Legion Review
I’m one of those movie viewers that is fairly easily pleased and as my large collection of indie movies proves I’m not a stickler for huge budgets or excessive amounts of CGI. As long as there’s a decent enough plot and characters I can engage with then I’m a happy man.
Now many of you that might have already seen the trailers and various clips that were released ahead of the movie could quite easily assume that Legion is a big budget apocalyptic movie, in the same vain as 2012 or Cloverfield, well you’d be wrong. And there lies my biggest problem with Legion, its packaging, which promises something that the film simply is not. Most if not all of the movies special effects and action sequences are revealed in the trailer, a trailer which fails to disclose that this is very much a character driven movie. Where the main focus is on a small group of individuals coming to grips with the situation rather than death and destruction at every turn.
The main focal point of the movie is an out of the way diner, in which a small group of locals and others who happened across the place are holed up while the world turns to ruin around them. God has unleashed Armageddon on the world and while the rest of the world is consumed by his wrath, the diner’s inhabitants along with a rogue angel named Michael (Paul Bettany) fight for their survival. Michael has decided that humanity is worth saving and that the unborn child of one of the diner’s waitresses (Adrianne Palicki) could be the key to stopping the ensuing destruction. And so we follow the various characters that make up the diners inhabitants as they wait for the inevitable.
As I said earlier this is very much a character driven movie and on that score it is quite successful. The main character roles have not only been perfectly written but also flawlessly portrayed, with notable performances by Dennis Quaid and Charles S Dutton who seem to fit their roles perfectly. Also Paul Bettany’s portrayal of the fallen angel and saviour of mankind was also perfectly executed if not a little brief.
That said this movie has many flaws, the main one being the before mentioned ‘packaging’ which promises more than the movie delivers. And because of this some viewers will inevitably end up pining for what is going on out of shot rather than enjoying the story as it unfolds. Another problem is the editing of the movie which seems to have chopped the film up into a near incoherent series of mismatched events and circumstances that just don’t flow very well, leaving the viewer slightly confused, which is a pity.
But that aside if you give it a chance Legion is still quite an entertaining movie that delivers an ambitious premise with a good use of its relatively small budget. Although I still feel slightly cheated by the trailer and bemused by the films editing and plot inconsistencies overall the movie wasn’t a total disappointment and so I’d give it a score of 5 out of 10.
Just got back from watching this and I totally agree with your review except for the fact that you are WAY too easy on it. This movie was FULL of plot holes, it was a great idea for a movie but was horribly executed in SO many ways.
Good review. It’s definitely not going to win any awards that’s for sure, but I think I’m one of the few that actually enjoyed it
i love the movie
I don’t know many people that like the movie Legion but with the performance Paul Bettany did made it amazing to me. I don’t know what else it is but I just loved the movie. My co-workers from DISH haven’t even seen the movie. I’m always telling them it can’t hurt to rent it with your Blockbuster Movie Pass. If you’re new to DISH it is free for an up to a year but if you an existing customer its only $10.00 a month. That isn’t bad because you aren’t exactly paying for it. I love the Blockbuster Movie Pass since I get movies in the mail and I get to stream on demands. I’m going to rent Legion again. I just have to be sure if you haven’t checked it out to do so today!