AUDIO COMMENTARY
Writer-director Robert C. Cooper, director of photography Peter F. Woeste, and actor Christopher Judge (“Teal’c”) step up for the feature-length audio commentary. It’s a nice addition to the release, but of course Stargate fans have come to expect commentaries and take them for granted.
The commentary itself is something of a disappointment. Students of film-making will enjoy the extensive discussion of cameras and lenses, pacing, etc. But the trio talk about what is actually happening on screen a very small portion of the time, and by my reckoning not at all during the first 20 minutes. Cooper leads the conversation, and when the subject is not about the benefits of the film medium over television, or camera work and other technical aspects of film-making, it’s usually a bird’s eye view of Stargate-related matters: the fan response to changes in the show, Browder’s attempt to create a character that isn’t Jack O’Neill and is not John Crichton (Farscape), and so forth.
Julian Sands reprises his role as the Doci.
The lion’s share of the commentary ends up being Cooper’s explanation of the benefits of the film format. I can’t help but wonder why the producers don’t keep this mentality for a TV series. The Ark of Truth tells a full, rich story that is not much longer than a 2-part episode.
That’s not to say that there is no talk of story or of the non-technical specifics of a scene. But they are too few and far between. For an hour and 40 minutes, it’s surprising how little the group talks about the scene they are watching. Ark fills in a major piece of Stargate lore, and as a fan of the story being told, I would have much rather heard Cooper the writer over Cooper the director.
STARGATE AT COMIC-CON
This 20-minute feature takes fans to the Ark of Truth panel at last summer’s San Diego Comic-Con. Hosted by Gary Jones (“Walter Harriman”) and attended by an estimated 4,000 screaming fans, the panel included actors Ben Browder, Amanda Tapping, and Chris Judge, writer-director Robert Cooper, and regular SG-1 director Martin Wood.
It’s not the whole, hour-long panel — the feature runs just under 20 minutes. The length is just about right to entertain with the panel’s highlights, without getting dull. The camera work is amateur, but with this event that is entirely appropriate. You’ll get the sense of being there, hearing the panelists interact with the crowd and cringing at the Stargate song one fan was briefly allowed to sing.
Highlights include Wood and Tapping’s account of Chris Judge’s refusal to go with them to the Arctic; Jones’s hilarious sense of humor; and Judge’s attempt to call Michael Shanks on his cell phone.
UNCOVERING THE ARK OF TRUTH
The short list of bonus features on the disc may make you think that the studio skimped. That’s not the case at all, and this more polished and professional bonus feature proves it. At nearly 30 minutes, “Uncovering the Ark of Truth” is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film, featuring Cooper, actors Michael Shanks, Christopher Judge, Ben Browder, and Amanda Tapping, visual effects supervisor Michelle Comens, fight coordinator James “BamBam” Bamford, composer Joel Goldsmith, and the special effects department’s Scott Stofer. In addition to the sit-down interviews, you will see plenty of the cast at work (and at play) on the set.
BamBam runs through Ben Browder’s showcase fight scene, while the actor is later subjected to a carefully-coordinated fireball inside the Odyssey corridors. Comens takes viewers inside Stargate’s own in-house visual effects department, complete with pre-visualization and intermediate animation for several key sequences in the film. And in the special effects segment you’ll see a man covered in flame-retardant goo and shot in the face with a flame thrower. Now that’s just damn cool.
The behind-the-scenes feature also looks at Chris Judge crossing a snow-covered mountain, Joel Goldsmith and the orchestral scoring of the film, and more.
As with the audio commentary, what is missing is a treatment of the story and its place in Stargate lore. This piece would really be filled out by a discussion of Adria and her return, the ambiguous fate of the Ori at the end of the TV series, the ancient history of the Alteran-Ori feud, Morgan Le Fay and her situation with the Ancients, the Asgard core and the problems it presents, and so forth. I would have liked to see not just a rehash of what we know at the start of the film, but a few reflections on the mythology and Cooper’s choices as a writer.
NEXT: Conclusions, Specs, Cast, and Reader Comments