Stargate: The Ark of Truth

source: The Ark of Truth

This was definitely not a good ending for the Ori story. It seemed like they were out of ideas and invented a Deus Ex Machina solution - the Ark of Truth. Which they manage to find because Daniel Jackson has visions about its location! Give me a break! Moreover, they destroyed the the female characters, both Vala and Carter. It's hard to say what was the use of the Vala character in this movie - she literally does nothing! And Carter was turned from the powerful and smart character in the TV series into nothing but a hard-working supporting character (who bakes cookies and kisses the male hero at the end - bleah). Finally, the most annoying part of the movie is a prolonged fist fight between Mitchell and a super-mighty replicator-powered bullet-resistant android who would have killed anyone with a single blow. The movie keeps returning to this ridiculous fight scene after scene after scene. Total non-sense. Definitely not worth buying nor watching, especially if you're a fan of the TV series.

As the unofficial end of the Stargate SG-1 series, Ark of Truth provides a fairly conclusive wrap-up for a lot of fans and also manages to please the crowd who fell out with the show a long time ago. The movie's main purpose is to wrap up the Ori arc, started at the beginning of the ninth season and culminating in a spectacular finale here. The plot of the movie is relatively straightforward. Daniel Jackson believes that Merlin's "visions" may be sending him information about an artifact known as the Ark of Truth, a device which can essentially "brainwash" anyone into "knowing the truth". However, due to the Alteran belief in free will, they refused to use it to restrict the Ori, despite knowing that their crusade will destroy planets and ravage galaxies. After Tomin, Vala's husband, defects from the Ori armies and takes sanctuary at Stargate command, the SG-1 team makes a decision to take a trip to the Ori Galaxy and find the Ark of Truth in order to brainwash the Priors into stopping their crusade. They find the resting place of the Ark, on the planet where the city of Celestis, the home of the Ori are located. However, an IOA agent accompanying them has a different motive - to construct an army of replicators to destroy the Ori in their conquest of the galaxy. They run out of control and begin to take over their ship. Meanwhile, Daniel, Vala, Teal'c and Tomin learn that the Ori were killed by the Sangraal, but Adria, Vala's "daughter", managed to ascend and travel to the Ori Galaxy. She is now the single Orici, the remaining leader of the entire Ori contingent and the recipient of all of the power gained through the worship of innocents. Acting on a tight time schedule, the SG-1 team has to work fast to stop the replicators and power up the Ark of Truth in order to stop the Ori once and for all. The few weaknesses include the relatively over-stoic acting on the part of Christopher Judge, who seems to exaggerate his expressions nowadays, and Ben Browder's overly clownish nature. The scene where he leaps away from the explosion that kills Merrick made me giggle and he seemed to be trying to present a humorous stage presence rather than a professional one. Nevertheless, Morean Baccarin as Adria doesn't fail to disappoint. A fun movie, and damn better than I expected for the end of the series. Definitely worth buying.

First up, Stargate SG-1 in my opinion was one of the best TV series ever! The movie does a good job of tying up all the loose ends and the performances of the cast are as good as we have come to expect of a cast that has lived these characters' roles for up to 10 years. Having said that, the movie does exactly what was intended - closure - and nothing more. Since this is a movie and not a TV series, I rate it as such and if I look at it as a movie, it is an average science fiction movies. The special effects are good, but every average science fiction movie has good special effects these days. The story is actually not that innovative (*over and beyond* what we know from the TV series) and somehow there isn't a great deal of suspense developing anywhere through the movie. It never gets boring, but at the same time, it feels a bit like a re-union, kind of a "let's have a fun movie for old time's sake" movie. The ending scene is also a bit cheesy. Note: 6 is not a *bad* rating in my books (can check my other ratings) - it is slightly above average.

OK things I liked about Stargate: The Ark of Truth: + Nice intro. + Nice ending. Things I didn't like about Stargate: The Ark of Truth: - Poor corny acting with inappropriate comedy I found an issue throughout the entire show(s) Apart from Universe which remain to be seen. Low resolution Visual Effects: Low model texturing on that spaceship. Poor weapon effects on the Ori spaceships. Poor giant Stargate models. * Didn't have the money to do better? lacked creativity? * Mediocre Script: What's the point of telling a story if it adds nothing to the show credibility. * Quick cash that's the answer. * - Poor props: Super clean village, anyone? Shiny clean million year old artifacts? - Poor customs: * Same team as power rangers? * Bad camera work: On sets that clearly were made in one day. Ie that super clean village, dudes if you don't have the money to make something good, hide it with camera angles. * 101 stuff. * Goodbye SG1, maybe goodbye Atlantis.. All hopes rest with Universe.

Only watch if you're a fan. Think of it as 2 episodes. I miss SG-1 so it gets a star for nostalgia & for at least getting everyone but Jack together. However, it was way too formulaic, relied on the same bad guys (they even resurrected one!); the evil shadowy gov't agency, some ancients 'helping' but who can't actually solve the problem, more Arthurian legends, etc. etc. Same last minute save by some chance but easy method. Nothing new. Same witty oneliners, same cheesy stuff. Sadly, they missed the complete point of the whole story arc of the last few seasons! It's even stated by the old ancients at the beginning of the movie! You can't force people to believe something! Trying to force someone to see that religious dogma is wrong/illogical/hateful doesn't work, they have to come to that conclusion themselves. Reason, logic and patience should be your tools. Not an instance on being right and a demand for blind faith/belief. Otherwise you're sinking to the level of those that try to impose their beliefs on others!

Stargate: The Ark of Truth was a very good moving, surprisingly good in all honesty. I was not sure about the conversion from TV series (AMAZING AT THAT) to a movie. It seemed a bit ambitious although I was completely wrong, the end result does justice to the Stargate series. The movie does not go at the same pace of a 40 minute episode of Stargate and at first it seems odd to see the different tempo. The Stargate "humor" is still present and despite Richard Dean Anderson's absence in the movie still presents a good laugh. The only reason I gave the movie a 9/10 is because of RDA's absence and still a 9/10 on IMDb is superb! However the Ark of Truth is strictly based off of the show's Season 9 and 10 and thus I recommend that you watch those two seasons first. Despite a questionable set on the opening scene of the movie and some minor continuity errors, any Stargate fan should not be disappointed and in all honesty the change from TV Series to Movie was surprising but the end result does not disappoint. I can't wait till Continuum!

Do not buy this piece of crap. I was a loyal fan of all 10 seasons of Stargate SG-1 and stuck through the lower quality Atlantis. This movie was simply unacceptable. There was one scene about twenty minutes into the movie which involves some character development between Teal'c and Tomin which was actually decent but no better than anything from the show. Overall the cinematography, directing, writing, special effects, and plot were lower quality than most made for TV movies. Ben Browder and Michael Shanks also comment on the fact that the movie fails to fill in the gaps in the plot developed over the last ten years and how it really only focuses on seasons 9 and 10. Unfortunately, the only aspects of the story line and character development they did focus on where so overdone that it seemed more like a parody than the conclusion to the series. If nothing else, at least I should give them credit for having the foresight to realize that this had no place in the movie theater. On the other hand, my expectations are so low after watching this that Continuum cannot possibly do worse; well, I shouldn't commit to that. But if nothing else even if Continuum is as much of a disaster as Ark of Truth at least it will show consistency and that is worthy of good mention I suppose.

As a StarGate fan since 1997 and since the first season, I'd have to say I'm glad to have it back! The movie moved very fast and although it did seem a little forced at times it still had a few twists. We got to see a few surprise enemies and friends come back from the dead. I wish we could have seen more from the rest of the StarGate universe especially what happens after the face. Especially old friends, and although I don't care much for Ben Browder or Claudia Black it just wouldn't have been right with them not there. I would have loved to see Richard Dean Anderson back with the team at least for a few minutes but I'll just have to wait tell July...