The Last Sentinel

Directed by: Jesse Johnson

Starring: Don Wilson, Katie Sakhoff, Bokeem Woodbine, Keith David

Synopsis:

In the not-too-distant future, America’s police force is entirely bodied by Drones – genetically modified clones. However something goes wrong and the Drones become an invading force. After years of war, the Drones have all but won. In a long-deserted city, lone trooper Tallis survives by scavenging for supplies and avoiding Drone patrols. Then one day he rescues a young woman who’s on a mission to destroy the Drone’s control system...

Review:

Ultimately, The Last Sentinel feels like a B-Movie cash-in on the Caprica scenes from the first couple of series of Battlestar Galactica, not least because of Katee Sackhoff’s presence. Having said that, it does have a few ideas of its own and manages to be quite an entertaining movie.

There are a number of good ideas here – the weaponry have talking AI chips which are reminiscent of the chips used in the 2000AD comic strip, Rogue Trooper. Tallis and his fellow troops have implants in their eye sockets which can be extracted after death and downloaded. The old news reel clips are well done, filling in a lot of the back-story and giving the movie a little more depth (it’s quite clear that the Drones were initially a force for good and were perceived that way by the public).

The action in the movie falls into three camps – very good, interminable and under-funded. At best you have scenes such as Don Wilson and Bokeem Woodbine slicing and dicing through a squad of Drones. Then there are the Big Shootouts which utilise an excessive amount of SHAKY-CAM to try and convey a sense of urgency. And finally there are those shoot-outs where the muzzle-flash of the weapons hardly syncs up with the heavy-duty sound fx of weapons fire.

Don “The Dragon” Wilson was one of the most prolific martial arts action stars of the early ‘90s and its clear that although time has slowed him down, he’s as enigmatic as ever and still manages to put together some decent fights. Bokeem Woodbine, last seen in these pages starring in The Fifth Commandment (also directed by Jesse Johnson and also co-starring Keith David), puts in a good performance as grizzled Sergeant Anchilles.

Let’s face it though – the reason people are going to watch this is to catch more of Katee Sackhoff. In this she’s not quite Starbuck – although her character wants to be, after seeing Tallis in action. Her best scene – and its destined to be a fanboy favourite – is when she is shown practicing her knife-fighting skills.

It’s good to see Jesse Johnson directing again. Like The Fifth Commandment, he’s battling a tight budget, which leads to the aforementioned problems with some of the gunfights, and is also the reason you never see more than seven Drones in any one shot. However Johnson keeps everything moving at a decent pace and manages to get the right level of commitment from his actors.

Verdict:

Hit by the usual budget constraints, The Last Sentinel still manages to be a decent action movie with a decent cast. I for one am glad to see Don Wilson still able to kick butt and fans of Katee Sackhoff are not going to be disappointed.

6 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)