In Legion, God has lost all hope of the humans, and with the help of his army of angels, he decides to bring down the apocalypse upon us. However, the archangel Michael, hasn’t lost his hope, so he deserts from the army and heads down to earth, trying to save the only hope we have left – an unborn child.
Scott Stewart’s directing debut, from his own script, has all the components that makes a grand and epic movie, a solid cast (Paul Bettany, Lucas Black, Charles S. Dutton, Tyrese Gibson, Dennis Quaid, Adrianne Palicki, and Kevin Durand), a God with no hope, hostile angels, the apocalypse and an unborn child.
Nevertheless, instead of being a fierce and action packed “Clash of the Angels”, Legion becomes just a disappointing little bump.
The first part of the movie, starts really well, with the archangel Michael (Bettany), tumbles down to earth, in a Terminator style, cutting of his wings and has his first brush with his former angel buddies.
After the introduction of Michael, we depart to the remote inn, where the bulk of the story is set, where we meet the odd group of people that turns out to be our last line of defense, against God’s wrath.
Now, the infamous grandmother from hell enters the dinner, disguised as any other grandmother, cozy, polite and cheerful. However, it doesn’t take long until she starts to insult the pregnant waitress (Palicki) and kindly informs her that her child will burn, before she goes totally berserk and attacks the guests.
Then Michael arrives at the dinner and it becomes clear that the pregnant waitress literally holds humanity’s only hope in her stomach, her unborn child. Michael quickly becomes the leader of the group and he’s determined to protect the child, in the forthcoming attack from the army of angels, now lead by the archangel Gabriel, in Michael’s absence.
Now, just as I think that the movie will gain momentum again, it comes to a stop. The story becomes strained and some scenes feels incoherent, and they aren’t able to bring us closer to chanters or bring the story forward. Instead of answers, I’m left with more questions.
For instance, in the scene, we are presented with a possessed ice-cream guy, with a jaw that would make the creatures in I’m Legend, green with envy. I thought that the scene would be able to jump start the movie, but sadly it dies off as fast as it emerged, though.
I think that development of the characters are weak, consisting merely of small talk on the dinner’s roof, without any depth or how their experiences would be relevant to the story.
This is bittersweet, since many of the characters are very interesting and could have brought much to the movie, if they just had gotten a little more screen time.
Nevertheless, Paul Bettany makes an acceptable interpretation of the archangel Michael, reflecting the discomfort and mournfulness he experiences from going against his fathers will, but also how much confidence he puts in his own faith. It’s just to bad that Bettany did not get more time to develop his character a bit more.
Another character that I enjoyed and who I thought deserved some more screen time was the righteous and down to earth cook, Percy (Charles S. Dutton).
On the other side, we have Dennis Quaid, who does a flat out boring and lame interpretation of the gloomy and dog-tired dinner owner, Bob Hanson. It’s like that he cared more about his paycheck than the story.
However, I don’t think it’s right to blame it all on the actors though, since the script was not the strongest one written, either.
It’s not until the end that Legion wakes up from its slumber, even though it feels like Stewart becomes anxious and cannot wait to end it, it’s still good. However, I would like it to have been a few minutes longer and better choreographed, though, which would have made it a bit more striking.
On the bright side, Legion isn’t all bad and I do think that Stewart proves that he has what it takes to become a good story teller, but it’s clear that he need more experience in the director’s seat, I think.
I hope that the experience he gained from making Legion, will make his next movie, Priest which will be out in January 14 next year, a much better experience than this one.
At last, I really wanted to enjoy Legion but I cannot, not to the fullest anyway. Therefore, after the dust and feathers have subsided…
My rating of “Legion”:
2+ out of 5
This was my take on Legion, below you can see what others think about it;
IMDB: 5.1
Rotten Tomatoes: 19%
Dread Central: 1 1/2 out of 5
Also, feel free to leave your opinion of Legion in the comments below, as well.
For the record, the young man who came in the SUV was kyle…the cook was Percy
My bad, thanks for noticing it Caitlyn.
I’m suprised why no one commented on the fact that it is not explained why is the child important. The movie is all about that and we don’t even know the answer, the aswer will problably be brought to us in legion 2 but that is one bad move from director . Because if legion 2 will not be filmed than this is like the worst movie ever. The efects are good i have to say but, like it’s written in one day , no important coversation, nobody knows what is going on ( us , not the characters ) who are those dogs that fly, why where there flys. . . . There is many questions want to ask, but i dont think i’ll get an answer so . . .cya
I’m also hoping for a sequel to Legion as I feel it was written with the intentions of producing a second film. Plus a sequel would hopefully answer the questions raised in Legion and I would also like to see what becomes of the remaining characters as well as those unseen characters mentioned towards the end of Legion i.e. the prophets and other survivors. In addition to what the instructions/ tattoos that Jeep was entrusted with by Michael translate to. Another reason I would like a sequel to Legion is simply because I enjoyed the film.
Thanks.