The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I grew up with this movie as bad a$$. Now rewatching in 2018. Maybe too many movie ripping off this movie, but this movie is a slow sci fi movie. Eye glasses to protect them from the sand. Foot steps u never see in the sand tell then. Lady's combing the hair fast. U give a cig, that's wasting a cig or 2. 1 hour and 10 min tell it gets interesting. Shooting the sky wasting bullets.

Having laid the foundation of a nexus of television spin-offs thenceforward (persisting two and a half decades and ongoing, with a possible reboot in gestation), Roland Emmerich's filmic progenitor is de facto less a hardcore Sci-Fi adventure than a thinly veiled propaganda piece of colonialism, which nominally transports a contingent of earthlings (all American soldiers bar one scientist) into a terra incognita through a wormhole generated by Stargate, a mysterious instrument disinterred in Egypt. A classic pair of brain and brawn, Daniel Jackson (Spader, when he is personable to a fault), an Egyptologist and Colonel Jack O'Neil (Russell, sporting a neat crew-cut) takes the leads, what they discover is a desert planet inhabited by Ancient Egyptians, enslaved by Ra, the God of Sun (an epicene Jay Davidson in his second and last film role before retiring from the showbiz altogether), a big question mark should be alerted for the ethnic semblance here, which can be readily construed as a crass fable boasting USA's heroic inference of a less developed nation here on earth, liberating its downtrodden people and debunking the truth of their God (or any totalitarian figure), tellingly, the film's atheist and scientific stance looks promising, but soon a sweeping whiff of smugness and self-congratulation will swamp everything and tenacious to dissipate. As it turns out, the real identity of the so-called Ra, is an alien hosting a human body (thousands of years before he hijacked early humans to this remote planet and started his draconian rule), and what he presides over is a pretty tinpot reign (in spite of his stately pyramid-shaped spaceship), not only is he doomed to be vanquished by a team of earthlings in the end (yes, O'Neil follows the order, and surreptitiously brings a portable nuclear bomb on board in case of contingency, this is very American), but also he is clearly in short measure of both materiel and personnel in the first place (a dozen underlings and three laser-shooting aircrafts, that is all), not to mention the sole victim subjected to his seemingly almighty puissance is after all, one of his own incompetent guard.Among the extraterrestrial hoi polloi, due focal points are projected to a rebellious youngster Skaara (Cruz) and a beauteous Sha'uri (Avital), who is bequeathed as a wife to Jackson by her father Kasuf (Avari), the leader of the tribe, whose awakening-to-rising route is a well-trodden but insipidly crafted one. If one must single out an asset from the entire enterprise, it could only be the set-up of the titular Stargate, an abstruse device can literally open portals to every nook and cranny of our cosmic universe (depending on which group of coordinates one employs), however, Emmerich is not a Sci-Fi polymath but a workmanlike skin-scratcher, so the end result is proximate to anyone's skeptic forecast.

In 1928 archaeologists in Egypt discover a circular device and an accompanying cover-stone; cutting to the present Dr Daniel Jackson, an Egyptologist with some radical views, finds himself invited to work on a secret project run by the US Air Force; they want him to translate the symbols on the cover stone. At first he can't identify some of the key symbols but then he realises they represent the constellations and together they point to a location the other side of the universe. At this point he is shown the device… the 'star gate'. Programming the symbols in activates the device and opens a gateway between it and a second star gate on a distant planet. A team, led by US Air Force Colonel Jack O'Neil is to be sent to explore, Jackson will accompany them to program the other gate to bring them home.Once there they learn that they are no symbols for them to copy into the device; they will have to find them if they are ever to see Earth again. Soon they discover a primitive society, not dissimilar to ancient Egypt. Here they gradually learn the truth about the star gate and things that happened in Egypt millennia ago. An alien being with godlike powers arrived seeking immortality; he took over the body of a young man and took slaves from Earth to work for him before a slave revolt in Egypt shut off his access to Earth… until now. When Ra turns up he is far from happy and attacks the people; the small group of troops and Daniel will end up leading a revolt that will save not only the local population but also that of Earth.It shouldn't be a surprise that this film is pretty good given that it led to a successful TV series and various spin offs. The general idea of what is going on is quickly established and little time is wasted before translation difficulties are solved and the team are on the distant planet. This world is interesting without being obviously alien; apart from a creature the only living beings we see are human. I liked the fact that it took a while before they could understand the local; trying to understand each other with gestures seemed more real yet having Daniel eventually realise how their language was related to one he knew meant they could communicate when it was essential. Similarly I liked how the science fiction was combined with ancient Egyptian mythology. The cast do a fine job, most notably James Spader as Dr Jackson and Kurt Russell as Col. O'Neil. There is a decent amount of action although it isn't too violent… even so I was a little surprised to see a severed head in a (UK) PG rated film. The effects are pretty good; especially the armour worn by Ra's troops and the Star Gate itself. Overall I'd definitely recommend this to fans of action sci-fi who want a film that is suitable for all but very young viewers.

The character John Diehl plays Lt. Kawalsky is wearing the wrong rank insignia. He is supposed to be a Lt. but he is wearing the rank insignia(silver oak leaves) of a Lt. Colonel. I'm really surprised that nobody ever caught this, they must not have had a military adviser for this film. You would never address an officer by subordinate rank like addressing a Lt. Colonel as Lt. It is common military customs and courtesy to address an officer by the superior rank like addressing a Lt. Colonel as Colonel. You would never address a Lt. Colonel as Lt. so it is an obvious gaff that no one picked up on the mismatch between insignia and the rank of the character.