The Last Man on Planet Earth

This film is a thinly veiled remake of the original "Planet of the Apes" but wholly without the depth or thought provoking qualities of the original. As one could deduce from the title, it is set in a world now composed almost exclusively of women. Except for a few, very few, moments near the end, the characters are cartoonish, and at times insulting, as is the explanation of how the world came to be in the state it finds itself. The film may be attempting to satirize the PC climate of today's society but does not succeed. Even as TV movies go, "Last Man..." serves mainly as something to fill air time between commercials. In general, if one finds ones self with nothing else to watch on a rainy day, go rent the original "Planet of the Apes".

This made for TV movie takes a large chunk of inspiration from Huxley's Brave New World - natural reproduction is replaced by cloning (and in the case of the dual protagonist, Adam, by "synthesis"). The new society strives to be utopian, but has a grim, dystopian side. The plot is unique, though, in that it deals with dark aspects of militant, lesbian feminism. Camille Paglia would appreciate this story! The most telling line in the film is where Adam says "violence is not genetic" (meaning actually, "not determined by gender"). Another intriguing aspect of the film's social commentary is its take on conspiracy theories and official truth, and how politics is politics no matter who is in charge. From the standpoint of cinematic excellence, this is clearly not Academy Award material. Of course, it was made for TV and presumably didn't have a large budget. I was surprised though, at the depth of ideas and the acting was good. Worth seeing.

In reading the previous reviews, it struck me that almost none of you people seem to care for Science Fiction. Or, if you do, you've missed the classics upon which this story line was based. So, WARNING!!! If you don't care for the genre, you probably won't enjoy the movie unless it has a lot of special effects, your favorite actor, or some other redeeming factor not inherent in the subject matter.

Please don't misunderstand -- this is NOT a great movie -- but it stands as mediocre, definitely not the worst film ever. If you think there's anything new about the concepts treated with in the plot or the manner in which they were handled, maybe you should try reading Philip Wyley's "The Disappearance" (1974 -- out of print). Kenneth Biller took exactly the same approach, he just change the cause of the obliteration of a gender and had men wiped out instead of women. Even a reread of "On The Beach" by Neville Shute would cause you to rethink your attitude toward this movie, I believe.

If people (of either gender) have no possibility of creating relationships in what we now consider the "normal" manner, they will invariably find some other way to satisfy their needs for personal and social relationships. That does not imply that this movie, either of the books I listed, or I believe that a single-gender society would be superior. It's just a recognition of human nature. In that sense, the tale told in this film is well worth seeing once.

The story line of a Mutant Y- Virus that kills every human male had potential. But this story didn't push the envelope. The writer didn't research his material well enough. That an Event Level Event bio threat like this one would have probably eliminated every male mammal as well. Or at least that a mutant virus would also effected the ecosystem and caused variant oddities in nature. Sixty-five Million years ago one species was a dominant life form but wasn't able to adapt. True you could have a world removed of the Y-Chromosone,but evolution would no longer exist. This being the clone society as they had it wouldn't be able to adapt to coming changes. Also a common factor noted by the Center for Disease Control," nothing just goes away, because one day an organism will come back, when it comes back it has learned, leaped, and taken major strides...... The writer could have included this in the story. That the virus is coming back to attack X- Chromosome or everyone not born with a survivor gene passed down by Y-chromosome survivors emphasis. The writer could have put that in the story, being that the Hope Chayse character could have been trying warn every one of a coming Apocalypse. And the by the end of the film could have really made it something really scary. The plot twister, there can be no light without darkness, and no darkness without the light. I'm really surprised and disappointed that writer Kenneth Biller who credits include Voyager and X-files didn't include this type of tapestry to this piece.

The idea of this film was that WWIII started in Afghanistan and their use of biological weapons forced their enemy allies (US, in particular) to develop a counter-biological weapon which went haywire and wiped out all but a handful of the male species on the planet. Today, in October of 2001, we know this isn't such a far fetched premise for a story line anymore. Sad, isn't it?

The film is interesting to think about because of recent events, but nothing spectacular or special - an average TV movie.