The Last Sentinel

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.

This is the worst movie I've seen in some time. It starts off with a mildly interesting -- if rather unoriginal -- premise: Man's technology has turned against it's creator. This has been done a million times, of course, but it can still yield an entertaining action flick if done well.

This was not done well.

The script must have been painful to read. I would feel sorry for any actor asked to work with such excrement. To see Don Wilson and Katee Sackhoff, both of whom have much more potential, forced to wade through this quagmire was just sad. You know you've got script problems when the best dialog comes from a crazy, talking gun.

A plot would have been nice, too. And, no this movie doesn't have a plot. It has a premise. There's a difference. The entire movie consists of: "These are the bad guys. They shoot at us. We shoot at them." There were endless scenes of running and gunning, with a few scenes of sitting talking about the next/previous run-and-gun scene.

One major annoying aspect was that the movie couldn't seem to make up it's mind if Katee Sackhoff was supposed to be the tough, independent type or the "maiden in distress" type.

The absolutely gratuitous and completely unbelievable romantic parts were just pathetic. It was like somebody said, "Insert a romantic gesture here." Monotonous sets, and only two of them. Footage was re-used. Annoying, obvious clichés (storm troopers in masks, bad guys who cannot hit anything they shoot at, tracking device in the skull). Outright contradictions in places.

The only reason I give it 2 and not 1 is that the pyro effects and sets, while totally uninspired, were at least competently done.

The best part of this movie is the ending. Not the final scenes -- the fact that it ended.

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.

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

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)