Disappointed with the Arc of Truth? Spoilers

[Ladyinred]

Knowledge doesn't make you intelligent.

Precisely. You need to have AGES or even CENTURIES in case of Ascended beings case of experience to know exactly how to use the knowledge you possess. Adria being a CHILD doesn't know this.

[g.o.d]

Precisely. You need to have AGES or even CENTURIES in case of Ascended beings case of experience to know exactly how to use the knowledge you possess. Adria being a CHILD doesn't know this.

of course, it takes centuries to learn how to say "step away from the ark." or "if you touch it again, I'll kill you."

[david2708]

What the movies shows is two things.
One is they DON'T know how to write for film as they claimed they would be doing with this one. Writing for film is NOT just a pointless long pan of mountains etc intermixed with talking heads.
Secondly it shows just how past it the people who write the show are. The movie reeks of the staleness that plagued the latter seasons. It's such a pity that a talented topnotch cast are beholden to a bunch of people who really should have moved on years ago and let other creative minds come in and rejuvinate the show.
AOT is strictly for the fans-the fans who don't criticize anything in the Stargate universe where everything is always 'amazing'. Certainly no-one new will be attracted to the franchise.
Having seen the leaked versions, I won't be buying the DVD till some latter time when it's cheaper-if only for the cast's sake.

[Detox]

The only thing I was disappointed in, was that it was too short. They really needed an 11th season to finish it off. The movie did it fairly well, but I would've liked to see more.

[jenks]

of course, it takes centuries to learn how to say "step away from the ark." or "if you touch it again, I'll kill you."

She was distracted, why is that so hard to understand?

[SylvreWolfe]

Knowledge doesn't make you intelligent.

Exactly. Nor does it make you emotionally mature enough to grasp concepts. Or question that these *inferior* beings might actually be able to defeat such a *superior* being. She even questioned Vala about how they were able to get as far as they did, being so inferior. Supervillains with super powers don't tend to believe that the *inferior* beings are capable of destroying them.

no, it doesn't. One day RCC says the ascended have higher level of perception and later we saw an idiotic ascended beings lacking basic human instincts (she was human)

I don't take everything Cooper, Wright, or Mallozzi say with a grain of salt, I use the whole damned bucket of salt for them. They change their *canon* as often as most people change their underwear and it is almost always to cover up their own lazy writing.

[kirmit]

I don't take everything Cooper, Wright, or Mallozzi say with a grain of salt, I use the whole damned bucket of salt for them. They change their *canon* as often as most people change their underwear and it is almost always to cover up their own lazy writing.

Truer words were never spoken.

[Drax]

...yea, what fan fics? And I LOVED THE SIX BOOK!!!!! Would have loved the 7th if it weren 't ruined for me...

Yegh... to each their own about Rowling's last two stinkers.

As for those fanfics, I'll have to dig them up at Fanfiction.net because it was a while ago when I read them. They had their own set of problems too, but I enjoyed them more.

[Dr. Michael Benjamin]

After watching the entire movie on youtube I'd like to share my opinion. Maybe I'm crazy but one of the expectations I had prior to seeing it was that at some point in the film SG-1 would oh I don't know..actually USE the stargate. I don't want to give anything away here but the only gate travel SG-1 does is with the supergate....once. The rest of the movie is a random assortment of sequences that appeared to be a mix created from the cutting room floor from the last two seasons of the series. It starts out promising enough with a feel of an episode of SG-1 with Daniel doing his best Indiana Jones archeologist and humorous banter ala Valla. However things quickly devolve into a Star Trek rip off. Why, when you have a fantastic plot device such as a stargate, do you opt for the tired "shields up" sci-fi standby? I cannot understand this. Perhaps in a brilliant attempt to remind the viewer that this is indeed Stargate, the writers continue to dismantle the wonder that was SG-1 by lifting a plot from an episode of the original Star Trek. More accurately maybe the film should have been named Stargate: The Trouble with Tribbles....umm....Replicators. Replete with our stalwart heroes beaming all over, locking horns with Ori ships and a shallow, flaming ubervillaness who acts more like a spoiled trust fund baby rather than an all powerful semi-omnipotent force of evil. Ark of Truth seems to be not a grand send off to the Ori story but a eulogy to a once marvelous and creative TV series. I won't spoil the movie for anyone else but the film focuses more on the Replicator issue than with the Ark itself. Its a shame because there seemed to be a very interesting backstory to the device and could have brought a very nice element of continuity to the story but, again, the writers chose to stick with the flashy sci-fi aspect (as though they want the viewer to truly understand that the FX budget is bigger because we're watching a straight to DVD concoction rather than an SG-1 episode) instead of reaching back to the events of remote antiquity that separated Stargate from the rest of the pack. I sat at the end and was expecting more. If you are a fan of neat and cohesive endings that answer your questions or even give you a sense of closure this won't do it. Many things may remain for you to ponder after you've watched the movie. For example: What exactly happens to Adria? (seeing her get her comeuppance from the Ascended would have been especially sweet), how exactly does the Ark work? (again.....could have been a really fascinating point), or why did we spend nearly half the movie watching our heroes trying to figure out a way to defeat an enemy that had supposedly already been defeated? I'm sorry to say this film is a real dissappointment. It almost seemed like the writers were rolling their collective eyes at fans who had the audacity to be dissatisfied when SG-1 was suddenly (and abruptly) ended. I could imagine what their brainstorming meetings entailed...the PTB sitting around a big table: "How can we shut these people up and how can we do it as quickly as possible? Ahh I know how about a stright-to-DVD B flick? There you go...heres a few dollars, sign up the actors and lets have this done with. After all we here at Sci-Fi have better jems to worry about....such as Flash Gordon and ECW." Despite its downfalls Ark of Truth still (even if its in name only) is Stargate, for that I have to give it 2 out of 5 stars. I don't really see anything in this film that makes me want to watch it again. Maybe others will like it.....I certainly do not.

[david2708]

At first i had the thought that they should have scrubbed Continuum and fleshed out AOT as a 4/5 parter. Then you realise they couldn't even flesh it out to 2 with the inclusion of the old replicators.

[Drax]

Oh, there was heaps they could have done to flesh this out to a Replicator-less two and a half hour movie (if only).

Roland Emmerich did a wonderful job on the original movie with just one villain with awe-inspiring mystique and a script that had a satisfying beginning, middle and end, but these guys with ten years under their belts in the franchise couldn't even come up with a decent 100 minute feature that even attempted to be great.

[Dr. Michael Benjamin]

I forgot to mention something that I did like from AoT. The interaction between Teal'C and Valla's ex (don't remember his name) on board the ship. There was an actual moment of emotional/character development that seemed nearly out of place in the film. It was the bright spot of the movie. It managed to touch back to the beginnings of SG-1 when Teal'c turned against Apophis.
Drax, imagine what the original movie could have been like had Emmerich been allowed to bring more of his story to the screen. Ra was one of those villans who didn't need to actually kick everyone's butt to be bad because most of his power rests in intimidation. Sadly, AoT was so disjoined that I wouldn't have been suprised to see a Serpent Guard chorus line (ala the Rockettes) during the final scene. I suppose it could have been worse though: AoT could have been one of those episodes that was nothign more than clips of older episodes.

[Drax]

Yes, and Emmerich's film was much more coherent and flowed very nicely. I know the script wasn't Shakespeare or Welles, but it treated the genre and sci-fi/adventure conventions with class and respect.

Ra was an intimidating villain who raised the stakes by being an immediate threat to the heroes and eventually to Earth with the naquadah bomb. Adria seemed to have exhausted her intimidation because everything that could be displayed about her that was even threatening had already been shown in Season 10, but they should have actually given her something to do - show us why she's do damn powerful. Roger Ebert said that "Each film is only as good as its villain. Since the heroes and the gimmicks tend to repeat from film to film, only a great villain can transform a good try into a triumph."

To the fault of the writers, I'm afraid the TAOT and Adria fit together nicely, even though she was capable of so much more.

[g.o.d]

She was distracted, why is that so hard to understand?

yes, this is the ultimate answer. She was always distracted

[g.o.d]

I don't take everything Cooper, Wright, or Mallozzi say with a grain of salt, I use the whole damned bucket of salt for them. They change their *canon* as often as most people change their underwear and it is almost always to cover up their own lazy writing.

I agree. Lazy writing