For ten amazing years viewers had the privilege of watching the adventures of the military team known as SG-1 travel through the Stargate and travel to new worlds. Then, during the filming of their 200th episode, the staff was notified that the show would not be returning for an 11th year. That would have been good to have known earlier because the team on the show had introduce a new villain called the Ori who were more powerful than any other villain Earth had faced. In order to finish the story and continue the adventures of SG-1 MGM and Fox did the only thing they could: Make a movie! Stargate: The Ark of Truth was released last year as a Direct to DVD feature length film and has finally made its way to Blu-ray!
After the events of Seasons Nine and Ten, Earth is at a severe disadvantage against the new Ori threat. In order to find a way to stop them the team (now with Farscape Alumni Ben Browder and Claudia Black) must travel into the Ori home galaxy to find a device that can stop them. If the new threat wasn’t enough, it seems that a government operative has taken matters into his own hands and has devised a new way to stop the Ori: The Replicators! (think spiders made out of Lego building bricks).
Highlights
-More hints about the Ancients: Throughout the ten years of SG-1 we have learned that a race called the Ancients were the ones who built the Stargates. In the opening sequence we get to learn a little more about them and even see some sketches of the gates!
-Here come the Replicators: In a great plot twist the Replicators return as a last ditch effort to stop invasion.
-Asgard Weapons- Thanks to the newly installed Asgard Computer Core, Earth ships now has a little more bang for their buck!
-Teal’c climbs a mountain- While the Stargate Team was filming Ark of Truth they were also traveling the world and shooting scenes for their next movie, Stargate Continuum, in the Arctic! Well Chris Judge who plays Teal’c wasn’t very fond of the idea (he is scared of Polar Bears) so instead they shot a massive sequence of his character trekking through mountain terrain for Ark of Truth! Great camera work was done with helicopters.
-Ben Browder’s fight scenes- Poor Ben. He has had a lot of fight scenes in recent episodes…mostly him getting his ass kicked. In Ark of Truth, Ben’s character Mitchell goes up against a newly modified human/replicator hybrid.
Special Features
-Commentary with Writer, Director and Producer Robert C. Cooper, Actor Christopher Judge, and Director of Photography Peter Woeste
-The Ark of Truth: Stargate at Comic-Con Featurette
-Uncovering The Ark of Truth Featurette
-Stargate SG-1: The Road Taken- Prelude to Ark of Truth
-1080p Video
-English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
Overall
Due to time constraints, Ark of Truth is essentially the main story of Stargate SG-1 Season 11 condensed down to 102 minutes. It would have been great to explore the villains a bit more and also the new Ori Galaxy but for what its worth, this is a great film. It was a great ending to the story and was a way to bring the arc to a satisfying conclusion. The great news is that DVD sales for Ark of Truth and Continuum have been very good so we are going to be getting another TWO Stargate Features in the near future. One of the features will be focused on SG-1 (and the return of Jack O’Neil!) while the other feature will be the first movie adventure of the Stargate Atlantis team who just finished their 5 year run on the Sci-Fi channel. If you are a fan of Stargate SG-1 then the Blu-ray release is definitely the one for you. The CGI space sequences look great in glorious 1080p. Everything is sharp and just more vibrant. This is the version of Ark of Truth to watch. So toss your DVD in the closet and go buy Stargate: The Ark of Truth on Blu-ray today!
ComicsOnline gives Stargate: The Ark of Truth 5 out of 5 great endings to a ten year series!
