Review: The Last Warrior
DVD: The Last Warrior (2018)
The Last Warrior is a tale of Lyutobor; a warrior in medieval Europe who is forced to embark on a quest to save the lives of his wife and child in the face of an assassination attempt of his lord and subsequent kidnapping of his kin. Joined by one of the captured assassins, Marten, one of the last of a warrior race known as the Scythians, the two move further into the heart of darkness and perhaps the last bastion of the Scythians.
In the realms of historic epic and action you could slot this feature into, the film certainly fits more into the latter than the former. The film is pure testosterone and there is enough blood and guts here for your red-meat eating, bearded body builder to sink their teeth into. The camera work is certainly worth mentioning in its strengths as an action film with most fights consisting of single long shots with no edits or breaks. The result is some impressive camera work that doesn’t break the viewers gaze or emersion in these violent, bloody showcases.
These scenes are soured somewhat though by the film’s over reliance on the use of computer generated effects. The use of CG blood had to be the biggest sin for me. I understand most of the time this is done to save money but its use completely ruined certain sequences for me that otherwise would have been highlights. It’s a shame because the few scenes that use practical effects are absolutely gorgeous.
In fact, it was at points that the emersion was broken and I began thinking too hard about certain aspects of the film is when I found myself enjoying it the least. It becomes apparent in these moments of lucidity issues such as the rushed aspect of the third act and the assassination plotline being dropped only for the writers to seemingly utter a collective “oh shit” at the realisation that they had to tie it up somehow. Being a critic I didn’t have this pleasure, but my advice for watching this is try not to think while watching this outside maintaining respiration and the occasional blinking. Also, I’m not entirely sure how the DVD release is handling localisation but my review copy only allowed for viewing with an English dub rather than Russian with subtitles. For god’s sake stay away from the god-awful dub at all costs. This dub makes the dubbed dialogue in old martial arts flicks sound like Citizen Kane.
Other than that though The Last Warrior can be a truly beautiful film featuring some very memorable set pieces. A scene in which Lyutobor and Marten are captured by a tribe of forest savages comes to mind. The costumes and aesthetics of the scene capture an almost B-movie vibe (the tribe cheif is even a dwarf who controls an incredibly strong monster of a man to fight victims in an arena) that by all rights should come off as tacky but doesn’t. The films earnest dedication to the silliness and gratuitous violence in scenes like this is what sets the film apart from its similar contemporaries and it’s a joy to sit through.
The Last Warrior is a fun action film posing as a historic epic. Though it’s attempts at serious story telling are hampered by its own silliness at times, when everything the film does well is on screen it actually proves to be a very fun watch.
A gloriously gory and silly watch, The Last Warrior proves to be a fun time if taken with a teaspoon of salt. Just stay away from that God-awful dub.
The Last Warrior is released on 20th August 2018 and you can buy it by clicking HERE. ALL money raised by purchasing from Amazon via our website is given back to our listeners and followers in upcoming competition prizes. The more people buy, the bigger our prizes.
Review by Joel from a disc kindly supplied by Aim Publicity.
