Stargate (Ultimate Edition)
The third and most recent DVD release of Stargate is rather light on special features, but offers very good sound and picture for two versions of the film. (A few frames appear to have suffered significant damage, but other than that, it’s a very good remastering.) An extended director’s cut mostly features scenes designed to embellish the background characters or add a slightly different shade to the main characters’ actions. For example, the Giza prologue is extended slightly to show the fossilized remains of a Horus warrior who rematerialized in the rock after the gate was buried. The Air Force has those remains, which shows that the military knew there was a good chance the expedition would encounter hostile aliens. None of the changes are essential, and a few slow down the pace of the movie. But with the theatrical version also available in this set, it’s worthwhile to see a more complete picture of what the creators envisioned.
The only truly useful extra on this set is the commentary by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich that’s attached to the extended cut. They mostly offer the usual type of anecdotes on production and development of the story and generally seem to be genuinely happy with the film. Devlin seems to have more of the details of the film at his disposal than Emmerich does, and he takes a couple of opportunities to stress their lack of involvement with “the TV show.” He also has a slightly embarrassed laugh at Kurt Russell’s action-hero quip during the film’s climax, which reinforced my sense that sometimes the movie got a little too close to paint-by-numbers territory.
There is a small featurette on the production that combines new interviews with some of the effects crew with behind-the-scenes footage taken during filming. The narration is a little over the top, claiming that special effects was still a new industry in the early 90s, and several of the captions had misspellings. There’s nothing with Devlin or Emmerich here, and Russell and James Spader each show up in very brief snippets from EPK footage. It’s an OK featurette, but nothing spectacular.
The other featurette, on the other hand, is an absolute disaster. “Is There a Stargate?” spotlights a couple of believers in the idea that alien astronauts came down to Earth and built the pyramids and established other 
ancient cultures. Its connection to Stargate is tangential at best - there’s no discussion of the particular aliens depicted in the movie, or any footage of the filmmakers talking about how these theories influenced their creative process. There is no critical evaluation of the claims being made, which is particularly egregious because one of them is a fraudster who has admitted to forging some of his alleged evidence. This feature left such a bad taste in my mouth that it pulls down my rating for the entire set. On the merits of the movie itself and the other features, I’d say this edition would barely squeak in with a three. But I have to knock off a point for the DVD’s promotion of intellectual hackery.