The Last Sentinel

In a futuristic setting automated drones which were initially created to help humans have rebelled and are now attempting to destroy all of mankind. The only chance available to the human race are electronically enhanced soldiers who are patched into the computerized rifle they carry with an eye cap implant. The computerization is so advanced that it becomes a part of the soldier and communicates verbally with him. However, the drones are even more advanced and after several hard-fought battles only one soldier by the name of "Tallis" (Don Wilson) is left alive. As luck would have it though he manages to rescue an injured woman (played by Katee Sackhoff) who belongs to a "para-military" group desperately attempting to destroy a drone communication center. Although she is nowhere near as capable as Tallis she at least gives him a long-lost sense of purpose and they soon team up to fight the numerically superior drone army by themselves. Anyway, rather than detail any more of the film and possibly spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it I will just say that while there was plenty of action it could have been much better if it had had a better script. Be that as it may, those who enjoy apocalyptic sci-fi films might find something to like but even so it's still not a top-of-the-line movie by any means. That said I have to rate it as slightly below average.

While I appreciate those who have decided how I should vote this movie, I prefer to set my own score.

I guess I'm the only one who didn't watch this because of Katee Sackoff. I didn't know she was in it until she showed up. Who doesn't like to watch human killing drones getting mowed down by the dozen? Too much action in an action movie? Pah! Give me tons of robot slaughter and explosions.

I would have liked to see more of Bokeem Woodbine's Anchilles. He had style. Katee 'The Girl' Sackoff was good too. Keith David's voice of the gun and mad Colonel Norton added a lot to this movie. Don Wilson, alas, was the weakest link. Norton and Anchilles were EEs too but they showed some personality. Not so with Tallis. I guess you could say that being the last of the best put him in a bad mood. I attribute it to bad acting or not acting really. No matter, he takes out drones and I like that.

This is a low budget movie and it shows. It's so low budget the director blew up one of his own cars in it. (The BMW that the resistance van crashes into.) It's mostly about blowing away drones because the storyline is simple. Drones take over the planet. Last hero has to take it back by destroying the drone control room. Easy. Should take about 10 minutes so drone slaughter has to take up the rest of the time. They could have used some of the time for back story, like how the drones took over, but they didn't. The brief snippets of drone propaganda don't tell you enough. I assume drones were invented to augment the police and were gradually given more and more responsibility until they replaced human police all together. Then, after it's too late, the humans change their mind and try to get rid of the drones. But the drones like being in charge and fight back. I don't know, it's not explained.

But I like it well enough. 6/10

For some reason I thought going into this that this was a new mini-series on SciFi for Katee Sackholm since Battlestar is supposedly closing up shop after the next season. I probably don't need to tell you that I was wrong, but boy am I glad I was. This was such a terrible movie on so many levels.

First, there is absolutely no character development - None! Seriously! And, of course, that doesn't keep the two main characters from having sex, 'cause, well, that's what a guy and a girl in a super low budget awful film do.

Add to the lack of character development the completely re-hashed plot idea (robots take over the world - Terminator, The Matrix, and hundreds of other films) and the unbelievably undeveloped story line and you get a terrible, terrible film.

As I was watching it I kept looking to my wife and saying, "And this is what happens when you shoot a movie without an actual script. You see, you just set up a whole bunch of fight sequences and then say action and film." I've never been in the military and I could have given the film more realistic guidance on how soldiers behave in war.

Rarely do I sit and hope for a film to end, but I did with this one. Sci-Fi should funnel its money into the programs it cares about - its series, not these ridiculous, written-by-monkeys, movies.

Jesse V. Johnson is my spirit director. He does the things similar to the movies I grew up on. Sure it's on a much smaller budget but the ideas and plot points are all solid. Plus, the rise of snark queen Sackhoff diddling the strong silent types makes me wanna shut up and workout. The use of Keith Davids voice in this movie is also fantastic. Might be the best part of the final act. Sure the gun fights don't make sense and the acting is stiff cause Don Wilson (no Dragon) is a much better fighter than he is a thespian. It's like Universal Soldier meets Terminator which, as a wee lad, I would've murdered my foster parents for.

I am actually watching this film right now on syfy, was a little dubious at first, we have so much in the way as low budget features being created at an independent level, I feel this film does deserve some credit.

The sets, some of them at least are brilliant, would not say no to having access to some of those myself. Directing, well, I say this as a film director myself, I learn all the time, both manually and technically.

Story though, I feel this could have been developed much better, like the characters, they need development through the film as they become introduced to the audiences, personally, I feel this wasn't done to much effect.

On a technical note, my only issue was the poor lighting scenes and the grainy picture, this is a problem with many low budget films and a lack of ability to light appropriately, it doesn't happen in every dark scene thankfully and I have seen worse grain on other films when in confined, dark spaces (Wolf Creek, a good film, let down by this technical issue), my only other little issue is with some of the effects, it's 50/50, some are orchestrated brilliantly, others are more 'what the hell was that?', but it's much cheaper to create and exploding head in edit than it is on the set I guess.

So I rated it 6, it could have had some great potential, but hey, it got a sale and since I am in the same industry right now of low budget features have the utmost respect for those who made this film