The Stargate Movies
Back to the topic of my revival of my obsession with Stargate SG-1, I watched the two post-cancellation direct-to-DVD movies, Ark of Truth and Continuum. This being SG-1, there's artifact hunting, space battles, time travel, alternative universes, a considerable amount of snarking, wonderful team moments (I really can't express how much I love the glorious team-ness of this show) and macaroons.
Ark is not particularly ambitious and comes across as a mid-season double episode with a bigger budget. It basically wraps up the Ori arc that was left dangling when the show got cancelled, with the Daniel, Vala, Teal'c and a despondent Tomin searching for a wonderfully convenient ready-built artefact that will end the Ori's campaign (the Ark of Truth) and run into Adria, while Cam and Sam deal with my favourite alien menace of the series who I did not know were going to show up in the movie, and their presence raised a cheer from me.
Still, despite its limited ambition and plot problems, the fact the moral quandary at the heart of the use of the weapon was only given lip-service, and its well, quite frankly lame title, I enjoyed it. Basically, I'd rate it as a really great two-part episode of the show, with highlights including a wonderful scene between Teal'c and Tomin about life after switching sides which I thought was one of the greatest insights into Teal'c the show has ever given its audience and OMG the most wonderfully cute Sam and Cam (Sam/Cam?) macaroon scene, which is the sequel to the other wonderfully cute macaroon scene in series ten.
Continuum, on the other hand, while sticking with a very SG-1 season finale-esq plot involving time travel and an alt!verse (although there's been ten seasons, it's really hard to find something the show hasn't done), decided to be more cinematic in feel about it, starting off with a magnificent tracking shot following a team arriving from a mission, through command and finally resting on our heroes (I love that tracking shot, and believe it worthy of particular mention).
Basically, Ba'al went into the past and used his future knowledge alter the timeline to stop Earth from ever getting a stargate programme and become ruler of the galaxy, and only Sam, Cam and Daniel are unaffected by the timeline shift and they have to get the old one back in on track. Personally, I never get sick of Stargate's use of alt!verse and twisty time-travel plots, mainly because they always have a bit of fun with them. This one's no exception, with Cam finding out he's literally a grandfather paradox. Although, I couldn't help drawing mental Moebius comparisons, which is unfortunate because anything without Geek!Sam and Geek!Daniel is going to pale in comparison to Moebius.
Continuum is also notable for going on location to the frozen north, so for a couple of minutes it turns into Sam and Cam of the Arctic, which is very awesome (very rarely does the actual Arctic get to play the Arctic. It's usually Canada, Alaska or Greenland) I've decided I really like those two together as best friends and co-leaders. Cam's adorable southern optimism makes a wonderful contrast to Sam's increasing pessimism (poor Sam, I want to huggle her a lot in Continuum).
Other bits I really enjoyed were Alt!Landry giving SG-1 a right dressing down for wanting to change the timeline. An interesting dilemma is that while Ba'al can't be trusted, it never seems particularly clear that the timeline he created is any worse for Earth than the original and may be better than the other time line. Yes, Alt!Cam was never born, Alt!Daniel's known as a crackpot and Alt!Sam is dead (and famous), but Alt!Jack's son is still alive and Earth has never faced an alien threat. Of course, said dilemma is resolved.
Although I wasn't all that happy with how Ba'al was dealt with (actually I'm not happy that Ba'al was written out at all, full stop. He's one of the best magnificence bastards on television) Continuum was on the whole better than Ark, mainly because it actually felt like a movie.
So verdict is that both movies are incredibly enjoyable for me, and while Continuum certainly is the better of the two I loved them both. However, they are certainly not up to the standard set by Serenity when it comes to a post-cancellation movies. They're not really true 'movies' rather just extra long concluding episodes and they are so continuity-laden they would be terrible for people that didn't watch the show or seasons 9 and 10.
I'm now trying really hard not to be tempted into watching Atlantis…
Ark is not particularly ambitious and comes across as a mid-season double episode with a bigger budget. It basically wraps up the Ori arc that was left dangling when the show got cancelled, with the Daniel, Vala, Teal'c and a despondent Tomin searching for a wonderfully convenient ready-built artefact that will end the Ori's campaign (the Ark of Truth) and run into Adria, while Cam and Sam deal with my favourite alien menace of the series who I did not know were going to show up in the movie, and their presence raised a cheer from me.
Still, despite its limited ambition and plot problems, the fact the moral quandary at the heart of the use of the weapon was only given lip-service, and its well, quite frankly lame title, I enjoyed it. Basically, I'd rate it as a really great two-part episode of the show, with highlights including a wonderful scene between Teal'c and Tomin about life after switching sides which I thought was one of the greatest insights into Teal'c the show has ever given its audience and OMG the most wonderfully cute Sam and Cam (Sam/Cam?) macaroon scene, which is the sequel to the other wonderfully cute macaroon scene in series ten.
Continuum, on the other hand, while sticking with a very SG-1 season finale-esq plot involving time travel and an alt!verse (although there's been ten seasons, it's really hard to find something the show hasn't done), decided to be more cinematic in feel about it, starting off with a magnificent tracking shot following a team arriving from a mission, through command and finally resting on our heroes (I love that tracking shot, and believe it worthy of particular mention).
Basically, Ba'al went into the past and used his future knowledge alter the timeline to stop Earth from ever getting a stargate programme and become ruler of the galaxy, and only Sam, Cam and Daniel are unaffected by the timeline shift and they have to get the old one back in on track. Personally, I never get sick of Stargate's use of alt!verse and twisty time-travel plots, mainly because they always have a bit of fun with them. This one's no exception, with Cam finding out he's literally a grandfather paradox. Although, I couldn't help drawing mental Moebius comparisons, which is unfortunate because anything without Geek!Sam and Geek!Daniel is going to pale in comparison to Moebius.
Continuum is also notable for going on location to the frozen north, so for a couple of minutes it turns into Sam and Cam of the Arctic, which is very awesome (very rarely does the actual Arctic get to play the Arctic. It's usually Canada, Alaska or Greenland) I've decided I really like those two together as best friends and co-leaders. Cam's adorable southern optimism makes a wonderful contrast to Sam's increasing pessimism (poor Sam, I want to huggle her a lot in Continuum).
Other bits I really enjoyed were Alt!Landry giving SG-1 a right dressing down for wanting to change the timeline. An interesting dilemma is that while Ba'al can't be trusted, it never seems particularly clear that the timeline he created is any worse for Earth than the original and may be better than the other time line. Yes, Alt!Cam was never born, Alt!Daniel's known as a crackpot and Alt!Sam is dead (and famous), but Alt!Jack's son is still alive and Earth has never faced an alien threat. Of course, said dilemma is resolved.
Although I wasn't all that happy with how Ba'al was dealt with (actually I'm not happy that Ba'al was written out at all, full stop. He's one of the best magnificence bastards on television) Continuum was on the whole better than Ark, mainly because it actually felt like a movie.
So verdict is that both movies are incredibly enjoyable for me, and while Continuum certainly is the better of the two I loved them both. However, they are certainly not up to the standard set by Serenity when it comes to a post-cancellation movies. They're not really true 'movies' rather just extra long concluding episodes and they are so continuity-laden they would be terrible for people that didn't watch the show or seasons 9 and 10.
I'm now trying really hard not to be tempted into watching Atlantis…