The Cylons have a plan. If you don't have a frakking clue what that means, you have no business watching Battlestar Galactica: The Plan.

That is because actor-director Edward James Olmos' new entry in the Battlestar canon is for hardcore fans of the original (and brilliant) science-fiction series. No one else will fathom what is going on as Olmos, working from Jane Espenson's densely constructed but episodic script, wedges this 112-minute film into the existing structure.

Even among fans, a firestorm of critical debate has erupted since The Plan was released this week on DVD and Blu-ray -- as a bonus after the recent release of complete-series box sets.

Some love it; others despise it; few are indifferent.

I'm pro-Plan. It fleshes out the epic saga by inserting a backstory covering 289 days, beginning when the Cylons -- humanoid robots created by humans -- launch their rebellion.

But The Plan deliberately muddies the waters and muddles the religiosity we have experienced in flashes before, especially from sexy Number Six (body-beautiful Canadian Tricia Helfer). Even within the Cylons' big plan of genocide, there are complexities and paradoxes.

Just don't sample The Plan as your entree into the Battlestar universe. Beside spoilers, it will leave you confused as past footage melds with new scenes designed to give the Cylons -- dare we say it -- more humanity.

"It's a great way to complement the five years," Olmos says in a DVD doc. "This piece of work is monumental!"

That overstates the case but Olmos suggests that fans, armed with the new insights, are "going to have to go back and see the whole series again." The DVD and Blu-ray share most extras, but the Battlestar trivia challenge and the BD Live option are exclusive to Blu-ray.

Assassination of a High School President

Every generation needs great high school movies, from Fast Times at Ridgmont High to The Breakfast Club and Clueless. Brett Simon's smart (and smartass) film noir, Assassination of a High School President, is that movie for the new millennium. It arrived on DVD this week as a must-see movie.

Obviously influenced by Robert Towne and Chinatown and other major players -- as the Simon-led group DVD commentary reveals -- Assassination tells how a school newspaper nerd (Reece Daniel Thompson) negotiates the biggest scandal of his career while the principal (a terrific, sardonic Bruce Willis) dogs his steps and a vamp (Mischa Barton) spins his gears.

The extras are routine -- alternative opening scenes and deleted scenes -- but the commentary Simon stages with his writer buddies is slyly hilarious and useful to understanding why this film rocks the high school casbah.

Adoration

Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan just elevated his career with the sexual thriller Chloe, reminding us how, when he is on his game, his command of literate yet provocative, profane cinema is exhilarating. In the 2007 drama Adoration, however, he tackles big issues but does it in an awkward, stifling fashion. The made-in-Toronto Adoration is still watchable and interesting for those issues -- the conflict between open technology and closed minds -- but it is not great cinema. Egoyan, however, talks it up beautifully in the extras on this week's new DVD, especially in interview segments. The Blu-ray debuts separately Nov. 24.