Last Sentinel

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.

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.

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.

This is not some fast paced action movie filled with special effects. It is a rather slow paced psychological drama. In a world where two sides managed to mess up the Earth, each in a different manner, there is Us vs. Them, and between is a Sentinel in the vast ocean, containing a nuclear device, which if triggered, ends all human life on Earth. They are to make sure the sides are kept apart. The Sentinel is manned by four persons, on a two year stint, and they are three months late for the supply/relief ship. There is a no nonsense Sgt, a Cpl and two privates. A rather low ranking group to have such responsibility. They get a computer connection each day, and report back with Morse code "event nil". Because nothing is happening. But their station is falling apart, and some things are scarce. And there is a severe storm, which happens more and more. The first half of the film is all about the four, and the tensions that arise. One gets invested in each of them. It has to be very hard in such close quarters, and no outside contact other then their terse message that is never answered. Things start to unravel in the second part, so how will they manage? Tensions rise, and things seem to get more dire. And there is a twist that few may see, and the movie continues slow and thoughtful. But the movie keeps one's interest if one wants a movie that requires thought, and shows character development.

Firstly the earth has had no glacial, mountaintop or polar ice whatsoever, none, for 90% of its history. Including the geologically incredibly recent conditions before the current ice age. Secondly if all the ice and snow in the world melted, every ounce of it, se levels would go up less than 70 meters. 90% of the current dry and arable landmass of earth would still be here. Nothing can make just "two continents" except for continental drift creating amalgamations and super continents, and that will be over tens of millions of years, and there would be roughly the same dry land and sea covered ratio.

I just mention that because a couple of the people involved in the making of this have bizarrely claimed the set up of two small remaining patches of dry land is a "warning" due to climate change, when that is absurd.

The general human premise, of an distant rare and isolated military or colonial outpost or outposts, though would be a better premise and has served a lot of good literature. Greek poet Constantine Cavafy long form poem served as inspiration for the novel "Tartar Steppe" and the recent "Waiting for the Barbarians" with Johnny Depp, Mark Rylance and Robert Pattinson.

Those are good treatments of this idea. This dumbed down "Last Sentinel" is just mind numbingly bad. The plot twists become tedious, and in fact are so telegraphed as to be cringe. No one in the film can act. And you will be checking your watch every five minutes as more and more boring and pointless filler plods by.

3/10.