Stargate: Continuum
Martin Wood, Brad Wright
Quick View: A proper, if slightly underwhelming, finale to the SG1 plotline. They do the series justice.
Full Review: Stargate: Continuum was the final chapter of the Stargate SG-1 series, made in movie form to give a proper ending to the long running critically acclaimed SyFy original series based off of Roland Emmerichs film Sargate. The movie does a good job taking everything fans loved about the show and putting it all together in one film. We get to see our favorite bad guys, heroes, ships, effects, everything. This movie ties up all the loose ends so well, I don’t even want anymore SG-1 knowing it would mess up such a
perfectly made bed!
The story follows SG-1 as they tag along with General Jack O’Neill to observe the end of the Goa’uld system lords, the main antagonists of the show, in an extraction ceremony of the final surviving Goa’uld lord, Baal. The goa’uld are symbiotes inhabiting human bodies, and using alien technology, can be extracted from the host. During the ceremony, the tyrant proclaims that one of his clones had survived, and that his plan would soon be in motion. Suddenly, people begin to disappear, and Baal breaks free in time to fatally wound General O’Neill. The remaining members of SG-1 find their way to the gate in time to dial Earth and escape the collapsing reality of the Tok’ra homeworld. From here, Sam, Cameron and Jackson find themselves in an alternate reality, caused by the tampering of time by the last remaining clone of Baal. They must fight through the doubts and lies of this new reality to fix the wrongs Baal has caused and return things to the way they used to be.
The characters in this movie are, you guessed it, the same lovable members of SG-1 that we’ve seen for the last 10 years of the show. With the exception of the alternate reality versions of some of the cast, we get to see our favorite heroes do their thing. They improvise, which is what they are known for, and make their way doing what they do best. Each actor, being very experienced and talented, keeps their character on the move with the plot and keeps them reacting and changing, even in the smaller, less significant parts of the movie.
Overall, the set design is much larger scale and improved upon from the show, and this definitely benefits the movie. The cast is used to working with smaller room sizes and less contrasting locals, but with the movies larger budget, they did a great job expanding on the set design. Less of the set is greenscreen and this larger practical space gives the actors more room to play with the role. This improves upon the premise of the movie, as the immensity of the set reflects the immensity of their situation.
At the end of the day, the movie does its job, giving such a revolutionary TV show the ending it deserves, and is a service to the fan who has been faithful with the series since its inception. Despite all this, it’s still a smaller scale, direct to dvd movie. As much as we wish Stargate had as big a budget of the Star Trek movies, stargate remains the cult classic that will always hold a special place in my heart.
Final Score: 6.5/10