In the newest installment of the critically acclaimed Battlestar Galactica, director Edward James Olmos (Admiral Adama) takes the story of Cylons and gives it the 2-hour treatment.  The Cylons, as any connaiseur of sci-fi will know, are robots that Humanity created as servants.  After rebelling, they disappeared for 40 years before coming back to wipe Humanity off the face of the galaxy.  Additionally, they no longer look like robots but have skin and bleed like Humans.

WARNING:  Spoilers abound after the break.  Do not read unless you have seen The Plan or *at least* all four seasons.

Quick rating (before the break):  4/5 if you like Battlestar and want to see things resolved, 2/5 if you are only half-engaged and want more food for thought/questions asked.

The Premise:

The Cylons were created by Man.
They were created to make life easier on the Twelve Colonies.
And then the day came when the Cylons decided to kill their masters.
After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared.
The Cylons left for another world to call their own.
A remote space station was built…
Where Cylon and human could meet and maintain diplomatic relations.
Every year, the Colonials send an officer…
The Cylons send no one.
No-one has seen or heard from the Cylons in over forty years…

And now they return.  They evolved.  They look and feel human.  Some are programmed to think they are human.  There are many copies.  And they have a plan.

The movie starts at the end.  Two Brothers Cavil (one from the Fleet and one from Caprica, both Number Ones) are about to be flushed out the airlock of the Battlestar Galactica.  They have a short discussion, and then we are transported to 14 hours before the Fall of Man, where we see people going about their normal lives.

Shortly before the fall we see Caprica Six talking to Baltar when she says she has to meet someone.  Baltar makes up someone to meets and leaves.  In the Miniseries, Six turns around and says “It’s About Time”.  The Plan reveals this to be none other than Brother Cavil (Fleet.  Distinctions will be made between distinct personalities within a Cylon model.  The other principle Number One is Cavil (Caprica)) himself.

Then the Cylons jump into orbit around the Twelve Colonies and let loose.

The visuals are stunning (save for one bit when buildings are falling into the harbours of Picon, where the water isn’t terribly well done).  We get a scale of the destruction.  While throughout the series the only Colonial locations we’ve seen are Caprica and the Scorpion Shipyards (in BSG:  Razor) we now see Libran, Picon, and Gemenon (among others).  Libran looks amazing, and I hope they go there in the television series Caprica.  We see the Basestars (in gloriously high resolution) en masse twisting around (so their pointed ends are aligned) to let out the fury of Cylon-kind.

Only one word describes it:  Epic.

The movie loses some of it’s epicness from there.  As an unfortunate necessity, it’s very disjointed.  You will get very little out of it unless you’ve seen at least the first two seasons of BSG.  We have character exposition with Eights, Fours, and Fives.

The acting is amazing.  Tricia Helfer comes off as several distinct personalities while playing Number Six.  Dean Stockwell does a great job as Number One.  One always had the best lines of the show and there are some keepers in The Plan (talking to Six (Shelley Godfrey) “That’s a very smart idea [Six looks pleased with herself]… or maybe it’s just the glasses”.  Stockwell plays both Cavil (Caprica)’s change in attitude as well as Cavil (Fleet)’s enduring cruelty.

While the movie seems disjointed it doesn’t seemed rushed.  It is definitely a must-see for BSG fans.

My one gripe is that it didn’t explore the Cylon condition as much as I would like.  Yes, much of the later part of BSG does, but I can’t get enough of it.  There was one deleted scene that I’m very disappointed did not make it in (where Boomer and Caprica Six welcome the Resistance on Caprica with open arms to resettle as the Truce is declared (after the events of Downloaded where they decide that the destruction of Humanity was a mistake).  Centurions massacre the Resistance and Six and Eight are left sobbing in the realization that they aren’t saviours but monsters.)

Aside from that, it’s definitely worth seeing.  Once you put away your reservations about the non-contiguous format, it’s quite the treat.