BSG: The Plan
Oct. 21st, 2009 06:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccatoriaSo. The Plan. I has seen it.
Basically my thoughts can be summed up like this:
What a lovely collection of deleted scenes. What a truly weird movie.
My only hope for this thing was that it not wreck anything. And basically it didn't.
THE GOOD.
So. Yeah. As far as deleted scenes go, these were nice. I enjoyed seeing what happened to Shelley - pretty much what I was expecting but as usual Helfer knocks it out of the park. It was nice to see Grace Park revisiting Boomer in this era with - in my opinion - improved acting, and I am, after thought, ultimately on the side of this retcon about her. While I do now wonder whether she had both sets of memories in Downloaded, and honestly, prefer if she doesn't and that was just a final cruel twist from Cavil, I like that we find out...well, she has agency in her own sleeper-agentness. She chose this. (Also, in a more subtle and potentially accidental retcon since it wasn't referenced in the movie, Boomer is now correct when she yells that there are eight cylons (excluding her) in the fleet to save Tyrol: Tigh, Ellen, Tyrol, Tory, Cavil, D'Anna, Tough!Six, Simon.)
I would also point to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nicole_anell's post where she points out that there is some evidence based on a propworx auction that the Six talking to Boomer about the wonderful new life she's about to embark on is Gina and that, actually, is an idea so perfect I don't have words for it. Probably the most broken and brilliant retcon in the entire thing; shame it wasn't clearer.
The stuff with Sam on Caprica was pretty nice too, although not really that...surprising? I mean, it essentially happens exactly as I'd expect it to, although there are some treats along the way, namely getting to see more of Jean Barolay and getting to see her before she became the hardest, coldest woman in the fleet. I've seen others who disliked it, but I kind of liked her calling Sam, "T". Also - I'm sure I'm the only person who didn't know this - but it was nice to get actual confirmation that she was also a pyramid star - I was never sure if she was on the team or just someone the Resistance picked up along he way, since we never saw her in The Farm. Also worth the price of admission, Cavil's backfiring backwards confession, the moment, perhaps, he could no longer hide the real reason he needed to get his parents to see things his way.
To meditate on that whole thing for a minute, since it was, essentially, the pivot of the film - the entirety of the "plot"; one Cavil learning that he was motivated by love just as much as everyone else and erradicating that impulse is impossible, with the other refusing to acknowledge he could possibly be wrong. That's it, right? The message of this film? Not religion or plot or mythology - love, dooming the Cylon plan, because they inevitably all fall in love. Because they were programmed that way by Ellen and Saul and Galen and Tory and Sam. You can't unlearn love.
Now, on the one hand, a giant positive here is the depiction of Cavil yes, as a murderous, manipulative psychopath who puppeteered most of the entire war and Cylon "plan" (and while I didn't have too much of a problem with that for reasons already discussed but largely pertaining to how amazing that made his character - a real perceptual shift in an instant - I can see why it would irk some people), we also see him as something more than one-dimensional. As a being capable of individuation and change and growth.
A potential negative here is the somewhat simplistic cliche nature with which it is possible to ineterpret his sudden revelation that "love outlasts death". OMG YOU GUYS, CAVIL'S HEART GREW THREE SIZES TOO BIG!! ADORABLE!
I choose, however, to go with a different intepretation and one I quite like. What Caprica Cavil learned was not that he should embrace love, or stop resenting it, but that fighting it was futile. I do not believe that Cavil had stopped wishing his parents had made him cold and logical, with the ability to taste cosmic phenomena. I think he could probably even still blame his parents for the fact he was motivated by a desire to be coddled and told he was best of all and loved and petted. The fact he now realises he too craves approval and love is probably right up there with prehensile paws on his Christmas List of upgrades.
But he has realised that it's futile. He understands now that it doesn't matter how many he kills, he can't make people love him more through a process of elimination. As he puts it, in an unemotional, blunt tone - no ceremonies - the Five will not stop loving humanity because he killed it - they will only love it more. He will only be further from his goal.
This isn't John Cavil having an epiphany about the wonder of love, it's John Cavil having an epiphany about the nature of reality and finally accepting, rather than raging against, it.
Which, since I'm feeling generous toward the show right now, I pretty much feel validates my enjoyment and reading of No Exit where his anti-humanist stance was, yes, a sign of his psychopathic tendencies, but also...a perspective that was presented as worthy of thought on various levels rather than strawman proof that he was irredeemable.
An argument that a Cavil who has "seen the light" and reformed from his "evil" agenda, is not some inverse of his original personality, is not puppies and love and kittens. Is still the guy who admits that the genocide of the human race was an error not because he wants to kiss and make up, but because he no longer thinks his race should be piggy-backing their destiny and future evolution onto humanity (I was sad that moment got cut in The Plan, but I recall it from the aired episode). Essentially, "redeemed" Cavil is still anti-humanist. Which is complexity that this show is worthy of.
Along the same lines, I think the scene that perhaps best sums up this plotline is the scene with PunkRock Six in her underwear delivering a drunk and note-perfect and bitchy summary of "the plan" and how it sucks and then bluntly telling Cavil what his counterpart realises and he never will - "You can't declare war on love."
Again, it's the lack of emotion - even from Six who is ALL about love (yeah, even this absolutely awesome, gum-chewing DRUNK Six is still a Six, I can't place why, but just, Tricia Helfer, man, it was always gonna clearly be a Six). She doesn't emotively plead with Cavil, as Leoben and Boomer do. She didn't act meak and vulnerable like Shelley did. She just told him straight, and swaggered out of the room, and the movie, bottle in hand.
(Speaking of, WHERE THE HELL DID SHE GO?)
Also, SIMON. Dude, finally he has a CHARACTER and a STORYLINE and it was a good one too. One that made him sympathetic and heroic and had some genuine tension since it was all new material. And fit thematically with Cavil's storyline - about realising that love outlasts death. For Simon that was a comfort that proved to be correct when his wife kept her faith in him even after knowing the truth (and WTF, self? I really liked that scene with Chief and her talking about the swan dive. Simple, new, fits perfectly. Sorta thing this movie should have been full of - we didn't need a replay of Chief's dream, the callback would have been obvious, and more powerful, without it - but more on that later). I know why they ended when they did; we started seeing the Cylon POV in S3 and later. But this storyline REALLY made me wonder what happened to Gianna on that occupied planet full of Simon copies.
I like to think she hooked up with him (maybe even the same copy; he THOUGHT he was out of resurrection range, but so did Leoben in Flesh and Bone and we know that wasn't the case), then stashed him in her compartment when they escaped and he was secretly still with the Fleet during S3 and S4.
I suppose I should mention when Cavil kills John. First off it's a shame the actor was too old or they TOTALLY should have used this to explain what happened to Boxey (though they could have recast him like they did Sue-Shaun, at least, I assume it was Sue-Shaun from the costume; she really looked nothing like the original actress). But, okay, he wouldn't have been called John. Honestly the thing that confused me was the idea that his parents were alive and didn't want him. I mean, I'm sure it happens, but it's not the kind of backstory that is...typical after a massive genocide. Parents just saying, "You know what kid, we don't really wantcha." And the idea that no one else did either? When people are probably scrambling to reassemble some sort of family unit? Though I do get that a runaway kid may not want a lovely replacement family or whatever. And I know part of the point is Cavil never asks cus he doesn't care, but for real. It bugged me.
Also, Cavil stabbing John was a genuinely suspenseful moment but I still find myself unsure of the symbolism behind the event, or the reasons for it. Because he was too close to accidentally seeing the truth? Because he was named John and Cavil hates that? Because he was an orphan who didn't want parents like Cavil? I dunno. I don't dislike it, I just...I feel I don't have a good grasp on the moment.
OH AND LEOBEN! I love Leoben; you all know that. So obviously I wanted more of him. The idea of him falling for her over the wireless is good, but what's GREAT is him realising she must be so special because he knew about the raider connection. Because of course he'd see it that way and more than that, it posits her achievement there as something miraculous inexplicable, not dumb luck and great flying skills which is pretty much what it was shown as at the time. Which fits well with my personal belief that she's half-cylon, obvs. Though his storyline raises more questions than it answers; why did he paint a mandala? Channelling Kara? And he really sees visions? I'm ambivalent about that one. On the one hand HE REALLY SEES VISIONS! It fits a little with my original interpretation of his words about the foreshadowing that preceeds every moment as suggesting that as a cylon he has an overclocked brain and thus instinctively half-predicts things based on the huge amounts of information he can process every moment, and hey, if humans can have oracles, why not Leoben? On the other hand, I'm so attached to the idea he got most of his beliefs from the Hybrid and the fact that...his disappearance in Sometimes a Great Notion - did his visions abandon him? I WANT TO KNOW! *stamps feet*
Also, much of it was very funny.
Thus concludes THE GOOD.
Now on to THE BAD.
Basically I think what was worst about this movie wasn't anything it actuall did with the story, because essentially all it does is flesh things out and none of it was truly off the wall. I think the problem is, it does not work in any way as a movie. There's too much recycled footage. It feels too disjointed. It feels like we're slowing plugging away through a season of television marking off little checkboxes and spending too long on events we already KNOW about at the expense of new stuff.
I can't help but find it lacking when I compare it structurally to Razor. Setting aside any issues of the actual plot, one thing Razor did very well was tell a self-contained story that nonetheless a) had ties back to the main story reaching back and ahead and b) firmly established where in the chronology of the series it occured.
It did a good job of using things like radio commentary about Roslin's abortion ban to act as a location and a callback to those of us who remember stuff like that but is just flavour background to more casual viewers.
Now, for the record I'm in favour of shows just running with their core audience and trusting others to pick up as it goes along, but I think The Plan manages the worst of both worlds. If you're not familiar with the storyline, the coppiness of this is going to be completely offputting and confusing. And if you are a big time fan, well, we're made to sit through stuff we know already in exchange for tiny moments that don't really change much.
Occasionally incorporating existing scenes works really well, but usually when you are also adding new material. The scene with Caprica Cavil and Simon talking about Kara and Sam in the other room is a good example. Taking the moment to show us what Shelley was doing behind the bathroom stall door was another. But mostly these moments weren't taken advantage of.
And frankly, while - as I said above - I liked Boomer's extra material well enough, and while I loved the extra info on Shelley (though I'll always be a little sad she wasn't another sleeper agent) - I would rather have lost most of this stuff in favour of more brand new stuff. That's what Razor basically trusted us with - a brand new character and two minor characters (Kendra and Gina and Cain) - to really carry the body of the narrative.
I think this movie would have improved hugely from being tightened up in this regard.
I'm not actually complaining that "The Plan" turned out to be, "Turns out 100% success rate when murdering 30 billion is hard, so lets do our best with some tricky mop-up and limited resources!" Sure, a No-Exit-like retcon could have been fun, but...I'm not crushed we didn't get it.
But what I will say is that when the eponymous "Plan" is a series of random, improvised and largely unrelated attacks except insasmuch as their overall goal of fracturing and destroying the Fleet, perhaps you shouldn't hang your plot off of that. Perhaps that should be the backdrop to some other plot.
I guess what I think would have been better is if they'd focused in on PunkRock Six - who we baiscally saw none of and Simon more. Much as D'Anna's presence in the fleet was mentioned and then they moved on, all the things we spent far too much time with can be incorporated as backdrop to a more detailed exploration of whatever PunkRock Six was up to (we could see more of Shelley and tying up her loose ends through PunkRock Six's role in it), and what Simon's storyline got even bigger, say for instance if he was actively trying to sabotage Cavil's plans in some way or something? I don't know, anything really. But if there were confrontations between them, I mean, mentions of "Oh, yes, that suicide bombing was the Five." Cus we basically know how that's going down as soon as he gets given the Homocide(tm) Vest. Or someone asking if they can tap Leoben for something and Cavil making a face and being like, "Yeah, fucker screwed us and got airlocked," or whatever. (Actually I probably would still keep the stuff with Leoben leading up to that because it was far more tied in with the wider metaplot than most of this stuff, but I could be biased).
I'd even cut down the Boomer stuff, sadly. Cus, well...we already know it. As brilliant as some of those scenes were...we already know most of it. And perhaps it would have been harder and more horrifying if her tale were being fed to Simon by Cavil in an attempt to coerce his co-operation or something and we're left wondering how much is truth and how much is lies.
I just really think with Cavil, Simon and PunkSix you have three intriguing characters, with both Simon and Six playing "against type", and a real recipe for a tense and brilliant character drama, as we see the results of the rest of Cavil's wargames play out in the background.
But hey. I didn't get to write or direct it. Which leads segues from THE BAD into THE UGLY!
Well first off, some of the cgi was surprisingly shoddy. But eh, I can deal with that.
What I really want to talk about here (briefly) is the "edgy" graphic nudity. I don't really think I'd mind if it was the first episode or something and it was part of their way of establishing that this show is all gritty and handheld and stuff. But I dunno. It seemed like it was going out of its way to be shocking, like sensationalist but in this offhand artsy way? A bit like the Caprica pilot in places?
Plus I was horribly, HORRIBLY distracted during the already weirdly explicit love scene between Simon and Gianna because I could not stop thinking about how the actress playing Gianna is EJO's real life wife. And just...eew.
And yeah, I know, I know, I don't know EJO at all, and a lot of people whose opinions I really respect think he's a very talented actor and director and suchlike. And probably I am badly biased in my dislike of his work, but in both his acting and directorial endeavours, I really feel like someone ought to tell him to step back and stop chewing the scenery.
I wouldn't be surprised if some of this was network suggested, but equally I wouldn't be surprised if some of it was down to EJO. I don't know. I felt in places it was the directorial equivalent of the foxes scene, or vomiting on himself in an alley in a scene I still think was supposed to somehow be inspirational. o_O
Bluntly I found all the nudity kind of overkill. This ain't True Blood, people! And I really, REALLY don't need to see Cavil getting a handjob. Cus it makes me throw up a little in my mouth.
Also, you know what else is ugly? THE COMPLETE AND UTTER LACK OF LAURA ROSLIN! It was actually weird. Because they cut her from reused footage she really should have been in, like when she airlocks Leoben. Which makes me wonder if there was a contractual or financial issue regarding her invovlement?
I'm pretty sure in that final scene when the Cavils are being walked to the airlock and you see all of the Final Five, that the legs above Tory are supposed to be Laura's. Just, you know, for the record.
Although what is also both ugly and relieving is my ultimate relief at the lack of Laura and comparative lack of Tory. It meant that they couldn't dwell all over the A/R romance stuff or play that up, or, my other big fear, retroactively make Tory EVUL even "back then".
And...there's my review. I'm done now. :)
Basically my thoughts can be summed up like this:
What a lovely collection of deleted scenes. What a truly weird movie.
My only hope for this thing was that it not wreck anything. And basically it didn't.
THE GOOD.
So. Yeah. As far as deleted scenes go, these were nice. I enjoyed seeing what happened to Shelley - pretty much what I was expecting but as usual Helfer knocks it out of the park. It was nice to see Grace Park revisiting Boomer in this era with - in my opinion - improved acting, and I am, after thought, ultimately on the side of this retcon about her. While I do now wonder whether she had both sets of memories in Downloaded, and honestly, prefer if she doesn't and that was just a final cruel twist from Cavil, I like that we find out...well, she has agency in her own sleeper-agentness. She chose this. (Also, in a more subtle and potentially accidental retcon since it wasn't referenced in the movie, Boomer is now correct when she yells that there are eight cylons (excluding her) in the fleet to save Tyrol: Tigh, Ellen, Tyrol, Tory, Cavil, D'Anna, Tough!Six, Simon.)
I would also point to
nicole_anell's post where she points out that there is some evidence based on a propworx auction that the Six talking to Boomer about the wonderful new life she's about to embark on is Gina and that, actually, is an idea so perfect I don't have words for it. Probably the most broken and brilliant retcon in the entire thing; shame it wasn't clearer. The stuff with Sam on Caprica was pretty nice too, although not really that...surprising? I mean, it essentially happens exactly as I'd expect it to, although there are some treats along the way, namely getting to see more of Jean Barolay and getting to see her before she became the hardest, coldest woman in the fleet. I've seen others who disliked it, but I kind of liked her calling Sam, "T". Also - I'm sure I'm the only person who didn't know this - but it was nice to get actual confirmation that she was also a pyramid star - I was never sure if she was on the team or just someone the Resistance picked up along he way, since we never saw her in The Farm. Also worth the price of admission, Cavil's backfiring backwards confession, the moment, perhaps, he could no longer hide the real reason he needed to get his parents to see things his way.
To meditate on that whole thing for a minute, since it was, essentially, the pivot of the film - the entirety of the "plot"; one Cavil learning that he was motivated by love just as much as everyone else and erradicating that impulse is impossible, with the other refusing to acknowledge he could possibly be wrong. That's it, right? The message of this film? Not religion or plot or mythology - love, dooming the Cylon plan, because they inevitably all fall in love. Because they were programmed that way by Ellen and Saul and Galen and Tory and Sam. You can't unlearn love.
Now, on the one hand, a giant positive here is the depiction of Cavil yes, as a murderous, manipulative psychopath who puppeteered most of the entire war and Cylon "plan" (and while I didn't have too much of a problem with that for reasons already discussed but largely pertaining to how amazing that made his character - a real perceptual shift in an instant - I can see why it would irk some people), we also see him as something more than one-dimensional. As a being capable of individuation and change and growth.
A potential negative here is the somewhat simplistic cliche nature with which it is possible to ineterpret his sudden revelation that "love outlasts death". OMG YOU GUYS, CAVIL'S HEART GREW THREE SIZES TOO BIG!! ADORABLE!
I choose, however, to go with a different intepretation and one I quite like. What Caprica Cavil learned was not that he should embrace love, or stop resenting it, but that fighting it was futile. I do not believe that Cavil had stopped wishing his parents had made him cold and logical, with the ability to taste cosmic phenomena. I think he could probably even still blame his parents for the fact he was motivated by a desire to be coddled and told he was best of all and loved and petted. The fact he now realises he too craves approval and love is probably right up there with prehensile paws on his Christmas List of upgrades.
But he has realised that it's futile. He understands now that it doesn't matter how many he kills, he can't make people love him more through a process of elimination. As he puts it, in an unemotional, blunt tone - no ceremonies - the Five will not stop loving humanity because he killed it - they will only love it more. He will only be further from his goal.
This isn't John Cavil having an epiphany about the wonder of love, it's John Cavil having an epiphany about the nature of reality and finally accepting, rather than raging against, it.
Which, since I'm feeling generous toward the show right now, I pretty much feel validates my enjoyment and reading of No Exit where his anti-humanist stance was, yes, a sign of his psychopathic tendencies, but also...a perspective that was presented as worthy of thought on various levels rather than strawman proof that he was irredeemable.
An argument that a Cavil who has "seen the light" and reformed from his "evil" agenda, is not some inverse of his original personality, is not puppies and love and kittens. Is still the guy who admits that the genocide of the human race was an error not because he wants to kiss and make up, but because he no longer thinks his race should be piggy-backing their destiny and future evolution onto humanity (I was sad that moment got cut in The Plan, but I recall it from the aired episode). Essentially, "redeemed" Cavil is still anti-humanist. Which is complexity that this show is worthy of.
Along the same lines, I think the scene that perhaps best sums up this plotline is the scene with PunkRock Six in her underwear delivering a drunk and note-perfect and bitchy summary of "the plan" and how it sucks and then bluntly telling Cavil what his counterpart realises and he never will - "You can't declare war on love."
Again, it's the lack of emotion - even from Six who is ALL about love (yeah, even this absolutely awesome, gum-chewing DRUNK Six is still a Six, I can't place why, but just, Tricia Helfer, man, it was always gonna clearly be a Six). She doesn't emotively plead with Cavil, as Leoben and Boomer do. She didn't act meak and vulnerable like Shelley did. She just told him straight, and swaggered out of the room, and the movie, bottle in hand.
(Speaking of, WHERE THE HELL DID SHE GO?)
Also, SIMON. Dude, finally he has a CHARACTER and a STORYLINE and it was a good one too. One that made him sympathetic and heroic and had some genuine tension since it was all new material. And fit thematically with Cavil's storyline - about realising that love outlasts death. For Simon that was a comfort that proved to be correct when his wife kept her faith in him even after knowing the truth (and WTF, self? I really liked that scene with Chief and her talking about the swan dive. Simple, new, fits perfectly. Sorta thing this movie should have been full of - we didn't need a replay of Chief's dream, the callback would have been obvious, and more powerful, without it - but more on that later). I know why they ended when they did; we started seeing the Cylon POV in S3 and later. But this storyline REALLY made me wonder what happened to Gianna on that occupied planet full of Simon copies.
I like to think she hooked up with him (maybe even the same copy; he THOUGHT he was out of resurrection range, but so did Leoben in Flesh and Bone and we know that wasn't the case), then stashed him in her compartment when they escaped and he was secretly still with the Fleet during S3 and S4.
I suppose I should mention when Cavil kills John. First off it's a shame the actor was too old or they TOTALLY should have used this to explain what happened to Boxey (though they could have recast him like they did Sue-Shaun, at least, I assume it was Sue-Shaun from the costume; she really looked nothing like the original actress). But, okay, he wouldn't have been called John. Honestly the thing that confused me was the idea that his parents were alive and didn't want him. I mean, I'm sure it happens, but it's not the kind of backstory that is...typical after a massive genocide. Parents just saying, "You know what kid, we don't really wantcha." And the idea that no one else did either? When people are probably scrambling to reassemble some sort of family unit? Though I do get that a runaway kid may not want a lovely replacement family or whatever. And I know part of the point is Cavil never asks cus he doesn't care, but for real. It bugged me.
Also, Cavil stabbing John was a genuinely suspenseful moment but I still find myself unsure of the symbolism behind the event, or the reasons for it. Because he was too close to accidentally seeing the truth? Because he was named John and Cavil hates that? Because he was an orphan who didn't want parents like Cavil? I dunno. I don't dislike it, I just...I feel I don't have a good grasp on the moment.
OH AND LEOBEN! I love Leoben; you all know that. So obviously I wanted more of him. The idea of him falling for her over the wireless is good, but what's GREAT is him realising she must be so special because he knew about the raider connection. Because of course he'd see it that way and more than that, it posits her achievement there as something miraculous inexplicable, not dumb luck and great flying skills which is pretty much what it was shown as at the time. Which fits well with my personal belief that she's half-cylon, obvs. Though his storyline raises more questions than it answers; why did he paint a mandala? Channelling Kara? And he really sees visions? I'm ambivalent about that one. On the one hand HE REALLY SEES VISIONS! It fits a little with my original interpretation of his words about the foreshadowing that preceeds every moment as suggesting that as a cylon he has an overclocked brain and thus instinctively half-predicts things based on the huge amounts of information he can process every moment, and hey, if humans can have oracles, why not Leoben? On the other hand, I'm so attached to the idea he got most of his beliefs from the Hybrid and the fact that...his disappearance in Sometimes a Great Notion - did his visions abandon him? I WANT TO KNOW! *stamps feet*
Also, much of it was very funny.
Thus concludes THE GOOD.
Now on to THE BAD.
Basically I think what was worst about this movie wasn't anything it actuall did with the story, because essentially all it does is flesh things out and none of it was truly off the wall. I think the problem is, it does not work in any way as a movie. There's too much recycled footage. It feels too disjointed. It feels like we're slowing plugging away through a season of television marking off little checkboxes and spending too long on events we already KNOW about at the expense of new stuff.
I can't help but find it lacking when I compare it structurally to Razor. Setting aside any issues of the actual plot, one thing Razor did very well was tell a self-contained story that nonetheless a) had ties back to the main story reaching back and ahead and b) firmly established where in the chronology of the series it occured.
It did a good job of using things like radio commentary about Roslin's abortion ban to act as a location and a callback to those of us who remember stuff like that but is just flavour background to more casual viewers.
Now, for the record I'm in favour of shows just running with their core audience and trusting others to pick up as it goes along, but I think The Plan manages the worst of both worlds. If you're not familiar with the storyline, the coppiness of this is going to be completely offputting and confusing. And if you are a big time fan, well, we're made to sit through stuff we know already in exchange for tiny moments that don't really change much.
Occasionally incorporating existing scenes works really well, but usually when you are also adding new material. The scene with Caprica Cavil and Simon talking about Kara and Sam in the other room is a good example. Taking the moment to show us what Shelley was doing behind the bathroom stall door was another. But mostly these moments weren't taken advantage of.
And frankly, while - as I said above - I liked Boomer's extra material well enough, and while I loved the extra info on Shelley (though I'll always be a little sad she wasn't another sleeper agent) - I would rather have lost most of this stuff in favour of more brand new stuff. That's what Razor basically trusted us with - a brand new character and two minor characters (Kendra and Gina and Cain) - to really carry the body of the narrative.
I think this movie would have improved hugely from being tightened up in this regard.
I'm not actually complaining that "The Plan" turned out to be, "Turns out 100% success rate when murdering 30 billion is hard, so lets do our best with some tricky mop-up and limited resources!" Sure, a No-Exit-like retcon could have been fun, but...I'm not crushed we didn't get it.
But what I will say is that when the eponymous "Plan" is a series of random, improvised and largely unrelated attacks except insasmuch as their overall goal of fracturing and destroying the Fleet, perhaps you shouldn't hang your plot off of that. Perhaps that should be the backdrop to some other plot.
I guess what I think would have been better is if they'd focused in on PunkRock Six - who we baiscally saw none of and Simon more. Much as D'Anna's presence in the fleet was mentioned and then they moved on, all the things we spent far too much time with can be incorporated as backdrop to a more detailed exploration of whatever PunkRock Six was up to (we could see more of Shelley and tying up her loose ends through PunkRock Six's role in it), and what Simon's storyline got even bigger, say for instance if he was actively trying to sabotage Cavil's plans in some way or something? I don't know, anything really. But if there were confrontations between them, I mean, mentions of "Oh, yes, that suicide bombing was the Five." Cus we basically know how that's going down as soon as he gets given the Homocide(tm) Vest. Or someone asking if they can tap Leoben for something and Cavil making a face and being like, "Yeah, fucker screwed us and got airlocked," or whatever. (Actually I probably would still keep the stuff with Leoben leading up to that because it was far more tied in with the wider metaplot than most of this stuff, but I could be biased).
I'd even cut down the Boomer stuff, sadly. Cus, well...we already know it. As brilliant as some of those scenes were...we already know most of it. And perhaps it would have been harder and more horrifying if her tale were being fed to Simon by Cavil in an attempt to coerce his co-operation or something and we're left wondering how much is truth and how much is lies.
I just really think with Cavil, Simon and PunkSix you have three intriguing characters, with both Simon and Six playing "against type", and a real recipe for a tense and brilliant character drama, as we see the results of the rest of Cavil's wargames play out in the background.
But hey. I didn't get to write or direct it. Which leads segues from THE BAD into THE UGLY!
Well first off, some of the cgi was surprisingly shoddy. But eh, I can deal with that.
What I really want to talk about here (briefly) is the "edgy" graphic nudity. I don't really think I'd mind if it was the first episode or something and it was part of their way of establishing that this show is all gritty and handheld and stuff. But I dunno. It seemed like it was going out of its way to be shocking, like sensationalist but in this offhand artsy way? A bit like the Caprica pilot in places?
Plus I was horribly, HORRIBLY distracted during the already weirdly explicit love scene between Simon and Gianna because I could not stop thinking about how the actress playing Gianna is EJO's real life wife. And just...eew.
And yeah, I know, I know, I don't know EJO at all, and a lot of people whose opinions I really respect think he's a very talented actor and director and suchlike. And probably I am badly biased in my dislike of his work, but in both his acting and directorial endeavours, I really feel like someone ought to tell him to step back and stop chewing the scenery.
I wouldn't be surprised if some of this was network suggested, but equally I wouldn't be surprised if some of it was down to EJO. I don't know. I felt in places it was the directorial equivalent of the foxes scene, or vomiting on himself in an alley in a scene I still think was supposed to somehow be inspirational. o_O
Bluntly I found all the nudity kind of overkill. This ain't True Blood, people! And I really, REALLY don't need to see Cavil getting a handjob. Cus it makes me throw up a little in my mouth.
Also, you know what else is ugly? THE COMPLETE AND UTTER LACK OF LAURA ROSLIN! It was actually weird. Because they cut her from reused footage she really should have been in, like when she airlocks Leoben. Which makes me wonder if there was a contractual or financial issue regarding her invovlement?
I'm pretty sure in that final scene when the Cavils are being walked to the airlock and you see all of the Final Five, that the legs above Tory are supposed to be Laura's. Just, you know, for the record.
Although what is also both ugly and relieving is my ultimate relief at the lack of Laura and comparative lack of Tory. It meant that they couldn't dwell all over the A/R romance stuff or play that up, or, my other big fear, retroactively make Tory EVUL even "back then".
And...there's my review. I'm done now. :)
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Re: part 1
Date: 2009-10-24 09:52 pm (UTC)As to the Razor comparison, I wasn't actually referencing its success in anything other than a purely structural fashion. While I don't agree with them all, I certainly see where your criticisms of the story itself come from and even think the reasons I don't share those opinions might be down to me giving the show far too much credit; bluntly, there's a lot that's valid to criticise. However, one thing I do think it did much, much better than The Plan was have a plot that nonetheless tied into past events in the series. If it had followed the format of The Plan then we would have had to sit through loads of scenes about what Thorne and Cain and Gina were doing during Pegasus - Resurrection Ship II; likewise had The Plan followed Razor's model, we would have maybe spent nearly all our time on the Cybele with Gianna or something? I hope that makes sense? I'm not saying Razor was a masterpiece of plot or anything just that, well, it had one.
On a happier note - YAYCAVIL! :D
Porno Battlestar is just NOT RIGHT and it will distract the hell out of me in scenes where I should not be distractred. Like, for example, the emotional climax of Simon's storyline.
OMGS YES THIS. Except I totally move we rename it Porno Battlestar, especially during eras where Adama has that godawful 70s pornstache.
that does make me wonder if there was a contractual issue going on.
Yeah, cus for example Lee doesn't have anything to do in it at all, and that's fine because it's not his story; this isn't Laura's story so it would have been weird to shoehorn her in. But in clips where she actually WAS, and where she was doing something really, really important to boot, the way they cut around her when they weren't doing that with anyone else really suggests there was something else going on there. I mean, I'm sure it was all very civil, etc., but there must have been a budgeting or contractual issue or something, otherwise it just doesn't make sense. I believe The Plan was filmed on a different contract or something? So maybe that's part of it? WE SHALL PROBABLY NEVER KNOW.