Last Sentinel

Exactly as the title says, this is a fine movie if you have absolutely nothing to do with your evening.

I was entertained by this movie, but I can definitely see a lot of flaws. Especially the plot holes. There are so many holes in the logic of this movie that are more than enough to ruin your immersion if you think about them too much.

So I tried not to, shut down the critical part of your brain for two hours and you will get some enjoyment out of this.

The setting is nice, the whole one location thing is always a joy for me too, the acting is decent. Some people in cast are very easy on the eyes as well which is a plus too.

Last Sentinel is a solid B-movie entry to the post-apocalyptic genre - but only if you are interested rather in story than in action only. Last Sentinel does not provide much action, nor is the story or the scenario that "new" but the execution is well done and I like the cast and their job done. So if you dig movies a la Air (Norman Reedus), The Divide (2012), 10 Cloverfield Lane, I Am Mother and the like, this one may provide solid entertainment time to you - all those movies have in common: a small group of people are confined to a place and got to fight for survival and against their own nature and angst.

The title says it all. This movie drags on from one unclear moment to the next. After spending nearly two hours with it, I think it could have made an interesting short, not a feature length movie. To its credit and the actors' credit, they were fully realized and animated people. Very good character development and done very early in the film. But to what purpose? There are movies that leave open questions that one can think about and were created to good effect. In this movie, it leaves too many open questions that one can't resolve. In the end, I didn't care about the characters, I didn't care what they did or why they did it. The movie left me completely flat and disappointed I spent money and time to see it.

I've been told that I'm impatient and I have... oh look, something shiny! A short attention span. And that's probably why I can't stand slowly paced films, especially when they are almost two hours long. But at least 40 mins into this film, I finally realized this was one of those very slowly paced films, but I kept wanting to watch.

The reason I found myself glued to the screen was the great directing by Tanel Toom, the excellent cinematography, the spot-on score, and the convincing performances by all the cast. All of that combined with a very intriguing screenplay, made the pacing bearable and time started to fly, as much was happening from scene to scene, so that the suspense and tension was constant, and I was hooked and curious as to what would happen next.

Up until the last half hour, I was also really impressed with Malachi Smyth's screenplay, as he kept giving only the right amount of bits of information about his four characters, their environment and their situation. I was excited to see how this film would resolve and end. Then in the last half hour of the film, it's like a fifth grade drama class stepped in and completed the screenplay instead of Smyth.

The film built-up great foundations, but ultimately it closes off with too little in the plot department, when the film's world gives ample options and opportunities to close-out in grandeur. Everything in the last half hour became convoluted, previous questions were never answered, especially the big one - what exactly was that round device and what's it supposed to do? Then the story devolves with an inane climactic twist riddled with plot holes that falls flat, made little sense with rational thought, and took away all the build-up and suspense I had in the first two acts. What a huge let down, and a waste of starting to watch this film, only to invest all that time for a ridiculous and nonsense ending. Writing doesn't get much lazier than that. It's like ordering a banana split supreme, waiting as they make it, and being handed a sour grape instead.

That's a real shame, because this was a visually stunning film, well shot, directed and performed, especially considering the small budget and fixed sets and location. It's a generous 6/10, all for the film's esthetics and performances, but could've easily been an 8/10 had the ending not been so lazily written, convoluted and unsatisfying.

It's the year 2063. Most land has been flooded by the rising sea level and only two smaller continents remain which are constantly at war. A group of soldiers is on a two year tour stationed on a rusting platform in the middle of the ocean. They have been waiting for their replacements for months. An abandoned ship suddenly drifts into their vicinity out of the blue.

The inspiration for this must be those WWII anti-aircraft platforms off the Britain coast. That's a good start although I would be more excited if they shot a few scenes on location. The premise intrigued me for a half hour or so. I stayed with the movie for another hour. It starts losing steam over the second hour and really loses me towards the end. The plot really can't support a two hour runtime.