Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Baal travels back in time and prevents the Stargate program from ever being started. SG-1 team must somehow restore history and once again save the galaxy from oppressive domination.

Since I don’t watch TV much this movie lost me a bit. I’ve seen the movie Stargate several times but never followed the television show it spawned. This movie is largely an hour and half long episode with a slightly larger budget. The characters were unfamiliar to me except for the ones tied in to the original film (and even that took me a little bit to figure out). Aside from that the premise and execution weren’t bad at all. I usually don’t go for the made-for-TV type of films but this one wasn’t too bad. Overall sci-fi fans would probably enjoy it and I’m sure the show’s fans will appreciate the production value.

The HD presentation was better than I was expecting given the lower budget roots of this film but not quite to the level of the higher brow product coming from Fox. Most of the limitations are obvious shortcomings of the source material though, and mainly derive from the special effects. Detail in close ups is solid and the image retains a nice level of dimension and depth. Colors are bland for the most part and the image is devoid of any real stylizing making for a cut and dry experience. While the film looks just like the small amount I’ve seen of this show on TV, it falls short of the bigger budget Blu-ray film offerings.

The soundtrack gets the full 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio treatment and given its production roots it is a pretty effective mix. Surround use is aggressive, though at times a bit hokey and the soundstage is pretty open overall. Dynamics are a bit limited overall but I didn’t expect too much given the production roots. Dialogue always sounds clean with a nice balance within the mix. Nothing to really complain about, but nothing really stands out overall.

Extras include a few production features along with a feature commentary.

I think I would have connected with this film a bit more if I followed the series but overall I thought it was alright. The presentation is a bit better than I would expect from this level of production and I applaud Fox for continuing to deliver solid A/V presentations regardless of their roots.