Stargate: The Ark of Truth

Story: 9
Action: 9
Acting: 9
FX: 9
Durability: 9
Special Features: 9

Faced with the abrupt decision by Sci-Fi channel to end the longest running sci-fi series in history, the makers of Stargate SG-1 were not able to close out the Ori saga of seasons 9 and 10 in proper fashion. Thus, the spawning of the direct-to-DVD movie, Stargate: The Ark of Truth. With the pressure of Stargate SG-1 being a cinematic quality TV series, a movie version had to step things up a notch and they did that successfully. Stargate: The Ark of Truth closed out all of the open-ended mini-stories related to the Ori saga... the priors and their armies of followers, the escaped/ascended Adria, Tomin's inner struggle, etc. There was a lot going on, but it never felt like a rushed ending. It was clean and flawless.

The acting was great as in the series. Amanda Tapping, Ben Browder, Michael Shanks, Christopher Judge and Claudia Black, who were virtual unknowns 10 years ago are now the biggest stars in sci-fi. What's even more amazing was the cast of secondary characters. They were able to get every single minor character back for this movie, which was great for continuity. I've always hated when a sequel is unable to cast the original actor and get someone else to play the same character.

The CG, as expected was great, but the digital artists on the team had 10 years of practice already. Besides the usual explosions and CG characters, the camera shots were very epic and detailed. The prop design mixed ancient art history with futuristic looking technology, which is a mix of the earlier seasons which were more artsy and the later seasons that were more techie.

I was happy with the special features included on the DVD as well... very complete. There was a commentary, full footage of the Comic Con and several "Making Of" featurettes.

I can't wait for Stargate: Continuum, coming out later this Summer. There's even talk of this becoming a regular thing... 3rd and 4th SG-1 movies.