Galactica.com - Coming to a movie theater near you: 'Battlestar Galactica: Razor'

By Maureen Ryan, on 24-10-2007

Favoured : 182

Image from Razor DVD Movie

Coming to a movie theater near you: 'Battlestar Galactica: Razor'
If you're on pins and needles waiting for the Nov. 24 debut of the Sci Fi Channel movie "Battlestar Galactica: Razor," help is at hand. You may only have to wait until Nov. 12.

There will be free screenings of the film in movie theaters in eight cities on Nov. 12: Los Angeles, New York/New Jersey, San Francisco, Dallas, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle and, yes, Chicago. The screenings will take place at multiple locations in each city, but all of the screenings will be on the evening of Nov. 12.

The Chicago-area screenings are at the AMC River East 21 in Chicago, the Century 16 Deer Park in Deer Park and the Century Evanston 18 in Evanston.

Admission is free, but those who want to see “Razor” at a movie theater must first register at the site battlestarevent.com. The site will not go live until Friday. Repeat: The site will not go live until Friday. Seat registrations will be given away first-come, first-serve.

“Razor” delves into Lee Adama’s (Jamie Bamber) command of the Battlestar Pegasus and also depicts events that took place on that ship just after the Cylon attack 10 months earlier, while it was under the command of Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes). Cain and the Pegasus, “Battlestar” fans will recall, were first glimpsed in Season 2 of “Battlestar Galactica.”

What will be shown at the Nov. 12 event will be the TV version of “Razor,” which is around 84 minutes long. A 101-minute version of the film, which will be released on DVD on Dec. 4. “Battlestar Galactica” co-executive producer Michael Taylor, who wrote “Razor,” shared some details on what will be on the DVD version. (Extremely mild spoilers ahead. What is below does not give away any plot points about "Razor.")

Scenes involving “Young Helena Cain,” “Little Lucy Cain” and “Helena’s Father” were trimmed from the TV version. I noticed those names in the credits of the version of “Razor” that Sci Fi sent out and wondered if I had blinked and missed those characters. I didn’t – they’re only in the extended cut. On the DVD, there will also be a scene of Cain’s aide, Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Jacobsen) on Caprica. A couple of other scenes didn’t make into either version of “Razor.” Taylor said that “the earliest drafts of the script actually showed scenes of a couple of our regular characters on Caprica, but one got cut in the writing, and the other we left on the editing room floor.” As for general thoughts on “Razor,” I don’t want to ruin a single thing about the movie for you, but overall, I thought it was good.

I thought the first half was especially strong (and the FX crew outdid really outdid themselves this time). Michelle Forbes, who plays Helena Cain, is of course terrific (and if the main impetus behind the film was to bring her back, that's reason enough), and Jacobsen also acquits herself well in her role.

But these are purely preliminary thoughts, and I feel the need to watch the movie again before I write a more complete review, which will run the week before “Razor” debuts.

featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com