Ark of Truth vs Continuum (Movie Evaluations)

[bluealien]

I found Arc of Truth very entertaining and really enjoyed it. It was fast paced and had lots of action. I didn't really mind the Ori as I hadn't really watched much of the latter seasons of SG1.. so they were still a good enemy for me..
So I give it a 9/10

Continuum on the other hand just dragged and practically came to a stand still in the middle... It had some good moments but overall I found it disappointing so..
a 6/10...

[mattyg1987]

I lent both movies to several people I know who have never seen Stargate before. None of them really liked the Ark Of Truth as they didn't have much of a clue as to what was going on, and got completely lost when the Replicators were introduced. Although they liked the action sequences and the whole supergate and Teal'c on mountains things.

But with Continuum, they liked the whole thing, they could follow the story easy enough and said they found it very entertaining and were surprised it was not out in cinemas.

Continuum works better as a movie and I think it should be classed as the first proper SG-1 standalone movie which could start a Stargate SG-1 movie trilogy maybe.

[Ellendil]

First I must confess I am a great O'Neill fan and the last two seasons of Stargate SG-1 were a bit of disappointment for me. The Ark of Truth looked stitched with white threads to me. Trying to finish two stories with one bullet and the result was less than spectacular. Continuum is much like a standard SG-1 episode, if the PTB wished to make something more serious, they were going to aim at the cinemas, not a direct-to-DVD release. It is not about these "meaning of life" stuff. I find it quite entertaining. I`ve been rewatching episodes of Continuum every day since I got my hands on it - no, I am not getting bored (yet).
So:

Ark of Truth - 4/10
Continuum - 9/10

[kmiller1610]

Aot: 4/10
Cont: 8/10

If you buy the presupposition, you will like the product.

The Ori were a complete departure from what made Stargate great. The Ori story line was Star Trek Light mixed with Dungeons and Dragons. It was no longer SciFi. The Gate became less important. The enemy was untouchable and impossible to relate to. The Goauld were just like the worst of us. We see their faults. They are the Nazis, the egomaniacs, the guys we loved to make fun of and kill.

Aot: Seen it once. That was enough.

Cont: Seen it 4 times so far. I love what they did with the characters. It was great to see O'Neil actually have some substantive acting to do again. It was a TV movie, not a full theatrical release, but for a 7 million dollar flick, it was very good.

To put these films in context, these are not great Sci-Fi films on an absolute scale, not Blade Runner, not Wrath of Khan or First Contact. They are Stargate add-ons.

Accepting that premise, I loved Continumn. I tolerated Ark of Truth.

[Sir Andrew]

AoT: 6/10
Cont: 8/10

Ark was a good conclusion.

Continuum was great. It was like a long episode, with a the themes that made the series great.

Cliff Simon should be brought back to play the freed Baal host though. I want to see him in future SG-1 gigs.

[Drax]

The Ark of Truth - 5/10

Continuum - 7/10

I think my grades are pretty fair since AOT had so much potential where it pretty much failed to deliver. The movie was just a checklist of capping off a storyline that was cut short. Continuum on the other hand, was pure entertainment, and while some parts are a little problematic, it's a spectacular adventure.

Neither of these movies measure up to the magic of Emmerich and Devlin's film or the earlier seasons however. Some people are missing RDA and were probably disappointed that he was only in Continuum for a short while, but I don't really care since I liked Ben Browder from the very moment he stepped onto the show, and he was excellent in Continuum.

[Joben]

I never got the Ark of Truth hate on here. I found it to have more of a cinematic atmosphere than Continuum, great sweeping shots, great music, a more epic story. It's just strange that AoT did all that and gets put down for not reaching its 'potential' and yet Continuum gets a free pass when it was a glorified extended episode. I've seen people mention plotholes in AoT, and yet the entire premise of Continuum was one giant obvious plothole followed by a bunch of little ones.

As you can probably tell, I enjoyed Ark of Truth, it was a decent watch. No truly excellent but nothing bad either. Continuum for me was like one of those episodes of SG1 that you couldn't really get into or care about the characters. It was an ok for an episode, but considering how much it rehashed from previous SG1 episodes I really didn't find anything special about it.

[Jeff O'Connor]

Having finally watched these two continuations within the past four nights (and thrice apiece, mind) I'm finally caught up on SG-1 and ready to reply. Though I'll reserve more longwinded monologues for a later date, I'll briefly compare the two for the time being.

Ark of Truth:

Considering I was a huge fan of the change of direction Season 9's 'fresh start' promised, and enjoyed Season 10 as it continued the journey, I've had my fingers crossed for nearly half a year that all the naysayers would be incorrect from my perspective once I finally sat down and witnessed the conclusion.

While I echo certain sentiments as I figured I might well, namely complaints such as the Ori truly being gone for good being a bit of a letdown, and to a lesser extent, a desire to see a battle for Earth which never panned out, I think as a whole this thing was nearly as good as Stargate has ever gotten. The soundtrack was intense (though the tired 'uber-dramatic as line is delivered' approach Stargate has never strayed from was a bit too over-the-top as usual for me). The dialogue was fairly crisp, with such memorable moments as Tealc's speech to Tomin, Adria's and Vala's conversation and practically everything Daniel, Cameron and Landry said the entire movie through.

There was also some excellent, first-rate action to be had, and it takes a lot to impress my girlfriend when it comes to spaceship design, but the chosen angles for the Ori motherships elicited a reaction from her. Speaking of that, the 35mm decision in general was wonderful, and added such depth that, as the commentary points out, can't be achieved through HD without going for the serious, serious gold.

Unfortunately, things were about as rushed as I'd dreaded, but that could still have been a hell of a lot worse. I think the only things that really left a sour taste in my mouth were the immediate pick-up of the story from the first scene with the crew (I like things to develop a bit more thoroughly early on in pieces) and the quickness of the torture scene. (It was well-done, but to be frank, watching Daniel just cave utterly really lended itself to more breaking-down of his spirits than we'd seen. We've seen Daniel go through more in the past, I believe. I can only surmise it was just the culmination of the entire two-year arc that brought him to his knees as such from an emotional perspective - which works. But still.)

My final verdict... for now... 8.7

Continuum:

Ahh, the much-anticipated standalone. I was geared up and ready to go as soon as I heard the premise, and when Sam made mention that it was about to happen for us fans at the tail end of SGA's season premiere a few weeks back, I was thrilled. I finally got the chance to sit down and take it all in three nights ago, and I've watched it every night since -- only once of the remaining two times to show off to my girlfriend.

Yeah, I thought it was cool.

From start to finish, Continuum seemed to me as much of what I've loved about this franchise for so long as the length of two regular episodes could possibly cram up. The script was great, the ensemble a welcome addition, the chemistry between actors at its maximum. The attention to detail was appreciated, the character moments were aplenty, and while Continuum might not have been the finale to a two-year story arc, complete with the last epic journey into the unknown to stop an enemy from another galaxy, it certainly accomplished its very different task successfully for me.

Seeing all the System Lords (well, a good few of them) again was great, even if it was as short-lived as I figured it would end up being. Apophis showing up one more time for us, in another universe again, just to die a minute later, was hilarious. (And the way in which he died, and Ba'al's absolutely classic [if intentionally cliche] delivery about it, splendid as ever.) Speaking of the movie's antagonist, Cliff Simon brought his A-game to this performance. And for the other of the two big baddies, Claudia Black was as irreverent as ever for her part, though I must say, she's fit into other attire a bit more admirably in the past. But... that's besides the point. She still looked like the bombshell I've thought amazing for nine ye... anyway.

The soundtrack was great, though it suffered from the same pseudo-complaint I listed for AoT. I realize many others would consider the whole 'big big BOOM' upon dialogue delivery to be classic and an absolute requirement, but I've been spoild by things like BSG, where it's more melodic and not so campy. But hey, that's besides the point; Goldsmith's always done amazingly well, and this was no exception.

Seeing Hammond again, one last time (RIP, Don S. Davis) was a tear-jerker for me. Sure, it was alternate Hammond, but it was Hammond. I mean. It was Hammond. Let it be known that production-wise, in the last ever line from our good general, he spoke that SG-1 would be crossing the North Atlantic. Oh, what faith, alternate Hammond! Thank you. Or something. Er. Well, the point is, it's our last ever spotlight on a terrific actor. Kudos.

I think my favorite part would have to be watching Daniel, Cameron and Sam's adjustments. Every scene here was tremendously well-done, and when the story picked back up with the arrival of the Goa'uld, what a way to kick back up again. Intense in a way that Stargate rarely justifies the word.

Continuum was superb. Other episodes have brought more to the table in various other aspects; there have been more dramatic pieces, more epic pieces, so on, so forth. But altogether, as a whole, all at once, few can stand beside this bugger for overall grandieur.

9.4

[plastic]

i liked both movies but i like ark of truth more

ark of truth 8/10
i love the ori, and the whole storyline but i felt the whole replicator thing took over the movie abit, if they got rid of that and made it abit harder for SG1 to find the ark it would be 10/10 because it seemed to easy for them

continuum 7/10
i liked the storyline but it needed to be longer and abit more exciting i think they where some very good scenes and it was enjoyable to watch so i still enjoyed the movie and they was some very funny scenes also

[lacka1986]

I liked Continuum best. It seemed (to me anyway) more like a separate movie. Ark of Truth was more like long episode to wrap up season 10.

[lacka1986]

ark of truth 8/10
i love the ori, and the whole storyline but i felt the whole replicator thing took over the movie abit,

I totally agree! I didn't like the replicater aspect of AoT at all!

[Leilina]

I think that Ark of Truth was a great finale to the Ori thread. I wasn't too thrilled to bring back some replicators, kind of "been there, done that", but even so, it was well done. I don't think AoT could stand alone, as you REALLY need to know all the players, but it was a good wrap up in my opinion.

Continuum: I don't know if there was too much hype, too many supposed spoilers or what, but I felt rather let down when it was finished. I felt like there should have been so much more, but I can't really tell you what. It just felt incomplete, and the fact that it ends with so much "business as usual" with no idea of everything else we saw, just kind of feel anti-climactic. It's like someone else mentioned. "Just kidding folks, it was all a dream"... I don't know, there were just a lot of things that bothered me and had me going "That's It?"

*Sniffle. I WANT MORE!!! LOL!

[Constanza]

Continuum: I don't know if there was too much hype, too many supposed spoilers or what, but I felt rather let down when it was finished. I felt like there should have been so much more, but I can't really tell you what. It just felt incomplete, and the fact that it ends with so much "business as usual" with no idea of everything else we saw, just kind of feel anti-climactic. It's like someone else mentioned. "Just kidding folks, it was all a dream"... I don't know, there were just a lot of things that bothered me and had me going "That's It?"

Continuum wasn’t available in Mexico until August 8th and I felt exactly the same. I mean… all that time waiting and that’s it?

[welshgater]

Continuum didn't really need a proper ending because theres going to be another movie, it was a to be continued sort of ending. I thought Ark of Truth was better but i like both movies, i hope the next one rocks.