

Kurt's been in other Sci-fi movies.. Not sure on Spader..

All the cigarette smoke rising during Danny's first briefing is so 70s

It was interesting to see that, especially since this came about in the 90s, right during the height of the "smoking bad" fad.

I went to see it at the cinema when it first came out - I remember being dragged to see it by a school friend. Even though I was a sci-fi fan, for some reason nothing about what I'd heard attracted me to the movie. I remember when the opening credits started and the title "S T A R G A T E" spread across the entire cinema screen, I thought that was cool. And then when the words "Creature effects by..." appeared, I suddenly became interested.

As a sci-fi fan and a fan of Kurt, i had to see it in the theater.. BUT alas only saw it the once there. The rest of the 5 times i've seen it are on tv/dvd..

The same actors: Skaara and Kasuf - love them both

Same here. And it was a real pity we had to lose them in the series (end of S6).. Also a pity they couldn't get the actress who played Shar'e back for her roll..

Did I mention before how much I liked the way Ra's soldiers (Jaffa but no symbiotes) were dressed.

I always wondered, WHY his guards were not proper Jaffa the way we knew them..

The one thing I think the TV show got wrong was changing the character of Shau'ri so much. The actress who played her was so much better (and prettier IMO) than the actress who played Sha're. Also, Shau'ri was smart and fiesty. She inspired and led the rebellion. They dumbed her down so much in the TV show. She was a like a simpering child--an empty headed damsel in distress. It was very insulting.

I always wondered if that change in how she acted, was CAUSE of the change in actress, or something else.

Again I'll repeat what I said, the only problem was that they couldn't find the seventh symbol. They already knew there had t be one and that's why they programmed it in the computer, they just didn't know which one. That's where Daniel came. HE re-translated everything and found the seventh symbol.
One other thing, just because they knew there was a seventh symbol doesn't mean they knew it was meant to be the point of origin. Daniel figured that part out. They thought it was a code. A sequence.

But HOW did they know they needed 7 symbols?

I think the Horus guards and Anubis looked absolutely fantastic in the film (that's what a bigger budget will get you), and the snake-heads in the TV series never worked. They looked pretty cheesy and ridiculous.

Maybe it was cause the film had a bigger CGI budget for how the helmets worked..

Cont next post.

[garhkal]

Now I had realized 2 different things: O'Neil son's name (Tyler at the movie, Charlie in the serie),
For finish, a questions:
Movie or serie?
Kurt Rusell or Richard Dean Anderson?
James Spader or Michael Shanks?
And following...

I never noticed the whole name change of Oneill's kid..
As for me. Series over movie
Russell for Jack over RDA but Michael hands down for Daniel over spader..

I think they knew the gate did more then just rotate... (how? is a good question) The line "in-case you succeed" is a dead give away... Also, the Galaxy Map looked quite complex... It would have made less sense if they said they made it in 2 weeks.

I look at it as... Langford (and some military people) knew a wormhole would open.. The reaction of Langford and some of the people in the room when it happened furthers this assumption... Perhaps, Langford needed someone of Jackson's intellect to convince the government that the risk wasn't too high to give the device a real test.

Lets try to clean this plot hole!

If you remember from the series (torment at tantelus) SHE had no idea they had opened it up successfully before..

I agree. It's hard to meld the movie and the series together. But ToT was an attempt by TPTB to do just that.

And if you consider that Catherine knew her dad's team were dialing random symbols to try and get the gate to work, and as far as she knew that caused an explosion that killed her fiancee, I can see why she would be hesitant to just plug in random symbols trying to find the 7th Chevron.

That is a very valid reason why she and her team were not just randomly trying symbols..

It was like watching it for the first time again. It was such a difference from the theatrical version. There were a few bits I'd never seen before that added a whole lot to the overall story. Also it was cleaned up nicely, giving lovely clear crisp images compared to the dark grainy VHS version I'd first bought the movie in!!!

You're not alone there. My first copy of this was on VHS and i played it twice before the DVD came out.. I shelved buying it for a while, until i heard about the special edition with the added in scenes..

It was a joy to sit and watch the foundation for the fantastic Stargate franchise being laid. It was the sheer mystery of what they were faced with that I loved as a concept of the Stargate story. How ancient history was mixed with the idea of an alien creating the human civilisation. Daniel finding out about this unknown history of Earth from people who were taken at the time from Earth and who continued to live in that way unchanged while civilisation continued to advance on Earth.

And what made it all fun for me and many of my friends, was the whole fact it was set in the HERE and NOW... Compared to so many other sci-fi films with travel to other planets..

The costumes and sets are wonderful, great attention to detail. Ra's ship I thought always looked so cool, the way it landed and then opened up to bring in natural light and air making it more of a palace rather than a spaceship on the ground.

I always wondered. WAS His ship the only one that did that? And was his the only one tha didn't have that funky framework around it?

I think this movie was unfairly treated by the critics at the time and it wasn't a movie that attracted much attention. It's a shame because I thought it was well paced with action and filled with the awe and mystery of discovering that there was more to Earth history than anyone thought!! This is the sort of thing I like, shame the critics dididn't, they certainly missed the point of the whole thing that makes good Sci Fi, believable worlds out there and civilisations with amazing technology.

IMO it was far better than many other sci-fi films in that year..

regarding bold: There is a thing in a movie creation: make your viewer interested and pleasantly shocked. You know if they made Stargate take us to say Moon, or other part of this planet, it would meh to viewer. No sensationalism there. Even if you say that it takes to alpha centauri system, it still would be not as sensational as going to the edge of known universe. With such idea you can keep a viewer interested, and most of them(sci fi fans) would say: Wooow, cool, they are going to other side of the universe.
That is why you have computers make those cheesy noises in action/sci fi movies, or that fancy software interface on those computers, even though they are just repainted Dell XPS laptops. I think it is waist of time to nit pick such things, especially when Stargate movie was created when noone had any thoughts to make a TV series out of it.

So true. I remember in my watching of it in the theater, the # of gasps i heard when they heard "That's right dr jackson, the otherside of the known universe" from Dr Langford, sure showed it had the desired effect. Making people go OOH, and AHH...

I never paid any attention to any critics. For me it looked that they always look at movies from some weird perspective. Never seemed to look at it from different angles.
Like saying that say, sci fi movie does not have a good story or plot(not talking about Stargate here, just in general as an example), even though that movie might have fantastic sound/visual effects and idea, for which a movie might be great. Some movies are not meant to have great stories and stuff like that, sometimes they are created for us to enjoy it from different perspective.

IMO its just the standard critics/holly weird elites general dislike of accepting/rewading sci-fi movies..

I often think it's a shame that some more of the movie actors did not return for the series, notably French Stewart as Feretti (although Feretti was barely used in SG-1 anyway).

Both Feretti and Kawalski i always preferred the movie version of them, and like you, wished they could have reprises their role in the show..

A big point that doesn't get addressed is how Daniel dials the gate from the planet - obviously the DHD does not exist in the movie universe and it's not really made clear. The same point can also be made about just using trial and error to find the 7th symbol, but in this case they really had too much going on.

I've never even given that a thought before..

Had a chance to listen to Darren and David's review of the film on the podcast, never knew that Spader thought that the script was 'awful'.

On one hand I'm kind of mortified because, well, it's Stargate, dammit, a fantastic movie , on the other hand, I have to kind of respect his brutal honesty...how many times will you hear an actor openly admit 'Hey, I thought it was awful but it was a paycheck so I did it...'

It would have been nice to have heard how he felt AFTER the movie came out..
Was it still an 'aweful script"?

Cont' next post.

[garhkal]

Ra's guards looke impressive (Althoug Ra himself seemed less menacing than the Goa'uld of SG-1) and the finale was good ("Send my regards to King Tut...").

Maybe cause he was the high foutin tootin supreme system lord, no one had challenged him that way before..

The fight scene between jack and anubis in the movie kick a@@!

It's grimy and long. it felt like a serious brawl

It also makes you wonder.. IN the show, we saw several times Teal'c easily beat Jack.. SO was 'anubis' really that bad of a fighter, OR did the show 'dumb down' how good Oneill is in a fist fight?

[Metallica93]

I love how garhkal just mass replied to 4-6 year old posts.

Now that's dedication.

[Falcon Horus]

So um...how fast is this rewatch going to be?

2-3 episodes a week -- may take us a while.

But hey, if it means keeping Stargate on people's minds a little while longer than why the hell not.

It was interesting to see that, especially since this came about in the 90s, right during the height of the "smoking bad" fad.

That had me going, "Oh yeah, that time when they were still allowed to smoke in films."

I always wondered if that change in how she acted, was CAUSE of the change in actress, or something else.

Much like the character of O'Neill, they too changed Shau're. O'Neil with 1 L sure didn't have a sense of humor, and Sha're in the series was perhaps in the beginning less feisty, but when chosen to be Amaunet's host she changed into that fighting Abydonian we knew from before.

I love how garhkal just mass replied to 4-6 year old posts.
Now that's dedication.

I legit have never seen him talk that much before.

[garhkal]

I love how garhkal just mass replied to 4-6 year old posts.

Now that's dedication.

Well, i first saw this thread 3 days ago, but noticed i had not replied on it before, so was like "i will just give it a look see... ''
then i decided to go through all the back posts, and saw a lot to reply to.

[aretood2]

This is why that avatar fits you.