"The Last Sentinel" covers all of the well known traditions of this genre. Set in a deserted and ruined city it tells the story of the last survivors who remain fighting the lost fight against Drones, cultured and raised by mankind. Once again the human race is doomed by uncontrolled exposure to its very own futuristic technologies.
Heavily armed with implants of all kinds Tallis (Don 'The Dragon' Wilson, „Bloodfist“, „Blackbelt“), the soldier forms part of the last human array sent out against the predominant antagonists to save the world. Left with no chance at all they have to face a staggering defeat.
Left behind as the only remaining survivor of the disastrous battle Tallis prepares himself to operate discreetly, collect equipment and evade any kind of contact with the enemy from that time on. His pacifistic disposition doesn’t change until he rescues a heavily wounded female rebel (Katee Sackhoff, “Battlestar Galactica”, “White Noise 2: The Light”) after being ambushed. Unified, the two of them pit themselves against the forces of evil.
“The Last Sentinel” shows off with its wonderful no-frills structure, explaining key moments from the past in flashbacks just as they are needed. Apart from that Jesse Johnson briskly leads his heroes through the story. He focuses less on the plot and more on the action scenes and an atmospheric implementation.
The empty streets, destroyed industrial plants and dark catacombs offer ideal settings for this dreary scenario in which the remaining humans fight for their survival. Besides Jesse Johnson The uncivilized world in „The Last Sentinel“ seems to be completely relocated into the Stone Age. Valorized by Coarse-grained pictures, color filters, HUD’s and the fast-paced camera work, “The Last Sentinel” hides it’s low budget well. For that the harmonious Dystopie convinces too much. Especially small details – relicts from the time before the war – such as dead bodies decomposed to skeletons and newspapers drifting through the streets by the wind add an additional spice to certain moments.
Numerous action scenes offer bloody shootouts and a small number of martial arts some tangy fights with knives and swords. Nevertheless the main focus remainon the gunplay. The most impressive moments of the movie belong to the rattling use of a Gatling it's devastating penetrating power leaving no doubt about it's effectiveness.
The fading pictures, blown away dust and pebble, the panicking soldiers all wrapped up in this hectic way of camera guidance remind inevitably of Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan”. “The Last Sentinel” creates the same kind of atmosphere that drags the audience right into the happenings even though at the expense of being in the known from time to time.
Sappy lines and a surprisingly famous support cast (e.g. Keith David and Bokeem Woodbine) tops it all off. The so called love story only ends up soaking the plot and disturbing the action. Fortunately, they don’t go on and on with it or turn it into something epical. Still, the movie could have renounced it and spared the audience the dullness of a little flirt so extraneous to the story line. Friends and fans of decent B-Action movies may already spur their anticipation as the movie doesn’t show any kind of shortcomings when it comes to twirling explosions, life threatening stunts and bloody shootouts.
Even though Don „The Dragon“ Wilson makes his lonely and silent way through the movie without getting the chance to crow much with his martial art skills I would call this movie the best of his career so far. I’m reminded over and over of Kurt Russell in “Soldier” as I watch his stoic and taciturn way of impersonating Tallis. As far as Tallis’ emotionless behavior goes, he finds his badly needed counterpart in the very lively and highly divers"e" acting role of Kate Sackhoff. Still on the same Starbuck-Mode she contrasts perfectly with him.
“The Last Sentinel” doesn’t show off with any astonishing gimmicks or surprises. Background information are wrapped up tight and served within in an instant before the duo starts banging and blasting its way through enemy territory in search of a solution to their problem.
The movie shows off big time with a huge number of bloody details, close ups on chop offs of several body parts and a fair number of dead left behind. Faced with a superior number of components (although they could do with a little training on the shooting range if you ask me), Tallis has to go for gold in order to turn the battle up.
While winding it all up I would like to compliment Jesse Johnson on his directional work. Although he hasn’t produced many movies so far, he will certainly end up playing in the higher budget league of this business if he keeps on developing so beneficially. Admitting to having a soft spot for cheap B-Action movies, especially if they adopt an appealing end time ambiance, I would still call this movie one of the few within the last couple of years that gets to satisfy all pretensions concerning action and atmosphere.
This movie captures the right flair by combining coherent scenery with outstanding directional work. Taking only the atmosphere produced by color filter and the right choice of locations into consideration, even an Albert Pyun at its best wouldn’t have been able to outdo this performance.
Conclusion: Overall it presents itself as a convincing B-Movie I would like to call an insider tip ahead of time. "The Last Sentinel“ lives by its atmospheric staging, the great scenery and hard action which, at times, falls prey to fast-paced camera work. In view of the low budget this will have to be accepted as a compromise. Due to the simple structure the plot luckily drifts off on only seldom occasions which are then of mere short duration. Don 'The Dragon' Wilson operates solidly while Kate Sackhoff comes across in her well-known style of „Battlestar Galactica”. It’s certainly not the kind of movie that makes the intellectuals get stuck to their lazy-chairs in front of the TV; instead it’s aiming at fans of rougher B-Movies willing to cope with a rather flat story line for the benefit of an atmospheric scenario. „The Last Sentinel“ might be one of the few really good B-Productions the movie industry will have to offer in 2007. That’s my opinion, at least! I surely don’t have anybody else on my list apart from Isaac Florentine and Dolph Lundgren. But these guys works with much more than 750.000 $.
