Stargate Continuum

[thedoctor75147]

I have been waiting since the Ark of Truth was released to see this movie, and i was not disappointed. It was brilliant imho. i just have to say that the people over at Save Daniel Jackson probably wont like this one.

[Nadesico]

I liked this one more then Ark of Truth personally, more "Sg-1ish" then the Ori storyline.

[Kataar]

I think I was a bit overhyped about this one, I read every review and saw every preview, but wasn't as satisfied with it as I'd hoped I would be. Yet it still was a kick ass movie, and I so hope they continue to make more SG-1 movies in the future I bought it and am glad I did, and will probably watch it again soon just to take a fresh perspective on it. I imagine I'll like it more the second time

~Jon

[thedoctor75147]

i cant really judge, i loved ark of truth just as much as i did continuum. i was kind of depressed how little screen time Don S. Davis, Richard Dean Anderson, and Gary Jones got, personally i kind of want to see Walter sent on a mission just to see how he handles it. I really hope they continue making SG-1 movies

[Meurig]

Thoroughly average, as per. A story we've seen ten times before, bland acting from almost everybody, no actual sense of threat and terrible pacing; 80 minutes of buildup followed by 5 minutes of technobabble filled climax and another 5 of epilogue. I kept looking at the clock in the second half of the film thinking 'theyre going to have to start wrapping this up soon or they're going to run out of time...'

That wouldn't be so bad - mediocre straight to dvd films are pretty common - if fanboys weren't reviewing this as if it were god's gift to film.

[Chaos Incarnate]

My first comment of watching it was that it was very eco-friendly, lots of recycling. As I thought about it more, that idea became cooler. It's like an homage to the entire SG-1 series as a whole.

[ancient120]

i thought it was a good way to end ba'll and RDAdidnt get enough camera time.

[JackDeL]

I thought it was actually pretty good. Seeing the HUNDREDS of Goa'uld motherships together was very cool. But I am REALLY getting tired of all the time travel stories. Destroy the world? no problem just go back in time and "fix" it. sheesh. enough already. If it was so easy to change the timeline the universe would have imploded by now.

[Nadesico]

Originally Posted by JackDeL

I thought it was actually pretty good. Seeing the HUNDREDS of Goa'uld motherships together was very cool. But I am REALLY getting tired of all the time travel stories. Destroy the world? no problem just go back in time and "fix" it. sheesh. enough already. If it was so easy to change the timeline the universe would have imploded by now.

I half expected a blue police box to appear near the end and have David Tennant put a stop to all the time travel, lol.

[Oldcode]

I totally agree.

It was an okay moive, but we've seen this so many times. If you are one of the older people here like me, you know that Star Trek Next Gen did time travel DO DEATH!!!!

Arrrrgh!

Originally Posted by JackDeL

I thought it was actually pretty good. Seeing the HUNDREDS of Goa'uld motherships together was very cool. But I am REALLY getting tired of all the time travel stories. Destroy the world? no problem just go back in time and "fix" it. sheesh. enough already. If it was so easy to change the timeline the universe would have imploded by now.

[Mikala]

Yes any new (Trek) series should have just been called Time Trek.

[Kataar]

As far as Stargate goes I can only think of a very small handful of episodes that actually had time travel, and of those maybe 1 or 2 that had this similar plot to it. The obvious 1969 episode was just time travel, then 2010 was the actual go back in time and save the world (2001 later on doesn't count since there was no actual time travel in the episode) and the fan favorite of all SG-1 episodes Window of Opportunity, which also wasn't a 'go back in time and save the planet'. And then the final one, which was most similar to Continuum's story, was the final episodes of Season 8, when they go back in time to ancient egypt and muck up the time line. That's all I can think of, with the exception of time dilation episodes but those don't count either. Compared to Trek SG-1 seems to be direly lacking in time travel. Of course that's not a bad thing, as much as I love a good time travel story, Trek kinda over did it.

I do think that the writers need to start writing more movie-like plots, but then even the initial Stargate movie had a similar formula: go to a planet, screw something up, save the day, and go home. at least this one was on a more galactic scale than just Abydos. Problem with movies like this is it's hard to fit in character development for everyone, especially when you have fans of specific characters not getting enough (Vala fans for instance, though I was eternally greatful she had very little screen time.) But compared to Ark of Truth, I think this one lacked both character development and action. Of course, you can't really do much with character development in this kind of story: everything gets reset in the end. But where was the 'amazing stuff' promised? One of the writers or producers or who ever that guy was stated on camera "as I was reading the script I kept going "Oh, I can't believe we're going to do that. I can't believe we're going to do that! I can't believe it! We're going to do that?" There were moments in there, like Daniel losing his leg, watching DC bombed from altitude, and Daniel contacting himself (though I knew he'd do it as soon as he picked up that book in the store) but they weren't nearly as numerous, surprisingly, or fantastic as he had made it out to be.

Of course, naturally it had its good elements. Some great character comedy, especially with RDA in both time lines, some fun action elements, such as the fighter jet scenes (though more would have been nice) and some cool visuals, such as the motherships in orbit. I loved the resolution to the story, in fact it was great to see Ba'al stand there surprised and get a bullet through the head, and then his clone surprised when things don't go all crazy before the extraction. Seeing Mitchel in the picture was just plain having fun with time travel

So, even though I'm a 'fan-boy' or rather just a big fan of SG-1 and not part of some generalized populace to conveniently fit a pradigm (grumble grumble) I recognize it to not be the greatest film ever made. Yet I enjoyed it and am glad it is a part of my collection. Seriously Meurig, just because some fans loved the movie more than you doesn't invalidate their opinions. I don't even think of myself as a 'fan boy' and took great insult at that remark. Everyone's entitled to their opinions but does one need to be spiteful about it?

~Jon

[JackDeL]

I was speaking of time travel throughout sci-fi. Star Trek, Stargate SGI, StarGate Atlantis. etc. etc. Overall the time travel "device" is wearing thin with me. It just seems like a cheap writing trick used to enable the writers to kill everyone off, then "magically" bring them back without consequences. or worse, it's a fall back plot used when the writers can't think of anything "new". Having said that I did enjoy the movie. I was just hoping that Continuum would further advance the SG1 characters and finally tie up some of the loose ends from the series. ( for example they never explained O'neill's sudden departure from Stargate command.) As it stands, the whole movie "never happened" And even SG1 was clueless that anything out of the ordinary had transpired. And the point of all of it was....? Not a very satisfying way to end it. imho.

[Meurig]

Who said anything about spite?


Have you read the review over at Gateworld? It's a joke, a failed attempt at an objective review.

"The acting.... it was great! The story... it was great! The effects.... feature film quality!"

No, no and no. It was entertaining enough, but in no way a 9 out of 10-er. It's faults tend to get blamed on budget too which is also shifting the blame in the wrong direction. Continuum cost $7 million, right, perhaps it might interest you to know that Pans Labyrinth - one of the most praised films of recent years - cost just over $5 million. Budget doesn't have to determine quality but poor writing does and Continuum is poorly written.

Don't take all of this to mean that I didn't enjoy it though since as I've said several times it was fun enough, I'm just annoyed when straight to DVD films like this are reviewed as masterpieces re: the gateworld review. You didn't, granted, so stop taking it personally.

[Meurig]

And just as an addendum to that, I really do feel that when a franchise is as substantial an earner as Stargate is: riding on the back of a very popular film, a hugely successful TV series, a slightly less but still considerably successful spinoff series and a couple of DVD movies which I don't have any sales facts to hand about, a Sci-Fi series really ought to reach the point where the writers are willing to push the boat out and try new things. Stargate doesn't and I find that to be the most disappointing thing of all. They have the money but they'd rather rehash old stories than come up with something original and this is so, so sad considering the original premise - a device that can take you anywhere (and anywhen, apparently), which gave the possibility of huge open-ended storytelling.

Instead we get a mish mash of old episodes with slightly fancier effects. Ho hum.

[al3d]

Originally Posted by Meurig

Who said anything about spite?


Have you read the review over at Gateworld? It's a joke, a failed attempt at an objective review.

"The acting.... it was great! The story... it was great! The effects.... feature film quality!"

No, no and no. It was entertaining enough, but in no way a 9 out of 10-er. It's faults tend to get blamed on budget too which is also shifting the blame in the wrong direction. Continuum cost $7 million, right, perhaps it might interest you to know that Pans Labyrinth - one of the most praised films of recent years - cost just over $5 million. Budget doesn't have to determine quality but poor writing does and Continuum is poorly written.

Don't take all of this to mean that I didn't enjoy it though since as I've said several times it was fun enough, I'm just annoyed when straight to DVD films like this are reviewed as masterpieces re: the gateworld review. You didn't, granted, so stop taking it personally.

hehe..mate, you've been working in CG now..you should know this, Pan was film where?..in Europe, in spain if i recall..cost of filming there?..oh, about what, 30% of in Amercia?...actors?..all mostly unknown, SG1 team for feature?...BIG bucks...Pan!..almost no FX at all as well. we need to compare apples with apples..

if you wanna compare flicks...Starship Troopers costed 8 millions a few years back...now THAT looks like fanfilm compared to SG1..

as to Continuum..LOVED IT..getting the blueray today...just hope they keep making those flicks. and release Ark in blueray as well..

[Meurig]

You've missed the point, which is that good writers aren't expensive. Losing one FX shot, or losing a pointless cameo by Anderson would free up the money to hire some good writers.

And I really shouldn't bite, but Pan's actually had shitloads of FX in it, including multiple well realised creatures with several minutes of screentime.

As an interesting side note actually, Del Toro managed to get the FX work on Pan's at a discounted rate because CafeFX acted as a producing party on the film. It's one of the reasons the FX work is as good as it is on a low budget non-US film.

[Mikala]

It was another serving of Stargate fun.
Enjoyable and easy to watch.
Was saddened by Don Davis screen time. But I guess who knew he'd be gone now?
Kind of an anticlimactic way to leave the series screen time wise.

[thedoctor75147]

Originally Posted by JackDeL

for example they never explained O'neill's sudden departure from Stargate command..

O'neill's departure from the SGC was explained, he was promoted to the head of Homeworld Security, now the real question is where did poor old General Hammond go?

[David cgc]

Originally Posted by thedoctor75147

O'neill's departure from the SGC was explained, he was promoted to the head of Homeworld Security, now the real question is where did poor old General Hammond go?

Hammond was head of Homeworld Security the year O'neill was in command of the SGC. Then he retired, O'neill took over Homeworld Security, and Landry came to the SGC.

[Kataar]

I hadn't read that review before. Yikes. now I see where you're coming from.

Excuse me while I pull my foot out of my mouth

I mostly felt cheated in what I'd mentioned in my last post, the dude was like "We're doing amazing, crazy things in this film" and....nope. Not seeing it. I think they did more amazing and crazy things in Ark of Truth, like the whole replicator thing, I couldn't believe the IOA actually went ahead with that plan, and I was surprised and intrigued that the replicators integrated into a human. Funny thing is, it was the replicator story line I found interesting, the only thing interesting about the Ori line in that one was the appearance of merlin, only to find out it wasn't. *shrug*

Hopefully they'll do better with the next one, assuming there is a next one. They need to stop worrying about keeping the status quo and go ahead and do something that changes the galaxy, or at the very least changes things on Earth. I'd love to see the next movie show the Stargate becoming public knowledge, and what happens as a result, especially if it became public knowledge right before a huge galactic crisis! I could see them doing it, too, they didn't want to reveal the gate because of all the bad stuff around the galaxy, the general public would panic. but why not when all major bad guys, in both the Milky Way and the Pegasus, have been defeated? The Replicators, Goa'uld, and Ori are gone (except maybe replicator Dr. Weir, or however her name is spelled) the Wraity are still a threat but not much of one to Earth...no real threat. That may change with this new villain they are introducing in Atlantis this week, but we'll see how that goes.

~Jon

[Oscaron]

Liked the movie, as it was I expected it to be.

Daniel seemed to be the target of some writers aggression

Original?...Naw. But it is a story of a franchise I like and feel comfortable with. If I want originality, I guess I'll have to wait like the rest of you.

The perfect, original story is not coming out of my pc or word-processor anytime soon, so I'll reserve my crits for Reality TV.

[John Marchant]

I have to be honest and say i liked the series until about series 6 or 7 went downhill after jack left/promoted. I understand why they had a cameo of him but it was not really worth it and as Rhys has said better spend the money on a good different story, there seems to be a general lack of creativity, just go with old re hashed stuff that worked.

The interaction between jack,tealc, sam and daniel was what made it work, light hearted comedy as well as good action. Now its all fx wow factor, fx are not the story they aid and hopefully enhance a story they are not the reason for the story.

To be honest i did not really like the 2 films that much, my yardstick is in 1 months time can i remember the story does anything stick out in my mind and if the answers no then it was a no brainer and not very good.

Regards, John

[A3DLover]

Personally i was very disappointed, especially after $19.95 + tax
It took me 3 days to watch it all the way thru, there were better stories in the original series.
I find modern anime a great deal more satisfying than alot live action sci fi.
Speaking of which, i wonder how bad starship troopers 3 will be butchered?

[Oscaron]

Originally Posted by A3DLover

Personally i was very disappointed, especially after $19.95 + tax
It took me 3 days to watch it all the way thru, there were better stories in the original series.
I find modern anime a great deal more satisfying than alot live action sci fi.
Speaking of which, i wonder how bad starship troopers 3 will be butchered?

Not sure, but since Casper is back and his career is doing 'well enough' *cough* that he is in a sequel of a near dead franchise......*sigh*

Loved SST:1....Still in therapy for SST:2.....love the comic series that have been out lately...

I am one of the most naively hopeful saps in Sci-Fi fandom, but I'm a bit scared.

And if I was his buddy Dix, I'd be a bit worried considering what happened to his previous friend Diz....

[A3DLover]

Originally Posted by Oscaron

Not sure, but since Casper is back and his career is doing 'well enough' *cough* that he is in a sequel of a near dead franchise......*sigh*

Loved SST:1....Still in therapy for SST:2.....love the comic series that have been out lately...

I am one of the most naively hopeful saps in Sci-Fi fandom, but I'm a bit scared.

And if I was his buddy Dix, I'd be a bit worried considering what happened to his previous friend Diz....

Another michigander eh? I thought i was the only one,LoL!
Yeah im a big fan of sg1, sga, sst 1- sst2, what was they thinking!?.
Oh well i come here to see what true talent is up to, i'm never left unamazed.

[DELTA]

I would have to say it was enjoyable, and a nice addition to the rest that I own... I don't think it was a wast of time or money. I just watched the MUMMY tonight and the only thought that went thru my mind was he is cheating on his wife!!! Should have waited to rent the dvd...

[Oscaron]

Originally Posted by DELTA

I would have to say it was enjoyable, and a nice addition to the rest that I own... I don't think it was a wast of time or money. I just watched the MUMMY tonight and the only thought that went thru my mind was he is cheating on his wife!!! Should have waited to rent the dvd...

Yeah. Would have been nice if Rachel could have agreed on the contract, if only for the sake of continuity.

[Kataar]

that always bugs me when they do that in sequels, like with Dark Knight. Probably the only thing I didn't like about it. Haven't seen Mummy yet, though.

~Jon

[thedoctor75147]

ok, i know this thread has been dead for a while, but i was just watching Continuum again and i noticed a bit of a continuity error, when SG1 gates back to earth and wind up on the ship, shouldnt the ramp left there by baal have been destroyed by the kawoosh of the gate connecting?