This (comparatively) low-budget sci-fi actioner from Brit writer-director Jesse Johnson comes across as a poor man’s TERMINATOR: SALVATION (T4). In a post-apocalyptic world most of the humans have been eradicated by a cyborg police force. One of the survivors, Tallis (Don “The Dragon” Wilson), is an electronically-enhanced soldier, who rescues a woman rebel fighter (Katee Sackhoff) and they team up to try and destroy the drone police and their central control base, ending up with a battle against the super-drone cops. There’s a few flashbacks thrown in to explain Tallis’s back story (and a few back flashes as Sackhoff takes a bath), but apart from that its pretty much non-stop action and explosions.
The high-octane action all makes sense when you read writer-director Johnson’s IMDb profile. Most of his work is as a stuntman and stunt co-ordinator, and he has worked on McG’s CHARLIE’S ANGELS and also on T3, not that I’m suggesting plagiarism as there are plenty of other similar thinly-plotted movies around, but it does show that Johnson knows how to make the most of action effects, if nothing else. Although the director calls it a low-budget movie in the DVD’s making-of, and compared to the films he worked on it probably was, the amount of stuff that got blown up would have far exceeded the budgets of far more intelligent movies such as SFL favourites THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUT, PRIMER or CRYPTIC put together.
If you want a simple action movie to veg out on the sofa with a lot of beers on a dull evening, and appreciate a film that was probably made for less than Christian Bale’s T4 fee, then it’s not bad, but if you want anything with substance, craftsmanship or believability then best look elsewhere. Although Katee Sackhoff is easy on the eye, you’d be much better off watching BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, which has everything this movie lacks.
THE LAST SENTINEL is out now from Metrodome and is available from major retailers including Amazon
We have three copies to give away, courtesy of Metrodome. Click the link below to enter the competition, which closes June 15 2009.