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As pure check-your-head-at-the-door popcorn entertainment, the apocalyptic action-horror hybrid Legion delivers in nearly every frame--its story of a band of strangers fighting an army of angels and demons for the fate of mankind is proudly loud, bullet riddled, and knee-deep in gore and CGI. That doesn't mean it's particularly good or even coherent--the story has renegade angel Michael (a glum Paul Bettany) come to the aid of diner owner Dennis Quaid (equally glum) and his patrons (a cross-section of stereotypes embodied by a capable cast, which includes Lucas Black, Charles S. Dutton, Tyrese Gibson, Kate Walsh, and Jon Tenney) as a host of heavenly and diabolical beings, dispatched by an angry God, descend on the diner with the intent of killing waitress Adrianne Palicki (Friday Night Lights), whose unborn child may be the salvation of humanity. The orgy of special effects--endless hails of bullets and a menagerie of unpleasant demonic creatures, the most unsettling of which is the ice cream man (Doug Jones, Hellboy)--is eye popping but ultimately repetitive, and since no character rises above a cipher in director Scott Stewart's script (cowritten with Peter Schink), the whole affair feels unwieldy and eventually tiresome under a barrage of hackneyed dialogue. Naturally, Legion ends with the possibility of a sequel, though one wonders where the story can go after Armageddon.Read full review
Upon viewing this film the first time around, I'm sorry I fell asleep. It just didn't spark my inner interests even though it supposedly had angelic origins. In mulling over in my mind about this film, I really almost didn't get it, although, after a while, I finally got what the director and co-screen-writer was trying to do. It goes something like this. We are soon introduced to a bunch of normal average everyday losers from all walks of life who somehow become totally stranded in the middle of nowhere during the coming of GOD's final judgment. We soon learn that all the common annoyances we normally go through in this world are just as boring and typical as our worst Thanksgiving dinner with our dysfunctional families (analogous to, no pun intended, devils in hell want ice-water). The Paradise Diner is almost like a microcosm of pond scum we all love to try & get out of, mainly speaking. It almost reminds me of where old actors go after they have a couple of decades of wonderful roles and then get caught in a down turn, much like what happened to Michael Gross's popularity when he went from "Family Matters" all the way down to a 2nd or 3rd billed actor in Tremors (1990 with Kevin Bacon). As a matter of fact, if you could just subtract the Angels and add the alligator worm creatures, I'd think this film would have done a bit better. I think what really went wrong with this was when they made the story-line centered around GOD's wrath and Angels. Actually I checked out the ratings on IMDB.COM (Internet Movie Database), and with only 3,100 votes Tremors 4 (2004) actually beat out this film receiving only a 5 out of 10 by 0.3 of a point. The actual voting for Legion was 9 times the number, so that's almost the curse of death for a movie to receive that low of a ranking with so many votes. That also says alot about Michael Gross's acting. Great job Michael, although, I got tired of the Tremor films at about number 2. What chokes this film is only a couple of really noticeable mistakes: 1) After Percy gets bathed in acid, there is a shot where you can clearly see that his back is intact, but after that he falls revealing his shirtless back completely acid burnt with flesh eaten away to the spine. 2) Why would we really care at all if the characters were really ragging themselves at all (Jeep) about freezing up & not shooting the old lady? 3) After spending hours of planning with over 20 major stunt drivers, the direction failed to take full advantage of the 18-wheeler with pipes on the back. In my opinion, by not getting the pipes to dump was a budgetary constraint that caused the action in the film to be a tiny bit stale and ineffective. 4) The audio was extremely low in places, thus ruining much of the important lines that would have been much more effective had they not been trying to play on any kind of emotional tear-jerking reactions. There were one or two good lines that gave the film much needed value, and it came mostly from Percy Walker coming from Charles S. Dutton. The first was when he told about what his father used to tell him before he went to bed at night. He said, "If it's your last day on this planet, would you be proud of what you've done in this life?" The other line is only from memory, however it was something about that he didn't know were Michael was getting his information, but that it definitely was not from the same book he knew. I'll have to applaud those lines. The rest were way too "Barbie".Read full review
The Angel Michael (Paul Bettany) has come to earth to prevent God from destroying humanity. The only thing that can save mankind from destruction is the birth of a child at a lonely rest stop in the middle of the California Desert owned by Dennis Quaid. The movie has some good points and it has some bad points but overall the good points outweighed the bad and it was pretty entertaining. The movie stars: Adrianne Palicki, Charles S. Dutton, Dennis Quaid, Jon Tenney, Lucas Black,Paul Bettany, and Tyrese Gibson I would rent this one instead of buying it.
The movie Legion is about the destruction of earth, or Judgment Day. The writers and producers of this film put a spin on the traditional Biblical theme about the final days of mankind on earth. The main gist of the movie shows God sending his army of angels to destroy mankind because of their wickedness. There are some good action scenes and some ok graphics. A majority of the movie takes place in a little dinner out in the middle of the dessert, which to me doesn't allow the imagination to run. I expected to see scenes of different parts of the world going through the final days, there is none of that in Legion. Lastly, I really didn't care for the message the movie put across, to me it reminded me of something Satan would do and not the Lord. Legion is most certainly one movie you can pass up to own or watch on PPV, If you really want to see it I would rent a copy first, then decide, or buy cheap and trade it in.Read full review
This Good vs Evil movie has a good cast and enough twists and turns to keep viewer engaged and/or properly freaked out.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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