The Last Sentinel

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.

Where do I start - movie started with an interesting monologue that made me think its actually worth watching. But everything later was one disappointment after another.

For starters, action scenes are too long and repetitive. It seems like they tried to fill the void with guys in black rubber suits and blue goggles marching and some horror music playing in the background... oooooh, so frightening! There are lots of (long) shooting scenes where super-soldiers were too dumb to take cover but instead stood still in plain sight - no wonder they got slaughtered.

Most of the movie is in ruins with the girl and hero guy and very few other actors, lot of survivalist crap one-liners, absolutely predictable plot and cardboard characters.

Storyline is very weak, seems it was either written for a 12-year-old or by a 12-year-old, its hard to tell which is it.

And I only gave it a three (and watched the whole thing) because of Katee Sackhoff aka Starbuck, because I like BSG series a lot and respect the actors there - this movie is total and utter nonsense that deserves subzero ratings.

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.

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.

Don Wilson stars as Tallis an elite soldier who is sent in to wipe out the drones. Seems the drones are robotic police officers who are trying to wipe out humans (Although they aren't seen doing anything outside of shooting at Wilson) and our burned out hero is aided by Katee Sackhoff who inspires him to fight to the death, in this completely routine Sci-Fi action flick. The only thing The Last Sentinel has in its favor is that it far exceeds any Sci-Fi channel movie, however the reason is because The Last Sentinel wasn't made for the Sci-Fi channel and hence why the movie is competently made even if it isn't all that interesting. Don Wilson is okay in the lead role and some of the shootouts are well staged, but generally this is mediocre stuff that doesn't leave much of an impression. The movie is so underwritten that one can't get into it, while surprisingly Wilson doesn't use any of his kick-boxing skills. Well he might kick somebody once but generally he uses his talking gun to fight these assembly line villains without so much as breaking a sweat. The cast includes Steven Bauer (Far away from his Scarface days, poor Steven) Bokeem Woodbine (Far away from his Freeway days) and Keith David (Far away from his The Thing and They Live days) who only contribute cameos. Once again this is a fairly well made B.movie but it's really nothing you haven't seen before and for the most part this is forgettable fodder only for undemanding viewers or fans of the star.

* * out of 4-(Fair)