Legion

Legion...2010...100 minutes...R...starring Paul Bettany, Lucas Black, Tyrese Gibson, Adrienne Palicki, Charles S. Dutton, and Dennis Quaid...written by Peter Schink and Scott Charles Stewart...directed by Scott Charles Stewart

God has lost faith in humanity and has decided to wipe mankind off the face of the Earth. The only chance for man surviving is a pregnant woman in the nigh-deserted truck stop of Paradise Falls, and an angel who has decided to defy the Divine Word and protect the baby she is about to have. This time, the end of the world isn't going to be a flood, but an angelic horde that possesses the weak to attack the strong. Can a small band of people hope to win out?

So, there's an appropriate enough blurb...and I'll be the first to admit that I'm not sure you can call Legion an honest-to-goodness horror movie. I'm also unsure where else you would put this movie, and since there is a strong supernatural element in the film I decided to proceed with a review. I believe there's always a slippery slope in labeling movies and sticking with such labels very tightly, because many movies just don't fit in any one niche but straddle these lines...sometimes blithely. On a more practical level, I've got a quota to meet. ;-) At any point, on with the review.

Whenever a movie starts dealing with themes about God, angels, and various religious organizations, it gets into an area that's going to make people unhappy...even if the movie in question handles such ideas with care. The movie starts off with a scene of Michael landing on Earth...reminiscent of The Prophecy...and divesting himself of his wings to make himself human. In the process, he loses his halo...which is also a very thick collar. I personally wasn't offended but the moment did take me out of the film long enough to note it and see that we were going to be diving blithely into controversy.

That might have been the goal, because honestly the movie didn't feel very fresh or new to me. I've already referenced The Prophecy, and Legion pulls a lot from it. There's also moments that feel pulled out of other movies, especially in a visual sense: Exorcist III and 30 Days of Night with the looks of the possessed people come to mind. Of course these moments were supposed to be new because it wasn't devils, or vampires this time...but angels. Yeah, whatever.

I really didn't feel like I got to know any of the characters that well either...the woman who is to bear the holy child was hardly a sympathetic character, her would-be suitor and friend has been having strange dreams that we never really learn more about, and the rest of the group who find themselves at Paradise Falls are more caricatures than actual people. I don't blame the actors, they were doing the best with what they got...and there's a few good moments to be found nonetheless.

I did like the inevitable angel fight, mostly because I like the idea of wings as both shield and weapon. Stilll, the ending seemed rather forced, and a moment that could have been one of revelation about the role of angels from their point of view instead turned into more of a divine "oops". I also had a tangental question at the end of the movie: what was up with the flies? Again, The Prophecy did it first...and honestly did it better.

Due to the beauty of OnDemand, I didn't pay money to see this movie. I can't recommend anyone else spending actual money to see it either...unless you're an independent filmmaker making an argument about how big budget doesn't always make for better film. I give it 2 Swiss-army maces out of 5.