Remastered, recut, reimagined, remarkable! The thrilling pilot episode of television?s longest-running sci-fi series is now yours to own on DVD! With exclusive special features and masterful fine-tuning from series Co-Crea... more »tor Brad Wright, Stargate SG-1 Children of the Gods Final Cut is a whole new experience.
Jack O?Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) leads a formidable team on a mission to Abydos to defeat fierce warriors led by the vicious Ra. With the threat of the brutal Goa?uld hanging over the galaxy, the team must succeed ? or General Hammond (Don S. Davis) will unleash an apocalyptic solution!
New Edit with Never-Viewed Scenes New and Enhanced Visual Effects Revoiced Performance by Christopher Judge Original Score by Joel Goldsmith Special Features includes: Commentary by Co-Creator Brad Wright and Actor Richard Dean Anderson and Back to the Beginning Featurette« less
Solid bridge between the original Stargate movie and the beginning of the Stargate TV series. A must for Stargate and McGuyver fans!
2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Movie Reviews
MUCH better than the Original!
Keith C. Bradbury | Indianapolis, IN | 07/19/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I don't know about the others on this board, but I have actually watched through the movie, listened to the commentary track, and viewed the featurette. If I have any one complaint, it would be for a longer featurette.
First of all, this is a completely new re-edit. Expositional scenes that are establishing the basis of the series (which are wordy and slow the pace of the original pilot) are trimmed. The action is tighter. The movie has also been re-scored, whereas the pilot contained re-hashed music from the original Stargate feature film. There are also a handful of new shots, improved special effects, and a re-recording of Teal'c's voice (no longer does he have that strange accent that he had in the pilot, but it is now in keeping with the rest of the series).
There is no longer any graphic nudity. Carter no longer makes the cringe-inducing comment about her reproductive organs being on the inside, nor does she say she can "McGuyver" anything, and a continuity error has been removed regarding being able to step back through the Stargate once entering (see Apophis' entrance at the beginning of the film).
There are new scenes trimmed from the pilot now restored in this film. In all, this feels like a film and not like a studio pilot. As a result, the entire feature "feels" more in keeping with the series as a whole.
Richard Dean Anderson joins the commentary track; all in all, an enjoyable commentary.
The feature is presented in Widescreen 1.78:1 and Dolby 5.1 surround. The quality of the presentation on DVD is much better than the original box set pilot and feels much less "compressed."
*PLEASE SEE COMMENTS AND MY REPLIES FOR MORE INFORMATION*"
Re-edit excluding nudity loses important point
Jack Martin | Phoenix, AZ United States | 07/09/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I have to disagree with those reviewers who say the original nudity was gratuitous and didn't add ANYTHING to the pilot. (certainly nothing gratuitous about the near constant violence in the series, is there?)
The forced nudity most clearly demonstrated just how little the "gods" cared for the lives, feelings, and basic humanity of their subjects. By including a few dozen frames of a married woman's forced nudity and inspection by the "gods" it clearly dealt with the implied violation and rape to come. This very effectively demonstrated the level of dominance by the "gods" beyond the all too stereo-typical downtrodden slaves/cannon fodder/tortured subjects level so often seen in commercial science fiction fare...as can be seen over and over again in the subsequent Stargate: SG-1 episodes.
Without the Share character's non-consensual nudity the issue of rape and sexual violence against women under the "gods" would have never been examined. The later depiction of Share's after-the-fact pregnancy just does not provide the same focus on this topic.
Editing-out the nudity cuts a vital statement and important content out of the product and I think it is weaker for it.
It is nice that a version "suitable for children" is available (even though it contains extreme violence and depictions of torture, murder, and death).
It would have been better to be provided both versions in the same disc set so people could compare them or provide the "safe" disc to their children as desired.
I also suggest that providing the "re-imagined" version in ONLY a "fullscreen" format (according to the "format" tag in the amazon.com product description) greatly lessens the experience for the viewer.
However, as a well-considered way to enlarge the paying customer-base...re-releasing a "re-cut, re-mastered, re-imagined, re-markable" version is a brilliant commercial move."
For new comers only! (Maybe)
Aussie Xtreme Legend | Melbourne, Australia | 08/24/2009
(1 out of 5 stars)
"First off, dont get me wrong i LOVE Stargate! i own every DVD of both SG1 and Atlantis, even have a few novles! Shows i watch and watch and love the more i watch! When i first heard last year about this "re-imagined" pilot movie i was excited! Becaused it is one of my fave episodes of SG1 (If not my first) But when i watched this right off the bat i was deeply disappointed! Lines were cut out from the movie that didnt even need to be! making much of the start seem rushed! Sam's intro scene got a big chop, She has a few new lines here and there in the movie as well. Brad Wright said it made her character 'stronger' i didnt see this! Because she seems more wide eyed then in the original! Especially when she meets Dr Jackson for the 1st time!(i did a face palm to that one!) Teal'c (Christopher Judge) had his ADR re looped making him sound out of Season ten where his voice has become alot deeper with age. The new CGI isnt anything that made me go 'wow what an improvement!' Yeah the nudity scene was cut, this i didnt mind cause thats not what Sg1 is about, but the few new 'scenes' added in have changed the flow of the movie for me! The new scenes are nothing worth the money of this DVD! They seemed rushed and poorly scripted (and the reason why this dvd was done was cause Wright didnt like most of the early writing?) Most are just different takes of scenes that were in the original, which i guess were not In the original because they werent as good in performance and scripting!! The biggest sin of a change was taking out the "Macgyver" referance, which i thought was a nice touch to Richard Dean Anderson who is one of may fav actors! But this next change is what has me stumped the most! Where Major Kawalsky gets a Goa'uld in him is completely removed, why? I have no idea!! Has Wright in his thirst for easy money forgotten about the episode "The Enemy Within" ?? Which follows up from the Children of the Gods!!!! As i said, im stumped with that one! I never thought the day would come where i would be upset with a Stargate dvd for it is my most loved TV show, but sad to say, that day as arrived... All in all this 'Re-hashed' version might be for one off new comers! Since it has no ties with the next Episode in the 1st season now! I dont know how any true Stargate SG1 fan can find anything in this to make it seem worth it or that is is better! This DVD has gone into my collection (which i guess makes it complete still) and when i next start the SG1 saga again, i will be watching the original polit movie over this!"
My thoughts on the Remastered Version of Children of the God
daniel4ever | 08/26/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I have to admit that I was apprehensive about the content and undecided as to whether or not I would buy this DVD. I read the reviews on Amazon.com, and ultimately decided to buy it, since I was very curious to see it, and wondered what exactly was put in that was different. Brad Wright, in the featurette, admits he took out 7 minutes of the original footage, but enthusiastically says that he "put in new footage." I am an ardent Stargate fan, and I was hoping to see some interesting new footage.
First, several of my favorite lines were removed - Carter's "Just because my reproductive organs are on the inside..." speech is removed, and frankly I object to that for two reasons - first, people watching Moebius in season 8 will not get the joke as she repeats those lines, and secondly, I think it makes O'Neill's line a bit later "I don't have a problem with women, I like women..." seem a bit out of context to me. Also removed - O'Neill's back and forth with Hammond about writing a book after retirement - that was funny, and I miss it!
Changed, just for example, when the team first gets to Abydos, and O'Neill brushes past Daniel to get to Skaara, he actually brushes him in the original, leading to a slightly hurt look from Daniel as he recoils from the brush-by. In this version, that does not occur. It is interesting to me to see the different ways the shoot a scene. The dead Jaffa that is unveiled now also has a friend - female at that, which goes against Canon. The prison scene where Daniel regains consciousness seems to have more dialogue between him and Jack, and he seems to almost pass out a couple more times than I remember from the original. The scene where Daniel and Sam are dialing the gate at the end is shorter. They took out Daniel's "got it" and big smile moment - or shortened it, which disappointed me.
Totally new, well, there is now a short briefing room scene right after they return from Abydos where Daniel is still in his robes. Frankly, the end to that scene bothered me a lot - I felt that Hammond was overly rude. I know in the pilot he was not especially friendly or patient, but I thought his comment was very rude. Chris Judge redid his lines for his version, and now sounds too much like season 10 Teal'c.
Overall, I am mostly glad I bought this, but as Brad Wright said in his featurette, "those that don't care for this version can watch the original" - count me in that group. I hope this helps people get a better understanding of what is different. "
What were they thinking?
SciFi Fan | Dallas, TX USA | 07/26/2009
(2 out of 5 stars)
"I just watched the movie and I kept waiting for some new scenes that would justify the "re-imagining". Boy, was I disappointed. Not only was there not enough new material to justify making a new movie, but some important scenes were omitted, including the nuditiy scenes and the scene where Kowalsky gets invaded by a goauld, just to name a few. Cutting these scenes removes important cues and clues from both the movie and the series that follows. There isn't enough new material to come even close to justify saying the movie is "re-imagined". What were they thinking? I am seriously disappointed and will think twice before falling for this line again."