Ark of Truth vs Continuum (Movie Evaluations)

[Jumper_One]

wouldnt it still have been buried like in the 1969 ep?

the SG was unburied in 1928

[jdog]

opps

thanks

[Abyss_908]

AoT: 5/10
Continuum: 7.5/10

I find it hard to give the scores in numbers because it's hard to interpret what they really mean. Do I compare just to the rest of the SG universe, movies in general, or TV movies. I didn't like the pacing of the Ark of Truth. It seemed like it was an arc of maybe ten episodes stuffed into two hours and yet it seemed like there was something missing. The replicators were just pure filler material. It felt kind of weak. The characters, the finishing of the Ori story, and my general Stargate fandom would be the redeeming qualities.

Continuum was good. Great to see O'Neill back. It was great that it mostly centered on the team. The worst part about it probably is that it has already been done so many times in the series. Alternate timelines and realities happen about once every single season. The reset to zero is terrible. They should have left some mark or some lasting effect besides Mitchell in a black and white picture. I also felt that the Goa'uld B story had some flaws. Ba'al almost a thousand years to take control of Earth just so he could rub it in the face of SG-1? Teal'c and Vala had small roles. We've seen alternate semi-evil Teal'c in almost every alternate reality or timeline.

[blitzsnake]

Continuum was a huge disappointment. Turns out the epical scene with the MiGs was just as long as seen in the trailer. There was too much SG-1 settling into their new lifes. AoT was superior because the storyline was so much better. There was action all the time and compared to Continuum, AoT is a blockbuster!

AoT9/10
Continuum 6/10

[MitchellSG1]

I loved Continuum, so much better than Ark of Truth.

Ark of Truth 4/10
Continuum 9/10

[Browncoat1984]

AoT 8/10
Continuum 9/10

I enjoyed both Continuum and Ark of Truth. They're both very different kinds of stories, my only complain is I wish that both had longer running time to play with the material they had. I tried to not let the hype for Continuum get me over-excited about it because these days that happens and no matter how good it is you get disappointed by it.

[Col. Tomorian]

"Continuum" was an awsome ride from beginning to end. When it comes to rewritting old scripts, I think its all about execution, new perceptions, and breaking the mold. "The Ark of Truth" was a bad rewrite of "The Reckoning". I think the writters could have executed the story by removing the Replicators, and then extending the Ori story into an epic conclusion. "Continuum" gave us something new. If you think about time travel movies, outside of "Back to the Future", we have never seen such dramatic effects from altering the past. We were treated to two sides of a time travel paradox, which has never been done in a movie or show before. "Back to the Future" didn't show you two time periods at the same time, and the effects from realtime changes being made. "Continuum" broke the mold by allowing the viewers to see changes as time becomes altered. Its old in a new way. Another element that allows "Continuum" to stand out is believeability, for there were several moments in which the writters could have messed up. Jack and Landly's performance allowed the viewer scream, "Noooooo!" Sam's reaction to Jack's death was priceless. Instead of just getting over Jack, within three minutes, you can see the impact of death deep into the story. She longed for Jack. "The Ark of Truth" suffered from not breaking the mold. One of the things I hated about Stargate was the involvement of the Trust and NID. When those stories showed up, I changed the channel and waited until the following week. I love when my characters have fun exploring the universe, and I love the depth of science-fiction that involves universal conflict. "The Ark of Truth" fell apart when the NID showed up, and then they turned him into a Replicator zombie. At that point in the movie, I felt myself become removed from the events. Instead of being sucked into an epic Ori story, I had to painfully pause for a moment of bad NID involvement.

When it comes down to it, Continuum was the best in my opinion. Outside of the awkward dog fight over the Atlantic, I think Continuum is a 10 out of 10 in my book.

[Jill_Ion]

AoT: 5/10
Continuum: 7.5/10...
Ba'al almost a thousand years to take control of Earth just so he could rub it in the face of SG-1? Teal'c and Vala had small roles. We've seen alternate semi-evil Teal'c in almost every alternate reality or timeline.

A thousand years? I thought it was seventy.

[Jumper_One]

A thousand years? I thought it was seventy.

yup it was 70 years

[shadowfx1]

AoT: 6/10
Con: 9/10

While I loved both movies. I rate Ark of Truth low and Continuum high for one reason.

Ark of Truth played really like an extra long episode of Stargate without commercials. This unimpressed me, but I enjoyed it none-the-less.

Continuum on the other hand played out more like a real movie. Ark of Truth failed to reach that "Movie" status that it was played up to be. Continuum screamed a real chance of a movie that the average joe could buy at end up enjoying the Stargate Legacy. It was broad enough to attract new viewers and able to be more independent. Ark of Truth, if you hadn't watched previous stargate, you would have been completely lost.

[Amelia Peabody]

I love both movies, but I think when it comes right down to it, I'm more apt to put in AoT instead of Continuum, which surprises me. I never was a fan of the Ori storyline and thought for sure Continuum would be my one of choice, but after watching Continuum for the second time yesterday, while I enjoyed it, I almost wanted to watch AoT instead.

AoT 9/10
Continuum 7/10

[Tok'ra^Agent]

I loved the original series.

This said, I have to say that for me, the ark of truth was a far better movie than Continuum was. I just didn't think this last movie was as well made. I give it a 6 on a scale of 10

One point here out of many. The whole end sequence. Mitchell is standing with the grandfather figure on the ship at the end. Ok, they shoot and kill Ba'al. Ok, I can dig this. But then, if the time machine was destroyed, how the hell did he get back to the future?

Or was this some version of the whole, "I'm my own grandpa" thing? IE: Did he die in the past of old age, and then was born again over the years, to be his future self?

Although, I must admit, I did get some twisted enjoyment out of seeing Vala slice Ba'al in half. This was great. It gave me thoughts that the writers had a sense of humor about the whole "Ba'al Slicing" thing. lol.
(That hurts just thinking about it.)

Anywho. I see these shows as nothing more than extended episodes without commercials. These are nowhere near the first Stargate movie. We also see a peek into a possible sequel to this movie. As the whole "Are we sure this was really the last Goa'uld?" was thrown out there.

Stay tuned kiddies. I think we haven't seen the last of the gate yet.

[VSS]

I loved the original series.

This said, I have to say that for me, the ark of truth was a far better movie than Continuum was. I just didn't think this last movie was as well made. I give it a 6 on a scale of 10

One point here out of many. The whole end sequence. Mitchell is standing with the grandfather figure on the ship at the end. Ok, they shoot and kill Ba'al. Ok, I can dig this. But then, if the time machine was destroyed, how the hell did he get back to the future?

Or was this some version of the whole, "I'm my own grandpa" thing? IE: Did he die in the past of old age, and then was born again over the years, to be his future self?

Although, I must admit, I did get some twisted enjoyment out of seeing Vala slice Ba'al in half. This was great. It gave me thoughts that the writers had a sense of humor about the whole "Ba'al Slicing" thing. lol. (That hurts just thinking about it.)

Anywho. I see these shows as nothing more than extended episodes without commercials. These are nowhere near the first Stargate movie. We also see a peek into a possible sequel to this movie. As the whole "Are we sure this was really the last Goa'uld?"

Stay tuned kiddies. I think we haven't seen the last of the gate yet.

Mitchell didn't go back to the future, he fixed the timeline. All the time-traveling occurred in the "wrong" timeline. He wasn't his own grandfather, he just saved his own grandfather, if that makes any sense. It's an alternate timeline and time travel episode. They're not the same concept.

Neither show had a theatre-movie budget, so it's not fair to compare them with the original movie. But you couldn't buy that much military hardware, which was pretty darned impressive.

I'm giving it a 9/10. But, yes, this isn't the last we've seen of the stargate, so maybe we'll get fresher stories in the next one.

[jasminaGo]

AoT - 1/10 - it gets that point for the effort from the actors
Continuum - 9.5/10 - gives me hope that there is still future for Stargate, one which I might actualy enjoy.

[dinner4jc]

Ark of Truth 7/10
Continuum 4/10

I know the Ori were far from the best villains Stargate has ever had, but I really enjoyed the Priors and especially Adria. I was somewhat let down by the movie, particularly:

Spoiler:

The part with the replicators and the IOA guy creating them. How many times can they revive the replicators in various forms. They were a good villain, but we need to let them go and move on.

Had that part been omitted and something more plot relevant in it's place I would probably have given it an 8. I was disappointed after watching, especially with how hyped it was and how much I had longed to see it. It was a good movie though but not as good as I had hoped.

Conversely, I was very disappointed with Continuum and think it was an OK movie at best. I think it had more plot holes in it then legitimate points in the storyline and since everything is ultimately undone it serves no lasting value. There wasn't even any kind of new character development that I saw, so essentially it was just kind of a "what if" movie. Plus the alternate universe / alternate timeline / time travel storylines that were originally very cool are becoming increasingly old, tiresome, and repetitive. Basically this movie is a hodgepodge of SG-1 episodes thrown together into a movie and I don't think it worked that well other than to remind us of the SG-1 episodes of olde.

I also thought it would be fun to try and point out as many plot holes as possible, I encourage people to correct me if I'm wrong.
Plot holes:

Spoiler:

- President Hayes allows SG-1 to attempt to steal a cargo ship to get the ZPM from Taonas (sp?). SG-1 rations that they can easily steal an Al'kesh then fly it to Taonas. Problem, if you remember the episode where they fly the Al'kesh to Taonas (7.22 The Lost City Part 2) they can only do so because O'Neil used the Ancient knowledge in his mind to modify the cargo ship to travel the required distance in a reasonable time. I think Samantha would have known that this plan didn't have a snowballs chance in hell.

- They go through all the trouble of maming Daniel and showing him walking on crutches and a cane, only to have him suddenly seem completely normal once the planet is in danger. Lordy lordy! It's a miracle!!

- How did Teal'c know the other Stargate was in Russia and even if he knew or Ba'al guessed, Russia's a big country...

- It never explains how Ba'al knows all that he knows. Either he is the Ba'al from the SG-1 cannon timeline and he killed or otherwise dispensed with the Ba'al of this alternate timeline or he left this alternate Ba'al instructions. Either option has some issues.

- Mitchell has a picture of himself and his grandfather in his locker, really? Come on they could have been a lot more discrete and still got he same effect...

- The fact that the Stargate was used while on the Achilles would likely change the history of the program somewhat. They would at least have known what it was and had some idea of what was on the other side. Even if Mitchell convinced the witness not to say anything how did they explain the giant hole in the ship? Plus if Grandpa Mitchell with held information wouldn't he have been court marshaled or worse?

Other complaints:

Spoiler:

- What was Ba'al planning on doing, asking Earth to surrender? Seems kinda wussy for an ultimate system lord... Plus he knows how stubborn Earth can be, why not destroy it as quick as possible?

- There seems to be a lack of actual fighting till almost the end of the movie. Very lack-luster, especially considering the massive size of that fleet

I watched both movies twice in the same week of purchasing. Ark of Truth I enjoyed more on the 2nd watching, Continuum I liked even less and actually got bored and started doing something else halfway thru (and this is from a guy who has seen every episode of Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis at least twice and some upwards of 8 times!)

Hopefully the next movie is better, otherwise SG-1's future is somewhat bleak...