Legion Review

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 01.25.2010

The latest action horror film to hit the market tries to pit angels against mankind in a fight to the finish, with decidedly disappointing results.

Directed by: Scott Stewart
Written by: Scott Stewart & Peter Schink

Starring:
Paul Bettany - Michael
Lucas Black - Jeep Hanson
Tyrese Gibson - Kyle Williams
Adrianne Palicki - Charlie
Charles S. Dutton - Percy Walker
Kevin Durand - Gabriel
Jon Tenney - Howard Anderson
Willa Holland - Audrey Anderson
Kate Walsh - Sandra Anderson
Dennis Quaid - Bob Hanson
Jeanette Miller - Gladys Foster
Cameron Harlow - Minivan Boy
Doug Jones - Ice Cream Man



Running Time: 100 minutes
Rated R for strong bloody violence and language.

The dichotomy between angels and mankind has been an element of cinema for quite some time now. In Judeo-Christian lore, angels are the heavenly host and the army of God; as such they are set apart from mankind and act as guardians, shepherds and at times adversaries of humanity. They test man's faith and often the results end in conflict of some sort. That sort of dynamic is rife with rich themes to explore, and film has made great use of that. Such diverse films as Constantine, Dogma, It's A Wonderful Life and City of Angels and Wings of Desire have taken a deep look at that relationship between mortal man and immortal servant, with varying takes and results. Even Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece The Seventh Seal features that iconic chess game between the knight and Death, who is portrayed in that same role. One of these films, The Prophecy, takes a much darker take with a very real conflict between mankind and the angelic host. The film is part horror, part theological struggle, and garnered a strong cult following despite lackluster straight-to-video sequels. The latest film in the line of this theme is Legion, starring Paul Bettany and Dennis Quaid, and clearly hopes to capitalize on fans of that movie.

The film stars Bettany as the archangel Michael. Given an order that he does not agree with, Michael chooses to stand alongside humanity rather than act as its destroyer. In order to carry out his desperate last-chance pitch to save mankind, he sheds himself of his angelic features and travels to the middle of Arizona, in a place called Paradise Falls. There, he meets up with a group of individuals who find themselves suddenly beset by a bizarre series of attacks by supernatural individuals. Michael isn't there to save all of them, but instead to save the about-to-be-born child of Charlie (Palicki), who will be the savior of humankind. Charlie is a waitress at the diner that is run by Bob Hanson (Quaid), whose son Jeep (Black) has quite the crush on the unwed mother. The group—which also includes one-handed cook Percy (Dutton), a family travelling through and a man with a troubled past on his way to visit his son (Gibson)—has to hunker down and take up refuge in the establishment as God's army descends upon them to kill the child and wipe the earth clean of mankind.

Legion was co-written and directed by Scott Stewart, who is best known as a visual effects man on such films as Iron Man, Sin City, Grindhouse and Live Free or Die Hard. He co-wrote the script with film editor Peter Schink, and it is evident from early on that this is the duo's first script. Little is handled in the way of character development, either in the beginning of the film or at any further point. Most of the humans who get stuck in the diner are given personalities but little else; what passes for character development are actually allusions toward back stories that don't get fully explained. Stewart and Schink seem more interested in moving right along to the action and effects-driven moments, and as such the plot and dialogue suffer. There are some heavy-handed attempts to throw some philosophical points in the movie about mankind's destructive ways and how those individuals who avoid them are what give us a chance, but it's all been heard before on film and the duo have nothing new to offer on the subject. This is subject material that has been handled much better in other films, and some very iffy dialogue doesn't help to lift the script's quality any.

Instead of taking time on the script, Stewart seems to have focused all of his efforts toward creating some creepy effects and cool combat scenes, and some of these do in fact succeed. In Legion's world, those who are possessed in order to carry out the angelic mission get sharp teeth, black eyes and a digitally-modulated voices, and can walk on walls and ceilings. Some of them can alter their forms, too. A few of them such as a vicious granny and a twisted kid are appropriately creepy; the problem comes in that we see it too often and the coolness of the effect is quickly lost. It also doesn't help that their possession is startlingly unoriginal and brings to mind the Agents possessing individuals in The Matrix, only quite a bit sillier. When people are able to still drive cars perfectly straight with their heads shaking and distorting, one wonders if directional sense is an angelic power or if cars are simply God's gift to mankind. They amount to silly moments and it really doesn't do the film any benefit to see it happen.

On the plus side, Stewart is able to do a few fun things with the human characters. One death in particular is appropriately disgusting and involves boils and being crucified upside down. Stewart also is consciously aware of his casting choices and doesn't fall into the trap of killing off the unknowns just so we can whittle down to the name actors. No one is safe and people can die at any time in this film, and that does a lot of good toward creating some suspense. When one doesn't know who's going to make it out, predictability flies out the window in a very rewarding way. On the other hand, he falls into some unfortunate choices in designing the look of the angels we see in the flesh. Metallic wing guards make for a cool concept, but they result in a hokey look that brings to mind B-level fantasy films.

The acting is fine for a genre film like this; the problem is that many of the actors take themselves too seriously. Paul Bettany is appropriately serious and grave as Michael, but he also sucks a lot of the fun out of the possibilities by being so somber. Tyrese Gibson does fine in his role, and Lucas Black and Adrianne Palicki acquit themselves well as the young people upon whom the weight of the world will soon rest. The only ones who truly seem as if they're having fun are Quaid, Dutton and Jeanette Miller. Quaid has a touch of humor in his crusty old cynic role, and Dutton lends some weight to the old cook. Miller plays the old lady seen in the trailer, and she clearly has a blast with the brief but role memorable The rest of the cast is largely forgettable except Kevin Durand, who is unfortunately quite bad as the archangel Gabriel. The scenes between Bettany and Durand are an exercise in seeing how one bad performance can drag a fine actor down.

The end finishes up in a rather disappointing way, as things move along far too quickly and the end can be predicted quite easily. As the credits begin to roll, the audience is left with the impression that they have seen something which could have been quite fun, but somehow wasn't. Like the supposed course of mankind, one is left to wonder where it went wrong and how it could have been saved, and perhaps the most disappointing thing about this film is that this is all thought-provocation we are left with.

The 411: There was a lot of potential in a film like Legion, which at its surface brings to mind images of films like The Prophecy. Where that film was cool, creepy and deep, Scott Stewart's big-studio directorial debut manages only one of those, and even that only in spurts. The action horror film tries to stand tall, but falters thanks to a decidedly weak story, poor dialogue, special effects that only vaguely impress and a cast that takes themselves far too seriously. While it could have been a lot of fun, the film has the ignominious honor becomes the first big disappointment of 2010.

Final Score:  4.5   [ Poor ]