Legion
Starring: Paul Bettany, Lucas Black, Adrianne Paliki, Tyrese Gibson, Dennis Quaid, Kevin Durand. Synopsis: God has decided he’s had enough of humanity, so sets about the Apocalypse, sending his angels to Earth to destroy everything. The one thing that can halt the Armageddon is an unborn child, whose mother, Charlie (Paliki), is a waitress in a rest-stop called Paradise Falls, in the middle of a desert. Cut off from the outside world, the employees and patrons of the diner are joined by the archangel Michael who has decided to defy God and protect the child... Review: While Legion gets off to an exciting start, the script isn’t strong or tight enough to really deal with the metaphysics at hand, and hasn’t really thought through it’s ending. The set-up is very well handled – Michael coming to Earth, cutting off his wings and loading up more weaponry than Schwarzenegger in Commando, swiftly followed by an encounter with two possessed cops. As Michael drives off in their police car, we see the city-blocks’ lights going out, one by one, providing an ominous, oppressive atmosphere.Then we switch to Paradise Falls (geddit?), where Bob Hanson (a grizzled Dennis Quaid) and his son Jeep (Lucas Black from Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift)are eking out an existence in the middle of nowhere. Jeep is carrying a lorry-load of unrequited feelings for single, knocked-up waitress Charlie, so full of self-loathing for herself and her situation that she’s made no attempt to stop smoking even though she’s 8 months pregnant. Also in the diner are the chef (Charles S Dutton) and a family of three who’s car’s broken down, and a young black man (Tyrese Gibson, Death Race) who’s on his way to a custody hearing about his son. It’s an interesting cast, but they get to do very little. Michael mentions at one point that the weak-minded are easily possessed, but the film doesn’t try to develop it. Rather than try to get into the character’s heads, the Enemy opts to just try and all-out kill them instead. The various concepts at play are inconsistent. When the Child is unborn for example, its considered fair game and the possessed hoards are doing their utmost to kill it and its mother. Once it’s born however, the attackers suddenly are in awe and reverential. The pro and anti abortion lobbies would have a field day discussing the subtext here! 
The action in this film is pretty decent all the way through, although very reminiscent of other movies. There is a lot that has been lifted from films such as The Terminator, The Prophecy, just about every siege movie but especially those by John Carpenter, and a little film called Demon Knight (produced under the Tales From The Crypt banner, starring Billy Zane, William Sadler and Jada Pinkett Smith). The film’s most memorable moment comes with the arrival of the ice-cream man, played by Doug Jones (Abe Sapien in the Hellboy films).It’s in the final section of the film that the film gets fudged as it tries to get itself out of a metaphysical and filmic corner. A mano-a-mano fight between angels Michael and Gabriel (Kevin Durand) is pretty well done and there are strong elements of homo-eroticism at play, it reminded me a lot of Torchwood!One element of the finale I did appreciate – in the climactic car chase, one of the remaining characters is killed off (not a spoiler really – it’s pretty obvious that three’s a crowd by this point), but it occurs off-screen and instead of moping about it, the remaining characters press on with their escape bid. One final thing I feel I need to mention. Like The Wolfman, Legion starts with a narrated quote (more of an anecdote in Legion, but still). Then, as the screen goes black at the end of the film, we’re given the same piece of narrative voice-over. I guess the purpose of the retelling is so the audience can consider it from a new perspective, having had their eyes opened by what they’ve just seen. Personally though I found these repetitions in both films to be very pedantic, and in the case of Legion , it actually adds to the ending’s problems. Verdict It’s a bit of a mess, and really unravels towards the end with a Deus Ex Machina needed to wind things up, but the cast are game, there are some neat action scenes and one or two gory deaths along the way. The trouble is there has been much stronger genre fare already this year which makes this film’s shortcomings more pronounced. 6 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)
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