Disappointed with the Arc of Truth? Spoilers

[scarimor]

The most disappointing aspect of this film is that it was supposed to wrap up the Ori arc, but in that respect had no plot to speak of: they look for a magic box; they find the magic box; they use the magic box; the box works; wow.

As for the box itself and its magic light - that's just not-writing pretending to be science fiction, which results in something less explicable and appropriate than sorcery. The people who made the arc might as well have been wizards. The light it shone might as well have been a big beam of pixie dust. There's no inkling as to how it works or why.

I think I knew it was going to be bad with the opening scene. How did it go? Something like "Millions of years ago, in a distant galaxy". That is such drivel meant to be coming from a pro. That many words to tell us that you don't know where and you don't know when? And where have I heard it done so much better... oh yeah! A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Give us style.

Seriously, in four words you could tell your audience where and when: Pegasus, ten millenia ago. or Andromeda, fifty aeons ago. Anything like that. Sheesh.

[SylvreWolfe]

i think it's absolutely fine for people who liked the movie to post their positive thoughts.
It's just that I always see the negative responses to Stargate criticized ALOT for them not liking a particular episode or film of the franchise.
Rarely do I see those negative to the film or series berate those that had a positive reaction with stuff like...You must be a COMPLETE FOOL!! to like such a PIECE OF RUBBISH!!!...etc.
For what it's worth, I just thought the film was like an average midseason two part episode-nothing more.
Given that i thought the writers of Gate were well and truely past it after season 5, it's not suprising.
Ah, the showtime years. The golden age!

Yes, I agree wholeheartedly. Whenever I post something critical or not totally 100% positive I get a *quit being so obsessive*, *quit being so critical*, *you must be kidding*, *then why do you watch? and *are you joking?*
It gets annoying.

Nothing is perfect and there are parts of every show, including your favorites, that can be criticized.

[SoulReaver]

Yes, I agree wholeheartedly. Whenever I post something critical or not totally 100% positive I get a *quit being so obsessive*, *quit being so critical*, *you must be kidding*, *then why do you watch? and *are you joking?*
It gets annoying.

you're kidding, right ? why do you watch ? seriously, stop being so obsessive & critical. it's really annoying :/

[g.o.d]

Yes, I agree wholeheartedly. Whenever I post something critical or not totally 100% positive I get a *quit being so obsessive*, *quit being so critical*, *you must be kidding*, *then why do you watch? and *are you joking?*
It gets annoying.

I know what you mean. Sometimes it's very annoying

[ses110]

I agree 1000% with everything you said. TPTB are charging people for this DVD. TPTB should give the Fans more than just an average episode. These DVD's should be about giving the Fans something special and something they would not see with a regular episode.

[hokusman]

I realize that by page 10 of a Gateworld thread, discussion is usually restricted to arguments between posters, but I'm going to try to post something relevant to the topic anyway.

I guess I didn't have very high hopes for Ark of Truth, other than it being something that would look cool and be fun, and I pretty much got what I was expecting. I was already bored of the Find Another Ancient Weapon™ concept when I first read the preview for The Quest Pt. 1.

[Mandysg1]

It still boils down to just because you think it sucks doesn't mean it does to everyone.

I never said everyone thought it sucked, you can tell by the many threads and posts that a lot of people liked it. The problem I have with the DVD's sales, is the numbers don't show much...it shows how many people bought the movie, not how many liked it or didn't like it. Nor does it show how many people are trying to get rid of thier copies by selling them.

Like others have said, and I agree, this is no more than a regular extended episode, of a plot (Ori) that was poor to begin with, IMO of course

[silly sally]

I never said everyone thought it sucked, you can tell by the many threads and posts that a lot of people liked it. The problem I have with the DVD's sales, is the numbers don't show much...it shows how many people bought the movie, not how many liked it or didn't like it. Nor does it show how many people are trying to get rid of thier copies by selling them.

Like others have said, and I agree, this is no more than a regular extended episode, of a plot (Ori) that was poor to begin with, IMO of course

I agree! We'll see how many liked AOT by how many will by 'Continuum'...

[david2708]

AOT will have had alot of sales with the curiosity/anticipation factor of what was hyped as a 'movie'.
I think Continuum will probably show the true strength of the franchise with regard to sales.
Those who hated AOT will probably hold back on purchasing continuum till they see it first, be it TV or um er download.
As I hate Baal stories, I have nil interest in this one.

[ses110]

I have no interested in Baal either and I'm tired of AU but I'll probably still buy it because of RDA. I still will be really surprised of I end up loving Continuum. TPTB need to stop playing it safe and go all out with these Movies. The TPTB need to stop seeing SG-1 as a weekly series and start seeing it in terms of Movies. I'm not sure the current TPTB can do it.

[david2708]

I have no interested in Baal either and I'm tired of AU but I'll probably still buy it because of RDA. I still will be really surprised of I end up loving Continuum. TPTB need to stop playing it safe and go all out with these Movies. The TPTB need to stop seeing SG-1 as a weekly series and start seeing it in terms of Movies. I'm not sure the current TPTB can do it.

Unfortunately, i suspect we'll get the RDA of season 7 onwards: the disinterested, phone in type performance with the regurgitaing of every tired joke that we've seen from Jack.No spark whatsoever.
As to TPTB, I just think Wright, Cooper, Malozzi, Kindler & Co just don't have any good scripts left in them anymore for the Stargate franchise. They remind me of Trek's Berman & Bragga who gave us that pitiful "These Are The Voyages" ep to end the Trek era. It truely showed they had stayed far too long and had nothing left in them for that franchise.
I feel the same way about TPTB of Stargate.

[cheese]

Just saw the Ark Of Truth at last.

It was definately disappointing, in fact I even dozed off in the middle a couple of times, so I'll have to watch it again in case I missed something.

The plot moved too quick in some places, and too slow in others. The middle section was an absolute snoozefest of sitting about doing not much. Who knows maybe I missed a really exciting part, but when I woke up it didn't feel like I'd missed anything.

Teal'c relating to Tomin is understandable, because it's just Teal'c arc super condensed. I just don't believe the IOA would have allowed Tomin to be involved in any way. It took longer than a few minutes for Teal'c to get that kind of trust.

The opening scenes on Dakara were woeful. The sets looked incredibly cheap, and the lighting was bloody aweful. It looked like a set, it looked like it was on a sound stage. The explosions were cheap, the action was mudane. One of the most blah action scenes Stargate has done, a terrible start to the movie.

Replicators, I almost yelled at the Tv when the replicator turned up. I know IOA are supposed to be a bit stupid, but come on! And haven't the replicators been done to death repeatedly already? Even the Human Form replicators have pretty much had their lot.

The IOA guy was so unbelievably weak, a cardboard IOA character.

THe whole thing felt like a fairly lame two-parter rather than a movie. Production value was only markedly improved in a few places. CGI was mostly serviceable, but nothing spectacular.

Adria was such an empty villian, all posturing, no action. She did nothing except wave her arms about and make a couple of people fall over. Wow what a HUGE threat she was. A worthy villian? I think not. At least the Repli-terminator was tough and actually did some damage and some proper violence. She was supposed to have near godlike power but she didn't exhibit even the strength and evil she did in SG-1.

Very very little in the way of character development. Carter did some science. Daniel did some digging and some moralising (though not nearly as much as he should have!) Cameron got hit a lot. Teal'c was muscular. Vala was wacky. They didn't change, they didn't learn. They were just static. Main Character Armour remained fully in place too, though I didn't exect death, it might have been nice of them to find ways to make it look like they MIGHT get hurt or killed. (teal'c got injured sure but he's been through much much much worse than that!)

It lacked a truely jaw-dropping action set-piece, no major battle, no huge fight against the much hyped vast armies of the Ori. I'd hoped for big action, fun, adventure, a touch of originality and something to think about from this movie and instead got something indistingushable from one of SG-1's more average episodes. There was little here we hadn't already seen executed in pretty much the same way in the series.

The 'Yay rogue Ancients break the rules and magically save the day' ending was garbage, absolute garbage, they've already trundled that one out. And what exactly happened? Did Adria get killed? Did Morgan?

It wasn't all bad of course. Some of the team banter was nice enough. And as much as I disliked the ending at least it got the thing going, things were happening.

Cameron vs termicator was pretty cool. Plot wise it might have made no sense (since when do replicators do that? Since when have they been able?).

Music was good.

Some of the FX were nice, Adria's fire-costume for instance was wonderful. Morgan looked like an ascended being, and her floating ascended form when she attacked Adria looked great.

I wanted so bad for this to be a great movie, but in reality it was a two-part episode at best, and not one of the better ones either. I never once felt like it had risen up to Movie quality.

[Mitchell82]

I agree 1000% with everything you said. TPTB are charging people for this DVD. TPTB should give the Fans more than just an average episode. These DVD's should be about giving the Fans something special and something they would not see with a regular episode.

Which they did IMHO.

[cheese]

Which they did IMHO.

In what way?

[sg1_david]

I know Stargate's scifi and all that but i've always found it believable, til now. All of the Adria walking round covered in fire/the "final battle" between her and Morgan La Fay flying round as energy or whatever stuck out like some LOTR-style fantasy crap.

And either i've just forgotten about it since I haven't watched any of season 10 in ages, but when exactly where the Ori all killed?
I did enjoy the rest of the film though