1994 / Roland Emmerich > It’s always a bit sad to re-visit a film only to find it a shade of its former self. Such is the case with Stargate, something that I had fondly remembered as a great science-fiction experience upon its release. But time has not been so kind to Emmerich and his creation. The CGI effects are awkward and often unforgiving, some of the the acting is downright wooden (such as Jaye Davidson, who sucked the last bit out of his fame from The Crying Game here) and the story is a bit too shallow to be memorable. (Come to think of it, this and Independence Day are basically the same plot, but on different home fields!) But all of this aside, it’s hard not to give the film credit for climbing us up the imagination tree and fusing ancient Egyptian mythology with a good dose of futurism. This is no classic, not anymore, but it’s still worth a viewing for its sense of nostalgia.