How the mighty have fallen. At least it is Stargate
After the amazing movie (best movie of the year that had the most num of best movies for any year - 1994) spawned 3 epic TV shows (SG1, Atlantis, Universe) all of which gave me so much joy from 1997-2011 we finally got a new SG movie in Origins. I did not watch it till recently and I was aghast by how poorly made it was. From the ridiculous plot to the high school play acting and directing to the very low quality sets and effects and the complete rewriting of characters and stories it was just a shocker. Getting Michael of Atlantis to appear means he must have been needing the money badly. I hope they paid him well for the $50k budget it probably got.
Things I was shocked about -
* they clearly got people who did not watch the show or the movie. Or maybe they half watched it once
* Catherine Langford was implied to be a German woman with an accent and not an American by birth but probably married one (going by the movie and the 1969 episode)
* She never traveled via the gate nor got back and all the little characters were changed just to retrofit them badly.
* the utter lack of knowledge of the Goa'uld, Ra, uprising, cartouche, language etc. were shocking
* it is implied that Catherine had a threesome as well with James and the other guy who loaned them their tent because he was also in it in the morning coming out with them as she is half nude? WTF.
* Catherine does not act like a woman from 1938 at all. Nor does she behave like how Catherine actually did in the movie and TV show. The movie lady was classy, elegant and thoughtful and pensive
* The way they just easily power the gate with a small car??? How did they "dial" the gate? Even manually (this is more a goof of the TV show as well) but it is poorly handled.
* The whole nagada being "naquadah" and naquadria later on but being found literally on the surface. What's to mine then?
* The acting was cheesy, the dialogs were cheesy and the plot was cheesy.
There is no way this is an official production. I mean, like Hammond would be spinning in his grave. Like WTH. Someone took a fan Youtube video and slapped MGM official stuff on it and got super rich by pocketing all the money.
And why did they cancel SG? SG1 was in its prime and could have gone for another 4y. Atlantis easily another 5-6 seasons and maybe had movies too. Not just direct to DVD.
And Universe - was different but honestly imo ended up being the best of the lot in terms of how it really would have gone down. The soft cartoony tones were gone and it was realistic and gritty and human. Maybe this is what turned people (incl me) off for a decade before I watched it and realized how great Universe was. It should have been another 5 seasons easily.
Joe Flanigan was Atlantis along with Weir (Best leader imo), McKay, Teyla, Ronan Dex, Lt Ford, Maj Lorne, Dr. Keller/Beckett and Dr. Radek and others (incl the villains from the awesome voiced Todd) - they were equal to the power houses of RDA, Carter, Teal'c, Dr. Jackson and Jonas Quinn. Col Mitchell and Vala were great additions and the lovely Morena made a terrific villain as well. Then the Universe cast of Young, Rush, Eli, Scott and the lovely ladies (esp the racked Lt lady) etc. were just amazing to watch every week.
Such a shame they killed it all
And then they made SG: Origins. Really? This?
Just shocked honestly.
I truly hope 2020s does not end without another great SG TV show. Call it SG2 or SG Asgard or SG Alpha Site or whatever.
Like Kennedy said about landing someone on the moon in the 1960s before the decade ends, I hope we get a great SG TV Show (and movie) before the 2020s ends.