| By BILL HARRIS,
on 25-11-2007
|
Favoured : 170 |
Fri, November 23, 2007
Double-edged razor
Battlestar Galactica movie is good, but not as cutting-edge as it could be
By BILL HARRIS, TORONTO SUN
Bad guys comin'. Better fight 'em.
An acceptance of that simple theme, which exists in almost all science fiction, is what will allow you to enjoy the two-hour, made-for-TV movie Battlestar Galactica: Razor, which airs tomorrow night across Canada on Space.
Razor is designed to be a stand-alone movie, although if you aren't familiar with the history of Battlestar Galactica, occasionally you will be left scratching your head like an alien, especially when the story-line jumps back and forth in time.
Yours truly, admittedly, is not a Galactica geek. But that doesn't mean Razor can't be enjoyed on a more general level, given the common sci-fi template that has been around for half a century.
Now, we understand even the most tame criticism of anything to do with Battlestar Galactica will put us in the laser-gun firing line of the convention crowd. Galactica devotees are among the most loyal citizens of the galaxy, whether you're talking about the original series from three decades ago or the re-imagined version, for which Razor serves as the de facto first two episodes of the fourth and final season.
But honestly, if criticisms came to mind while watching Razor, they mostly related to sci-fi on a wider scale, rather than the particulars of Razor.
First, the good stuff: Razor is very well-acted, it looks good, and the story moves along, even if, as stated earlier, you aren't privy to all the intricate details of Galactica's past.
Razor follows the first mission for Lee Adama (Jamie Bamber) as commander of the Battlestar Pegasus and reveals the heretofore untold story of Major Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen), who is serving is Adama's new XO. Through flashbacks and through Shaw's eyes, what happened to Pegasus in the immediate aftermath of the Cylons' genocidal siege of the colonies is revealed.
Shaw is haunted and conflicted by the memory of her service under former Pegasus Admiral Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes). Cain was able to save Pegasus, but only by engaging Shaw and other officers in brutal war crimes against their own people.
"This war is forcing us all to become razors because if we don't, we don't survive," Cain explains in an attempt to rationalize her decisions. "And then we don't have the luxury of becoming simply human again."
Subsequently, as the new XO, Shaw teams with Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) on a dangerous mission that results in both tragedy and prophecy.
Shot in Vancouver, Razor also stars Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, James Callis, and Canadians Tricia Helfer, Grace Park and Michael Hogan.
So before you hit the send button on that hate e-mail (and that means you, Sun Media gadgets writer Steve Tilley), we're saying Razor is quite good, for what it is. And unlike a lot of sci-fi, it isn't preachy, thank Spock.
But admittedly, we always have been frustrated by the uniform look and feel of a lot of sci-fi projects.
Why is sci-fi almost always militaristic?
Why do the scenes almost always occur on spaceships, which generally all look the same?
This is a genre in which, literally, anything is possible. So why all the surface similarities between Star Trek, and Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica, etc.?
In other words, while Razor still cuts it, sci-fi as an overall genre could be a lot more cutting edge.
torontosun.com
Last update : 25-11-2007
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