Upon finding a strange device in Egypt 50 years ago, they keep it as they do not know how to open the device. But now scholar Daniel Jackson, who knows how to open the device, the thing that risks the life of humanity, as he travels with a group using the device into another planet, where they worship God Ra.
Still, this is a decent little diversion, the kind of pure popcorn fodder that would find a far more ballsy form when Will Smith took on city-sized flying saucers in Independence Day.
"Has matured wonderfully, sustaining as a curious genre exercise in blockbuster yearn marked by surprising buoyancy, madly entertaining performances, and a fertile cinematic imagination behind the camera not yet corrupted by massive box office success."
The main problem with Stargate is not with set-up, but with execution. After a while you feel like you're just watching weird people staggering around a desert.
