With a trio of long-running live-action TV shows, a cartoon series and a handful of direct-to-DVD movies carrying the Stargate branding, its easy to forget that the now whopping franchise all spawned from a far less popular film that never got nearly as much praise as it deserved upon release back in the 90s. Unsurprisingly then, with the advent of Blu-ray and high definition, now is the ideal time to (re)visit the much underrated slice of Egyptian space-fun.
For those unfamiliar, Stargate sees an ancient device unearthed in Egypt. After decades of trying to figure out the origins of the mysterious device, Egyptologist Daniel Jackson cracks the code and, before you know it, were dealing with a machine that creates a wormhole to another planet across the galaxy. Venturing through the stargate, a military team discover a civilisation startlingly similar to ancient Egypt where everyone lives in fear of the tyrannical god Ra.
So yep, its a pretty good story (hardly surprising considering the films hefty legacy) played out by a talented cast. Sure its overly ballsy, flawed and undeniably silly at times but the simple truth is that Stargate is a ton of fun and well worth having a look on Blu-ray on account of the massive batch of extras on board. This is one of the first Blu-ray double dips, as the film was previously released in a no-frills version, but this new edition certainly makes up for the re-release cheek in the features department.
The disc includes the theatrical version of the film along with a seamlessly-branched extended cut, a stack of cracking featurettes, a brand new gag reel, a documentary, a commentary, a B-roll and trailers. Topping it off, we also get an awesome picture-in-picture Ultimate Knowledge feature. It makes for a superb bunch of bonus booty that Stargate nuts just needs to sink their teeth into.
As for the audio, the soundtrack is deep, crystalline and thoroughly immersive. Picture-wise its pretty good but not perfect. The colours leap off the screen but there are moments of graininess to be found and the CGI looks distractingly cartoonish under the harsh. unforgiving light of HD. Nevertheless, its by far the best version of the film available and well worth picking up even if its just for the abundant extras.
Overall Verdict: A well thought out but occasionally daft sci-fi cracker thats been given very good treatment in terms of quality extras. Very nice.
Special Features:
“Deciphering the Gate: Concepts and Casting” Featurette
“Opening the Gate: The Making of the Movie” Featurette
“Passing through the Gate: The Legacy” Featurette
Never-Before-Seen Gag Reel
BonusView Picture-in-Picture “STARGATE Ultimate Knowledge”
“Is There a Stargate?” Featurette
“The Making of STARGATE” Documentary
Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Roland Emmerich and Writer/Producer Dean Devlin
BD Live
B-Roll
Original Stargate Previews
Reviewer: Jordan Brown