Battlestar Galactica The Plan DVD Review
Posted by Michael Weyer on 11.01.2009
The sci-fi epic provides a movie that shines new light on the series for fans but doesn't quite reach the same standards
Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
Universal Pictures
112 Minutes
One of the most intriguing fictional ideas ever was Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The play took a couple of minor character from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and used them to show what was going on “off-stage” during that classic piece. It was an amazing idea that fleshed out the main storyline more for readers of the play. It’s a device that’s been used various times over the years, to varying success. Now, that concept is being used to provide a new outlook to one of the greatest drama television ever produced.
Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is the second direct-to-DVD movie of the now-classic sci-fi series. Its approach is like the first film Razor in that it seeks to show what had previously only been mentioned on the series. It also fills in a few blanks and answers some questions some viewers might have had. While the results are a bit mixed, you do have to give credit for the saga’s creators for the attempt as they manage to paint a fascinating showcase for the series that makes you admire the bigger picture all the more.
The Film
I should warn off the bat that this is not a movie for those new to the BSG universe. In fact, there are plenty of spoilers for that final season. A quick explanation then with a huge SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER alert:
Fifty years before, the Twelve Colonies of Kobol created the Cylons, artificial intelligent machines that soon rebelled against them. The Cylons eventually left, retreating for forty years. In that time, they figured out a way to create human copies of themselves, twelve in all. The Ones, nicknamed Cavill (Dean Stockwell), decided to pack up the five major models and let one copy of each be among the humans: Colonel Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan), his boozing wife Ellen (Kate Vernon), pyramid (Colonia version of basketball) star Samuel T. Anders (Michael Trucco), political consultant Tory Foster (Rekha Sharma) and mechanic Galen Tyrol (Aaron Douglas). Cavill’s reasons are that these five had given the robotic Cylons the ability to look human in return for ending their war with humanity and Cavill, convinced it was God’s plan for the Cylons to rule, didn’t want that. With the Five gone, the rest of the Cylons fell in with Cavill’s plans to end humanity, infiltrating the human society. In particular, one of the Six models (Tricia Helfer), seduced brilliant scientist Gaius Baltar (James Callis), allowing the Cylons to gain entry into the Colonial defense system to set up a virus that could shut everything down.
The movie (directed by star Edward James Olmos) kicks off in a truly awesome fashion as we see for the first time the full attack on the Colonies. It had been hinted at in the original 2003 mini-series but here we witness the entire awesome attack as the giant Basestars appear in the skies and launch thousands of nukes upon each world. The destruction is stunning as we see tidal waves rising, cities blown off the map and Cylon troops coming in to mop up any survivors. It’s chilling hearing one of the Cylon hybrid pilots rattle off “the cities of Caprica are burning…the harbors of Picon are burning…the courts of Libra are burning…” as we sweep through amazingly detailed CGI landscapes of each world, first in its pristine gory and then in ruins. For the first time, the true feeling of destruction hits you and makes you appreciate the survivors’ struggle even more.
It’s here the movie shifts into its second part, which is showing highlights of the first two seasons of the show from the Cylon perspective. It begins with Cavill on the Galactica bringing the other Cylon models together. It’s here the brilliant irony comes in: Despite all the talk in the credits of the show about how “they have a plan,” it turns out the Cylons’ grand plan was ruined when they failed to kill all of humanity. Cavill wants to wipe out the rest but given how he’s got only a handful of followers, it’s a difficult task. He is helped by the fact that one of the Eights is on the ship as Sharon “Boomer” Valleri (Grace Park), who doesn’t know she’s a Cylon. Meanwhile, on Caprcia, Anders and his pyramid team (who were training in the mountains when the attacks happened) form a resistance squad as the player finds himself becoming a leader.
Both the strength and the weakness of the film is how it’s tied in with what we’ve already seen on the show. Much of it relies on past clips from episodes that utilize the actors who didn’t take part in this movie. Now, some of those are good as they answer things such as how the Six posing as a woman accusing Baltar of treason managed to escape the ship. It’s also interesting showing how Boomer was working both sides. In the show, we just saw her as herself, no idea she was a Cylon but here we get to see how her Cylon side was reactivated and communicating with Cavill. It’s good showing that with the added touch that Boomer begins to feel more comfortable when she’s human which annoys Cavill.
However, the film can also feel disconnected from the show at times. For example, I get the idea of showing how Leoben (Callum Keith Rennie) became obsessed with Kara Thrace listening to her on the radio and convinced of her destiny. But since Katee Sackhoff is only shown in parts of past episodes, it doesn’t resonate as much as it could without that payoff. Also, there’s little showcase for most of the other of the “Final Five” within the fleet. It could have been cool showing what Tory (who pretty much popped out of nowhere in the second season) was doing in the fleet in order to become Roslin’s aide while Tigh and Ellen are pretty much ignored, despite appearing in new material.
One guy who does get to show more is Anders and it is cool seeing him becoming this reluctant hero on Caprica. He openly admits he was inspired by an old movie planning an assault and worries about blowing things and getting people killed. I was also glad to see the overlooked character of Barolay (Alisen Down), a fellow player who becomes his aide and encourages him to help others. The scene where they witness models of Doral (Matthew Bennett) burning corpses and realize to their horror Cylons look like humans is chillingly well done. A nice twist is that we see how another Cavill falls in with the group by accident and, knowing who Anders is, tries to understand him better. He even asks if Anders might forgive the Cylons and is saddened when the man angrily replies no. Cavill’s concerns are shared by Simon (Rick Worthy), a Cylon in the group as their doctor.
This leads to the best subplot of the film as it turns out there’s another Simon among the fleet, a doctor who married a single mom now working as a mechanic. This Simon has, to the disgust of the fleet’s Cavill, gone native and actually enjoys humanity. Worthy, who never got that much time on the show, is fantastic as the dual Simons, one cool and collected on Caprica, while the other tries to hold onto the thing he holds dear even as his true nature comes creeping up on him. That latter one struggles with his wife, leading to a harsh fate that has a nice aftermath also tying in with Tyrol’s problems. Also good is Helfer, who plays several models of Six, including a new model, a tough hooker who aids Cavill (in more ways than one).
But this is Stockwell’s show and he makes the most of it. The Cavill of the fleet comes off cool and collected for the most part as he schemes but he does lose it when the Simon points out that he has no plan, he’s just making this all up as he goes. A subplot of him befriending a young orphan comes to a truly shocking conclusion which Stockwell sells with cool professionalism. As the Caprica version, he also does a good job showing how this model is slowly coming to understand that for all their flaws, humans do have a closeness of spirit the Cylons can never match. It’s fitting the move ends with the sequence from the second season finale of the two Cavills together, showing their differences in the end.
Olmos does a good job directing, not going for fancy gimmicks but keeping things running smoothly. It must have been hard working new stuff in with the timeline of the show but he handles it pretty well and captures the show’s unique visual style perfectly. He’s aided by the FX, which seem up a notch from the show, from the gorgeous opening shot sweeping to the two fleets in space and especially the awesome destruction of cities sequences. Jane Espenson provides a good script, linking the past to the new scenes with powerful drama but still the dark humor the show provided now and then. (“The launch tube is 175 feet, we’ll probably die of injuries before we hit space.” “I don’t like you.”) And Bear McCreary provides a wonderful score of fresh music that heightens it all from a twist on the show’s theme to the gorgeously haunting tones of the Colonies’ destruction. I should also note that the producers seem to take advantage of the direct-to-DVD format for some full on nudity, such as the coed shower for the pilots.
The film, sadly, is ultimately something of a disappointment. Yes, it’s great showing what went on behind the scenes and does make you want to rewatch the early episodes to appreciate the full picture. But it just doesn’t click as well as it could have, far too much with the past episodes and not enough fresher material. There’s also the fact that it doesn’t have a real solid solo storyline, just being “the extra bits.” However, you do have to credit them with the attempt and this is still a movie based on one of the finest TV shows ever created. As any fan can tell you, even a poor BSG blows away half the shows on any network. So while The Plan may not be a terrific film, it’s still damn entertaining and provides some nice insight for longtime fans. It just might have been better to open it up to the newbies too.
Rating: 7.0 out of 10.0
Video: 1.78:1 anamorphic. As usual, Galactica was shot in a grainy style to give it a gritty feel but the Caprica sequences come off quite nice and clear on the DVD. You may notice a bit more grain for the scenes from the show but it still holds well overall.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10.0
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 with subtitles in English, French and Spanish. The audio is even better than the video, perfect for talking scenes and the effects come in clearly while still letting you hear the score underneath it all.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10.0
Bonus Features
In a bit of a disappointment, Ron Moore and Dave Eick do not provide an audio commentary for once. Instead, we get Olmos and Espenson and it’s a pretty dry commentary for the most part. Olmos really doesn’t talk much about the challenges of directing, instead going for “this is such a cool shot” stuff. Espenson can be frank on how she got the solo gig writing this because the plans for a trio of movies were marred when the show’s writers got new jobs on other series. There are some nice revelations like how the rubble in a city scene is actually the remains of the Galactica hanger deck set and that the site used for the resistance base on the show had been torn down so they had to rebuild it. The two half-joke about how an explosion on set was much bigger than they expected and reveal that in a scene of a mass grave, those were real actors as the corpses. However, it’s really not an energetic talk and it would have been better hearing Moore and Eick speaking on what their intentions with the film were.
From Admiral to Director: Edward James Olmos and The Plan (6:40): This starts with Olmos on set for the BSG finale talking of how sad it is to end the show and moves to him directing the film. He says that wrapping it up was “the saddest moment of my life” as he hated leaving his all-time favorite role. They show him running things on set pretty well and the cast members talk well of working with him. They touch on stuff like his obsession with sunflower seeds and everyone respecting him for being with the show since the start and that (aside from Moore and Eick), he knew the material better than anyone. While a bit fluffy, you do respect his work and enjoyed when he leads the cast and crew in a “So say we all” chant on the final day of shooting.
The Cylons of The Plan (6:51) examines the various actors playing the Cylons as they give interviews on their roles. It’s nice hearing them talk of the challenges playing different versions of each Cylon and enjoying it all. Stockwell gets the majority of it and you can tell he really thought you Cavill before playing the role, enhancing the performance.
Cylon Attack (4:03) looks at a scene in the movie involving the resistance attacking a Cylon camp. Straightforward on set in British Columbia but shows challenges of working a scene when one faction doesn’t actually exist on set and the big explosion too.
Visual Effects: The Magic Behind The Plan (19:01) is the longest feature, examining the FX of the film. Supervisor Mike Gibson and Gary Hutzel reveal that in the original script, there was nothing there to really work with. It was Espenson who encouraged them to go all-out for the Colonial destruction scene and surprised how well-detailed they made it. That makes up the majority of the feature as they go in-depth to how they created the sequence and while it can be pretty technical, still cool seeing how they made up so much of it. There’s also stuff on action sequences elsewhere in the film like the resistance fighting Cylons. Whatever else, BSG always had amazing effects and that carries over here.
There are also 14 deleted scenes, a lot obviously cut for time like more pyramid practice and Anders stuff. One interesting scene has Cavill telling the resistance that some Cylons want to help humans, letting them get to a farm with a Six and Eight present, seemingly really wanting to help. However, other Cylons attack and kill some of the humans. Pretty fascinating as it seems to hint at the division of the Cylons that would show up later in the series.
The 411: While promising, The Plan ultimately doesn't click as well as it could. The cast is great and some of plotlines work but it just feels disconnected from the overall BSG storyline to be a great film. Still, the opening sequences are amazing and it does provide some nice insight for long-time fans. It may not be truly great but it's still some high-concept sci-fi that deserves points for trying.
