It's a BOX full of TRUTHINESS.
I have to offer up so many thanks unto the gods of fandom for having the AoT release happen the week of my spring break, making it possible for me to actually watch it the day I got it and have time to spend on LJ reading reactions and putting mine up. (I'm still alive, by the way! Although I'm coming to terms with the fact that this year of school is just not kind to my prospects of being very fannishly active on a reliable basis.)
So! Ark of Truth, my reaction to which was basically squeeful. I shall proceeded to ramble, in an only semi-particular order.
The Good:
1. I've seen people mentioning that this felt like a big episode to them - ditto. That's actually a positive for me, though. This felt like real SG-1 to me, and I'm not going to lie, I was a little giddy in points. It definitely wasn't perfect, but...oh, show! I've missed you! I'm so glad we're not fighting anymore. Unending, what?
2. Teal'c. TEAL'C! I don't even know where to start with him. Everything with Teal'c was just so so so good (except for his magical three day/ten minute hike, which was stupid, but not his fault). The talk with Tomin! C4! Rescuing Daniel! The talk with Tomin! Solid Teal'c & Daniel friendship that was fantastic! I can't wait to see what sgfignewton has to say, because I loved them in this.
2b. I wonder how hard it was for him to get back on the Odyssey after 'Unending'. Go go gadget ficcers! Someone should write this. Someone better than me. Please?
In fact, if I have one fault with Teal'c in this (and it's more with the writers than it was with him) it's that I didn't really feel the weight of 'Unending' besides for the hair.
3. Oh, Daniel, Oma didn't rob you of the woobie gene after all, did she? I loved him straight through this - Shanks was excellent without chewing too much scenery and I felt like what they had him doing (pretend archeology, eee!) was actually appropriate to the character and the story, which I haven't always felt the last few seasons. Some moments really felt like Daniel of old, too, who I've missed.
The whole scene in the cell was lovely...I've been waiting for that breaking point with the Ancients for a long, long time. He tends to swing to angry as far as they're concerned, it seems...this was a nice approach. (I will confess, though, to a part of me wishing that it was going to turn out to be Oma rather than Morgan, even though I knew it wasn't going to happen. I kind of miss Daniel & Oma. And, sidebar: he really is quite the pimp with the ascended ladies, isn't he?) Also, so many super quotable lines from him in this one. On we go, then! Did you just say 'replicators'? Oh, Daniel. I'm glad that we've made up, too.
3b. I'm glad that if they were going to do Daniel and His Wacky Mystical Visions route - which, whatever, ok - we got to skip the whole part where he spends ages very earnestly convincing everyone else that he's not crazy and the visions are real and important and we should follow them, no, REALLY guys, I SWEAR, it's IMPORTANT. Seen it, been there, got over it, let's move on. And we did! Yay.
3c. They have finally, finally nailed the Daniel & Vala dynamic for me - now it get it. This was exactly the balance I've been wanting...not hostile, sniping but not mean (him) or over the top (her) , clearly affectionate, noooo blatant ship.... Finally! They couldn't have done this a while ago?
3d. Daniel, Teal'c, and Vala are a very fun trio who should have gotten a lot more time together in the show.
4. Sam/Cam. I love them. I'm sure it can read as friendship, but I found them shippy-like-whoa for almost the whole movie, and I maintain that the big sigh at the end there was over Sam, not the cookie. Cheek kissing! She has his back! Adorable. I'm refitting any references to some unspecified relationship that she makes from now until the end of the time to be referring to Cam because I loooooove them omg.
4b. Poor Cam. Getting his ass kicked AND getting stuck with the chair.
5. That guy with his little Stargate drawing. Very cool little moment. Thanks for making the show possible, that guy!
ETA 6. AH! The shot on the bridge of the Odyssey, going into the wormhole, with the original movie James Spader face dissolving business just...glee! Veeeerry nice recall.
The 'Eh':
1. Adria. Limited screen time thank goodness. I was so done with her about halfway through S10 and she was reasonably inoffensive I guess, but still super, super annoying.
2. Would have liked a little more Daniel and Sam interaction, and a little more Cam and Teal'c... obviously there's only so much time and they were split up, so not every relationship can get it's moments, but I missed these two aspects.
2b. I wish they hadn't split the team up. Writers! Stop splitting the team up! Did anything actually important happen on the Odyssey anyway?
3. Landry. I am just never going to really like this man.
4. The Ancients. My beefs with them are thus:
a) The Ori are mean and nasty and evil, pushing religion onto all these unwashed mashes and we hate them! The Ancients are awesome super empirical evidence, scientific method following badasses! We get it. Memo to the writers, religion is not inherently evil, please and thank you.
b) I was really, really hoping that we were going to see the Ancients step up and deal with their own mess, for once, finally, and I was a little disappointed that they didn't. I always like individual Ancients...I like Oma, I like Morgan, I even like Orlin when he isn't being creepy... but I wish we could have seen something from them as a group other than utter cowardice and/or apathy. I appreciated Morgan stepping up, but come on, folks, do something already. And how cool would that have been, a great big flock of Ancients descending all at once and kicking Adria's ass. Filling the sky! Ancients everywhere! Woulda been great. Sigh.
5. How is Cam still breathing?
6. Jack. Or, rather, lack of Jack. I was talking to starting_gate about missing him, and to a point I always miss him, so of course I missed him here. BUT. There is a point at which this is really not his story (I think it ended up being, if anyone, Daniel's) and I don't know what he possibly would have gotten up to in this film. So I was actually pretty neutral on him not being here.
I expect some awesome original teaminess happening in Continuum, though.
The Ugly:
1. The IOA (slash Samuels/Simmons/Kinsey/the NID/whoever) are incompetent morons thing needs to die. Let it go, writers. Stargate Command is awesome and never does bad things and the rest of the US Government and the rest of the world, even, is comprised of idiots and should not be allowed to decide what tie to wear, let alone make decisions about missions or really anything to do with the SGC. We. Get. It.
2. Replicators! The baddie I never ever wanted to see again ever in a million billion years! Now with 50% more Terminator in every box! Faaaabulous.
I'm going to process for a day or two and then rewatch, I think, and eventually dig into all the bonus stuff. Overall, I'm really happy with the movie and hope it sells very well, so we get more. Oh, show. I do have two questions though.
Can anyone explain to me when exactly this takes place, especially in relation to SGA? Teal'd did not have Atlantis hair but Sam did and there was no mention of why she was here and not there and, really, I'm just quite confused.
Also, I recall when the torrent leaked in December there was a video by someone set to 'outer space' by Freezepop that was apparently just fantastic but spoilerific, and so I didn't watch it at the time. I'd like to now. Anybody know what that was? Thank you, magnavox_23!
Also, when Daniel was trying to get the not-ark open in the very beginning, was I the only one going "Don't look upon it, Daniel, it'll melt your face off!" Yes? No? Okay then.
Wow, that got long. Stargate. Yaaaay, Stargate! My status as squeeing fangirl is thus restored.
So! Ark of Truth, my reaction to which was basically squeeful. I shall proceeded to ramble, in an only semi-particular order.
The Good:
1. I've seen people mentioning that this felt like a big episode to them - ditto. That's actually a positive for me, though. This felt like real SG-1 to me, and I'm not going to lie, I was a little giddy in points. It definitely wasn't perfect, but...oh, show! I've missed you! I'm so glad we're not fighting anymore. Unending, what?
2. Teal'c. TEAL'C! I don't even know where to start with him. Everything with Teal'c was just so so so good (except for his magical three day/ten minute hike, which was stupid, but not his fault). The talk with Tomin! C4! Rescuing Daniel! The talk with Tomin! Solid Teal'c & Daniel friendship that was fantastic! I can't wait to see what sgfignewton has to say, because I loved them in this.
2b. I wonder how hard it was for him to get back on the Odyssey after 'Unending'. Go go gadget ficcers! Someone should write this. Someone better than me. Please?
In fact, if I have one fault with Teal'c in this (and it's more with the writers than it was with him) it's that I didn't really feel the weight of 'Unending' besides for the hair.
3. Oh, Daniel, Oma didn't rob you of the woobie gene after all, did she? I loved him straight through this - Shanks was excellent without chewing too much scenery and I felt like what they had him doing (pretend archeology, eee!) was actually appropriate to the character and the story, which I haven't always felt the last few seasons. Some moments really felt like Daniel of old, too, who I've missed.
The whole scene in the cell was lovely...I've been waiting for that breaking point with the Ancients for a long, long time. He tends to swing to angry as far as they're concerned, it seems...this was a nice approach. (I will confess, though, to a part of me wishing that it was going to turn out to be Oma rather than Morgan, even though I knew it wasn't going to happen. I kind of miss Daniel & Oma. And, sidebar: he really is quite the pimp with the ascended ladies, isn't he?) Also, so many super quotable lines from him in this one. On we go, then! Did you just say 'replicators'? Oh, Daniel. I'm glad that we've made up, too.
3b. I'm glad that if they were going to do Daniel and His Wacky Mystical Visions route - which, whatever, ok - we got to skip the whole part where he spends ages very earnestly convincing everyone else that he's not crazy and the visions are real and important and we should follow them, no, REALLY guys, I SWEAR, it's IMPORTANT. Seen it, been there, got over it, let's move on. And we did! Yay.
3c. They have finally, finally nailed the Daniel & Vala dynamic for me - now it get it. This was exactly the balance I've been wanting...not hostile, sniping but not mean (him) or over the top (her) , clearly affectionate, noooo blatant ship.... Finally! They couldn't have done this a while ago?
3d. Daniel, Teal'c, and Vala are a very fun trio who should have gotten a lot more time together in the show.
4. Sam/Cam. I love them. I'm sure it can read as friendship, but I found them shippy-like-whoa for almost the whole movie, and I maintain that the big sigh at the end there was over Sam, not the cookie. Cheek kissing! She has his back! Adorable. I'm refitting any references to some unspecified relationship that she makes from now until the end of the time to be referring to Cam because I loooooove them omg.
4b. Poor Cam. Getting his ass kicked AND getting stuck with the chair.
5. That guy with his little Stargate drawing. Very cool little moment. Thanks for making the show possible, that guy!
ETA 6. AH! The shot on the bridge of the Odyssey, going into the wormhole, with the original movie James Spader face dissolving business just...glee! Veeeerry nice recall.
The 'Eh':
1. Adria. Limited screen time thank goodness. I was so done with her about halfway through S10 and she was reasonably inoffensive I guess, but still super, super annoying.
2. Would have liked a little more Daniel and Sam interaction, and a little more Cam and Teal'c... obviously there's only so much time and they were split up, so not every relationship can get it's moments, but I missed these two aspects.
2b. I wish they hadn't split the team up. Writers! Stop splitting the team up! Did anything actually important happen on the Odyssey anyway?
3. Landry. I am just never going to really like this man.
4. The Ancients. My beefs with them are thus:
a) The Ori are mean and nasty and evil, pushing religion onto all these unwashed mashes and we hate them! The Ancients are awesome super empirical evidence, scientific method following badasses! We get it. Memo to the writers, religion is not inherently evil, please and thank you.
b) I was really, really hoping that we were going to see the Ancients step up and deal with their own mess, for once, finally, and I was a little disappointed that they didn't. I always like individual Ancients...I like Oma, I like Morgan, I even like Orlin when he isn't being creepy... but I wish we could have seen something from them as a group other than utter cowardice and/or apathy. I appreciated Morgan stepping up, but come on, folks, do something already. And how cool would that have been, a great big flock of Ancients descending all at once and kicking Adria's ass. Filling the sky! Ancients everywhere! Woulda been great. Sigh.
5. How is Cam still breathing?
6. Jack. Or, rather, lack of Jack. I was talking to starting_gate about missing him, and to a point I always miss him, so of course I missed him here. BUT. There is a point at which this is really not his story (I think it ended up being, if anyone, Daniel's) and I don't know what he possibly would have gotten up to in this film. So I was actually pretty neutral on him not being here.
I expect some awesome original teaminess happening in Continuum, though.
The Ugly:
1. The IOA (slash Samuels/Simmons/Kinsey/the NID/whoever) are incompetent morons thing needs to die. Let it go, writers. Stargate Command is awesome and never does bad things and the rest of the US Government and the rest of the world, even, is comprised of idiots and should not be allowed to decide what tie to wear, let alone make decisions about missions or really anything to do with the SGC. We. Get. It.
2. Replicators! The baddie I never ever wanted to see again ever in a million billion years! Now with 50% more Terminator in every box! Faaaabulous.
I'm going to process for a day or two and then rewatch, I think, and eventually dig into all the bonus stuff. Overall, I'm really happy with the movie and hope it sells very well, so we get more. Oh, show. I do have two questions though.
Can anyone explain to me when exactly this takes place, especially in relation to SGA? Teal'd did not have Atlantis hair but Sam did and there was no mention of why she was here and not there and, really, I'm just quite confused.
Also, I recall when the torrent leaked in December there was a video by someone set to 'outer space' by Freezepop that was apparently just fantastic but spoilerific, and so I didn't watch it at the time. I'd like to now. Anybody know what that was? Thank you, magnavox_23!
Also, when Daniel was trying to get the not-ark open in the very beginning, was I the only one going "Don't look upon it, Daniel, it'll melt your face off!" Yes? No? Okay then.
Wow, that got long. Stargate. Yaaaay, Stargate! My status as squeeing fangirl is thus restored.