Arc of Truth [SPOILERS]

Venom

Arc of Truth felt to me like nothing more than the last milking of the SG1 franchise. The story was pretty bland overall but considering they had to wrap up the awful Ori plotline from series 9 and 10 I wasnt really expecting much.

AOT really goes back to the old SG1 season arcs of looking for the uber ancient weapon to beat that seasons evil doer with its plot and the only good thing it does is at least shut the Ori door once and for all.

Saying that the whole replicators angle sucked ass and felt like nothing more than a cheep rehash of previous plotlines of both SG1 and Atlantis. More Ori vs Earth ship battles could of done the same job much better but I guess the producers didnt want to splash out on a bigger special effects budget.

Those that enjoyed series 9 and 10 will probley lap this crap up but those that didnt like the last two seasons of SG1 wont have their opinion turned around by this DVD.

Ivan

[Warning, massive spoilers ahead]
I know the warning is in the thread title, but these are MASSIVE!

Hah, I really didnt enjoy series 9 and 10. Vala annoyed me, although I came around a bit towards the end, Cameron seemed corny and out of place the majority of the time. Not to mention the strangeness of having 2 equal rank officers "in charge" all the time and having 5 members for the first time ever. Teal'c always seemed tired and worn, and as hot as Lexia Doig was, she never seemed to measure up to the doctor of old.

So, its as much a surprise to me as to anyone else, that I actually quite enjoyed it. Now, keep in mind that I watched it in a small window while surfing and reading some things, so I was probably alot less affected by the really boring bits compared to how most would feel but all the same... there were some definite quality moments.

The revelation to Torin about the Ori was masterfully handled in my opinion. It all occured in just a few moments but it was so neatly done, that I kinda thought that it would be explained later that that actually was the Ark

Adria became the super-ori that many of us expected and it just helped the story along.

So nice to see some ancients get off their ass and do something and as cheesy as it was, when Teal'c was healed and then just stood up with a stupid look on his face as he ran off to the castle which for some reason was on the same planet as where he was shot. The moment after Daniel asked Morgane Lafey, how? as in how he was supposed to expose one Ori to the Ark, Teal'c appeared and I was the one with a stupid look on my face

Yes, the Replicator plot was pretty stupid. As was an Prior just coming to earth at exactly the right moment, so as to avoid an extra 10-15 minutes as they track down another Prior. The human replicator was just dire, in my opinion, even more so when the skin fell off him and the human skeleton walked about. It also looked pretty badly done, but thats beside the point. I mean, bullets will break up replicator blocks but the concussion force of an explosion at that range wont? Furthermore, the Replicaters are just blocks that come together by some sort of quasi-forcefield. Now, bullets break these blocks apart but what is to stop them coming together again? All that aside, I thought the premise, the idea of having a CIA trained operative implant a program to the Asgard core to create a replicater for the intended purpose was quite a good story narrative, imho.

The final scene with Adria and the opening of the Ark was great though, although the "fight" between Morganne and Adria was pretty retarded looking. That may have been due to incomplete special effects, as there was a bit where the fire was incomplete, but I dont think so and it was just silly imho.

Overall, I'd say it definitely surpassed my expectations, which isnt really saying alot, but I would recommend it to all Stargate fans out there. If you've watched this far, then you would really be doing yourself a disservice in not watching it. Nothing else can really be said after that

ixoy

I enjoyed it but wasn't overwhelmed by it. It seemed a little too pat and neat in trying to resolve everything - something Browder and Black would've experienced similarly with Farscape's tie-up "The Peacekeeper Wars".

Now I kind of liked the Ori storyline - it was far from perfect, but the idea itself worked for me. The movie here had to tie up the plot lines but thankfully there wasn't too many dangling - namely the Ori were still dead.

Adria alone assuming all the power was a good way to take it but they definitely didn't explore it enough - we should have felt her as more of a threat, rather than an (unfinished) VFX. The terrible power she wielded wasn't clear enough, besides flinging a few people around, which is something a lowly Prior can do. Her final fight with the Ancient, Morgan LeFay, was weak but I do believe that those SFX will be beefed up (although the battle would still seem short).

From a character point-of-view, I like how Teal'c and Daniel were used. Both resolved critical moments with Daniel, as ever, solving the key mystery. Teal'c explaining how he never forgave himself was a nice moment. I appreciate they have him looking older now, given the events surrounding the S10 finale.
Vala had her use too, with Adria but I don't believe good use was made of
Carter or Cam - mainly because they got stuck in the B-replicator plot.
Now I'm a bit fed up with replicators on "Stargate: Atlantis" so I was less than thrilled to see them turn up here. It felt like filler, a side show to give two leads something to do. The explanation for using them was weak and the subsequent human/replicator hybrid was in no way good. Where did this come from? Why? Just why? If nothing else, it gave us the first full swear in the show since S1's finale.
Landry did nothing of note but, as he never does anyway, that's not too noteworthy itself...

All-in-all I was relatively pleased with how they chose to wrap it up, seeing as I didn't mind the S9/S10 arc. I do believe they should have cut the replicator piece out and substituted it for more interesting space-based action with the Ori ships. A leaner movie would have come about and it might have been very good, as opposed to "good".

Now I've to wait a bit for "Stargate: Continuum" which should hopefully herald a new age of stand-alone adventures, independent of previous story-lines. Assuming it won't just be used as a launch-pad for the new show, it should allow us get back to the basics that the last twenty seconds of this movie hinted at.

Sherifu

It started out well, finding the ark and a minor scuffle with some ori boys before we get to see tomin again. Then we have the Prior taking one to the chest and tomin switches camps.

The explanation for Daniel knowing the location of the ark by having visions from Merlins memories has been used before in a few storylines in stargate, as early as season 2 with the Carter/Jolinar storyline.

Bringing in a new character ex-cia/IOA was a bit ****ty imo, the whole replicator sub plot was terrible. The worst of all was the human replicator hybrid bad guy. He was like a mid level boss in a videogame or a character from that ill-conceived movie virus who stumbled into the wrong set.

I did enjoy the movie despite the replicator stuff, it was a nice ending to the ori storyline. Seeing them keeping continuity with older T'ealc, some more history on how the ancients were chased off by the ori and the ending pointing to future missions, "Walter, hit it"

I have higher expectations for the second movie, since it will be a clean slate.

Ivan

Yeah, I thought Teal'c looked much older but assumed it was just my imagination. Forgot all about that episode...

Suaimhneach

I kept in mind that it wasnt the finished movie, so hopefully some stuff will be improved by the time the final one comes up.

Agree with most of what you guys say about the strong and weak points. Looking forward to seeing the other two movies. They're kinda like decent episodes really.

User45701

Venom wrote: »

Saying that the whole replicators angle sucked ass and felt like nothing more than a cheep rehash of previous plotlines of both SG1 and Atlantis. More Ori vs Earth ship battles could of done the same job much better but I guess the producers didnt want to splash out on a bigger special effects budget.
.

I thought they where saving there budget for the 2nd movie?

jor el

I thought this was OK, except for the replicator stuff. That was totally stupid, and unnecessary. I still don't get the point of building the replicator in the first place. Your man's plan was to infest the Ori ships with replicators, but he let SG1 release the replicator on their own ship, knowing the anti-replicator gun was useless, and before the Ori ships turned up. This would have just lead to their own deaths, and disabling the ship so when the Ori ones arrived they could just blow them, and the replicators, up. A shite plan all in all, and this ruined an otherwise pretty good "episode" for me.

The very Terminator style Replicator human frame was quite bad. I hope they do something about the special effects here at least for the final product.

I'll still buy this when it comes out, even though it's more like a two part episode, one of which wasn't that good.

cotwold

Overall i was disapointed with AOT. The whole thing felt like a feature length episode rather than a stand alone movie. After all the hype the Sg1 production crew drummed up i felt really cheated by the end of it. It had all the excitment of bowl of porrige, and i enjoyed the last 2 seasons. Formula stuff really.

is_that_so

Seeing as I would have been happy to wave SG-1 off after season 8 this left me fairly cold but at least the Ori storyline went out , albeit with a whimper. The replicator story was plain daft with the attendant "I am a baddy" written all over the IOA guy's face. IMO SG-1 has definitely got its best days behind it. That said there was a reasonably good pace to the competing stories and it did keep me watching. And I will be checking out the next one. Old habits die hard.