The Last Sentinel Blu-ray features bad video and mediocre audio in this poor Blu-ray release
No emotion. No fear. No pain. They were the perfect soldiers to protect civilization-until the
drone police became the perfect enemy. With little hope left for mankind, Tallis, an
electronically enhanced soldier, rescues a rebel beauty from a failed resistance mission. A force
to be reckoned with, she will learn to fight and think like a machine for the final battle to save
the human race.
Consider yourselves dead already, and the fear will go away.
The Last Sentinel was made for 10-year-old boys and grown-ups who are still 10-year-old
boys at heart. It's for boys who run around the neighborhood pretending to shoot each other with
plastic pistols and rifles with orange tips and for men who once played such games and now
probably
own a few real examples of the toys they grew up with. The Last Sentinel is low-grade
rubbish through and through, but it's somewhat entertaining low-grade rubbish, and those in its
select target
audience will probably find something to like about it. With virtually nonstop gunfire and
explosions, the
movie only slows down long enough to help move whatever semblance of a plot there is along --
usually through the feminine voice of a weapons-mounted computer -- and for a few lingering
shots of a naked Katee Sackhoff ("Battlestar Galactica") for good
measure. A critic blurb on the back of the box of this made-for-TV Sci-Fi/Action film compares it to
the "feel" -- presumably referring to the unrelenting and gritty visuals -- of Saving Private
Ryan
and Black Hawk Down.
The Last Sentinel definitely tries to copy that style, and,
for a movie of this caliber, it does a fair job in doing so. Nevertheless, it always feels like the
C-grade
clunker that it is, particularly considering that The Last Sentinel's budget was probably
dwarfed
by what Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott spent on cocktails for their respective films' wrap
parties.
Tallis doesn't take kindly to negative reviews.
In a post-apocalyptic future, man has been all but exterminated by fearless and powerful drones
created to supplant human beings in the world's police forces. These automatons ultimately
turned on their
creators, leading to a disastrous nuclear holocaust that has left the world in ruins. Tallis (Don "The
Dragon" Wilson, Future Kick) is a lone wanderer, the last of a
technologically-enhanced squad of soldiers who survives on strength, cunning, and the aid of his
conversational computerized rifle, Angel. Tallis witnesses a drone attack on a human convoy. He
rescues the sole survivor, a mysterious girl (Sackhoff) whom he trains to become his fighting
companion. She has knowledge of a facility that might hold the secret to winning the war over
the drones, and the pair set off on a dangerous mission to save humanity.
Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down comparisons aside, The Last
Sentinel's is really more like The Terminator:
robots designed to replace human beings on police forces turn on their creators and start a brutal
war, leaving a few scattered survivors to mount an underground resistance. The same end, more
or less, but at least The Last Sentinel didn't copy the whole SkyNet angle. Stylistically,
The Last Sentinel is more akin to any number of cheap Sci-Fi/Action films of years past;
A.P.E.X. comes to mind, though even that one sports better production values and a more
coherent and involved plot. The Last Sentinel builds its story and the history of its world
through a series of old television new clips (for which, had they been part of some make-believe
story
for a Film-TV-Digital Media or Journalism class, the students would have received failing grades)
and several flashbacks to the war against the machines, er, drones. All of it is nothing but a
charade through which the filmmakers can reasonably continue to show Tallis and his talking gun
running around and shooting stuff for 90 minutes in what is maybe the least-convincing
post-apocalyptic
environment ever captured on film. Blowing some smoke and tossing some random debris in front
of the camera for exteriors and shooting in a couple of abandoned buildings for interiors does not a
nuclear wasteland make, but hey, this is The Last Sentinel; nothing matters except guns
and
explosions.
Unfortunately, the film's technical problems don't end with its shoddy sets and unconvincing
apocalyptic landscape. The picture features some low-grade acting, but it's hard to fault anyone
when this is the type of material they're asked to work with. The picture does earn some
legitimacy
with a couple of recognizable faces, including Keith David (The Thing) and
Bokeem Woodbine, the latter of whom is probably best known for parts in The Rock and The Big Hit.
Meanwhile, lead actor Don "one expression" Wilson lumbers through the film with a
blank -- but tough -- stare on his face. It's actually not a terrible effort from Wilson, considering
his character's circumstances; careful, battle-scarred, and his humanity probably drained from his
tough training and the lack of a societal structure would undoubtedly leave most anyone walking
around with a thousand-yard stare on their faces. Unfortunately, shoddy special effects --
including poorly-realized exploding heads and heavy machine gun
tracer rounds that look more like laser bolts -- drag the movie down but also lend to it some
legitimacy as so-bad-its fun cheese. Most damning, though, is the sheer repetitiveness of every
action scene, including about half of which in some way end up with a bad underwater shot of
Tallis swimming around to save his life. The movie does little more than show Wilson's and
Sackhoff's
characters shooting drones (and no doubt the same three or four get killed over and over again
throughout), and the movie's schtick starts to wear very thin about halfway through, resulting in
an experience that's borderline intolerable, saved only by the sheer goofiness and the
aforementioned so-bad-its-fun element that makes The Last Sentinel a good
beer-guzzling Saturday night party movie.
The Last Sentinel's 1080p, 1.78:1-framed transfer is of typical Echo Bridge quality, meaning
that it barely passes as high definition content. Grain and noise are so prevalent in the movie that
one scene looked like there was a thick fog covering the screen, visibility about three feet. Detail is
decent at best, with some of the run-down locations showing off chipped paint, broken windows,
rusted metal, and random debris well enough. Facial detail is never striking, but characters never look
smooth and
textureless, either. Colors are drab, seemingly deliberately so, but even some brighter shades -- a
crop of red drones that show up for the final act -- lack even a hint of vibrancy. A stray vertical line
pops up in one early scene, and a screenful of horizontal lines randomly appear several times
throughout. Blacks are uneven and unconvincing, and heavy noise often buzzes about the darker
corners of the screen.
Some slight blocking and banding and a couple of errant speckles and splotches find their way into
the transfer from time to time, though none of these prove to be that big of a deal in the grand
scheme of the entire transfer. Much of the problem here seems to lie with the film's micro-budget
and miniscule production values, but no matter the source of the ugliness, The Last Sentinel
just doesn't make for a anything better than a below-average Blu-ray transfer.
Ah, Echo Bridge, purveyors of multiple audio tracks all of little value. The Last Sentinel
is
no different, boasting no less than four English-language offerings: DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes
and a pair of 2.0 tracks, one each of the Dolby Digital and PCM varieties. The latter two -- even the
PCM track -- are simply awful. Cramped, muddled, and lacking, of course, a surround structure,
they
pale next to the 5.1 offerings. The Dolby Digital 5.1 track isn't as aggressive as the hefty and
amped-up DTS
mix, making the latter the perfect companion to the movie's cheesy goodness. In the DTS mix,
gunfire erupts from every speaker and, during the battle scenes, the soundstage becomes home to
a
wide variety of noise. Yes, that's pretty much The Last Sentinel's DTS track in a nutshell.
It
bombards the listening area with a deluge of jumbled noise, none of which is particularly clear or
realistic. It's the antithesis of Saving Private Ryan, really; both are loud, but only one can
boast of a realistic sense of space, clarity, and immersion. Surrounds are in constant use, again,
though, spewing little
beyond a random collection of warlike noises. Atmospherics are mostly non-existent; perhaps the
best scene features Tallis retrieving a piece of technology from a fallen comrade's cranium as water
gently drips all around the listening area. There's also some heavy, seat-rattling bass
here and there; chapter eight brings the most in the movie, and while it's powerful, it lacks that
tightness and realism of the best low ends, this one more rumbling just for the sake of rumbling.
Fortunately, there are never any problems with dialogue reproduction. Like the movie, the DTS
mix is
fun in that it's so obviously over-pumped, but it matches the movie well and is the best track with
which to enjoy the film.
Unlike most other Echo Bridge titles, The Last Sentinel actually contains a couple of
supplements, notably an audio commentary track with Producer Bill Gottlieb and Director/Writer Jesse
Johnson. The track is a little over-excited considering the quality of the movie, but there are some
decent discussions revolving around the casting, maintaining a semi-realistic tone throughout the
movie, filming locations, props, shooting scenes that weren't in the script, editing the film together,
and other typical commentary observations. Also included is Making of 'The Last Sentinel'
Featurette (1080p, 15:45), a pretty standard piece that features cast and crew interview
snippets and behind-the-scenes footage. It looks at the making of several stunt scenes, the cast's
enjoyment of their parts and training for the film, and the special effects and pyrotechnics used in the
film.
Don't be fooled by the cover; The Last Sentinel isn't wall-to-wall Katee Sackhoff. Don "The
Dragon" Wilson -- he of Soft Target, Sci-Fighter, and Bloodfist VIII: Trained to
Kill fame -- is the focus in this curiously entertaining "so bad its good" cheese-fest. The Last
Sentinel is
more a victim of its budget and production values than anything else. Not that this was ever going to
be a good movie, but it could have been better with some more money and TLC thrown its way.
Discerning
viewers need stay far, far away, but for those who fall into the target audience -- Action/Sci-Fi
movie junkies who grew up playing war in the backyard -- it's worth adding to the collection. Just
make sure that friend that snubs his nose at anything with fewer than three Oscar nominations
doesn't see it on the shelf. Anyone familiar with Echo Bridge's output will know exactly what to
expect with
The Last Sentinel's Blu-ray release: a rough high-def picture and a myriad of subpar
soundtracks. Unlike most
others, though, this one actually has a couple of extras. Those that enjoy loud and violent dreck could
do worse than spending a few dollars on this budget title. Like Cyclops, The Last
Sentinel comes recommended for its so-bad-its good qualities.
Blu-ray bundles with The Last Sentinel (3 bundles)
Echo Bridge Home Entertainment has announced they are releasing six films from their catalog on April 1st. Included in the slate are '10.5 Apocalypse', 'Blackbeard', 'Category 7: The End of the World', 'The Curse of King Tut's Tomb', 'The Last Sentinel' and 'Artie ...
