It’s no secret that most of the Geekadelphians are diehard BSG fans. Can you blame us? The from the pilot miniseries to the finale, the re-imagined series of Battlestar Galactica has been cited as the crown jewel in a new golden era for SF for our generation. Click the break to read a roundtable review from a few Geekadelphians on Battlestar Galactica: The Plan. Pun intended– Jump!

Bianca:

One line review: The Plan puts the BS in BSG.

The Plan felt like a series of deleted scenes from season 1 that hinged around everyone’s least favorite Cylon model. It seems that our boy, EJO, (who stars as Admiral Adama, produced much of the series and directed The Plan) wanted to give Cylon model One a moment in the spotlight. Originally, I was curious about Cavil’s perspective of wanting to “be a better machine” in season 4, but I feel that was entirely lost in The Plan. Sorry, EJO: In attempting to make Cavil feel more complex, he actually came off as a cardboard cut-out, thumb-twirling villian. Boo-ooring.

The most interesting part of The Plan is not about Cavil toying with sleeper Boomer (in her re-occuring role as “Little Machine Lost,” ) but in gaining insight on the model Simon (Four) and seeing footage of Anders, pre-occupation of New Caprica. A lot felt unnecessary, and most of the “personal” moments (specifically the “machines warming up” scene) have given me a solid case of fan trauma that can only be cured with solitary confinement, electroshock therapy and watching the pilot, over and over.

In comparison, I enjoyed Razor, the other BSG side-story exploration, much more. It had a more delicately placed, specific plot line and gave the audience an insight we didn’t know existed.. which ultimately was a strong part of it’s appeal. The Plan could have benefited from a similar structure: We all knew this “Plan” insight existed from season 4, and now that we’ve seen it, most of us were left very underwhelmed.

Final verdict? Like the last half hour of the series finale, watching The Plan is optional.

Dan:

One line review: What can I say other than the “film” is convoluted erratic mess to say the least, that has about as much focus as over-caffeinated child at Dave and Busters.

Something had pinged at me back of my mind at Wizard World with all the discussion and hyping of The Plan, and that was – that this “film” and I use that term loosely was not getting a theatrical release. Not even a limited time engagement like Razor, where a digital “print” if you will was being shown. I had a feeling that this film was not going to live up to expectations, and I mean not just for reasons that this was going to be a good “film”, but whenever someone decides to go back and explain the intentions or machination of any mysterious force of evil in any film whether it is a sequel or prequel if you will – it just FAILS. It usually does this on all levels because; it will never live up to the version of their grand motivations we have in our minds, before we even sit down to watch it. Some things are just better left un-explained, I akin it to the Matrix trilogy the first film was great, but in the second and third film where they try to explain the motive of the Machines, and fill in the mystery the film it just falls apart in a series of WTF moments.

The Story of the plan falls short on so many levels, what should have been a sweeping epic that started at the end of the first Cylon war, it starts a up a mere days before the nuclear assault on Caprica. Their plan for lack of a better phrase: just doesn’t seem that well thought out. As they start to put the putty in the holes of the plot of the series, bringing attention to moments of the series that really didn’t need to be revisited the plan quickly falls apart. They also leave some very glaring mysteries unanswered as well. It really was hard to watch this film not just because it looked like a bad SyFy original movie either, but the time jumps in the plot seemed like you had to have ADD to keep with this thing. Not to mention the more they explained the worse it seemed to get, and some moments of the film just seemed out right contrived and predictable. The film ended and much like the first X-Files movie, which had similar promises of giving us the truth if you will – it didn’t explain that much at all but left more questions in its wake.

Final Verdict? Sometimes you just need to know when to leave well enough alone. The Plan just seems like a bad cash-in(sorry Eddie) on a great series that will give them another reason to re-issue a box set with this film included, I personally think we should probably just leave this movie in the same category as The Star Wars Christmas Special- we just don’t talk about it, and pretend it doesn’t exist because quite honestly it’s better that way.

If you want to pick it up you can get here on amazon or just wait for it to air on SyFy honestly your better off not buying this.