100 Minutes
Directed By: Scott Stewart
Written By: Peter Schink and Scott Stewart
Staring: Lucas Black, Paul Bettany, Tyrese Gibson, Adrianne Palicki, Charles S. Dutton, Kevin Durand, Jon Tenney, Willa Holland, Kate Walsh, and Dennis Quaid
I knew He’d send you, Gabriel. You were always so eager to please Him. -Michael
Review
The trailer for this film had me moderately interested but admittedly I assumed it would be one of those movies that would be just crap, and I was very wrong. Legion was tense, had genuine moments of fear, good enough acting for it to be believable, and well done fear mongering. I’m not going to say this film will ever be a classic, but going in with essentially no expectations and receiving what was a very well paced and simple horror flick was enough for me to be happily sustained as a viewer.
So.......Legion isn't great at being subtle...........
The genius of the actual fear in Legion is started with characters that would normally be easy victims, not the predators. We are manipulated with an elderly woman, and even a child as tools for scaring. Using this unlikely technique actually plays in Legions favor, instead of becoming another typical and forgetful horror movie, it gets our attention, keeps it, and makes us remember it, if for nothing else those moments.
Legion wasn’t without it’s hiccups. There were plenty of areas where the film wasn’t successful. It becomes a source of annoyance as to why this particular baby is so important and there is no real explanation. I’m not asking for Shakespeare, but throw me a bone. The dialogue wasn’t particularly noteworthy, even though the pacing built up the tension and fear really well, it wasn’t properly balanced with characters. Even the acting that sold the melodramatic reactions to what was happening lacked. In particularly Lucas Black, Dennis Quaid, and Adrianne Palicki were incredibly awkward. If not for Paul Bettany, Tyrese, and Charles S. Dutton’s charismatic, but also smartly acted roles all could have been lost. In the end it is Bettany who really makes this movie worth watching.
The first half of the film is eerie, definitely exuding the creepage, but after awhile it turns from the subtle and smart scares and goes for the more obvious. The possessed humans suddenly feel more like zombies and the film turns more action. The action is fun, and but with the initial creepy and violent moments I expected more brutal carnage. Blood and gore were remarkably absent and replaced with gun toting violence and some fight scenes.
Save The Pregnant Girl, Save The World!
Legion is a one note trick pony, but entertaining enough to forgive all the whoopsies it makes along the way. I’m happy I didn’t spend the big cash at the theatre, but it was a worthy rental. Paul Bettany shows he can do some action work and sell it. He’s not Jason Statum, but a worthy option for future action movies. For a light scare and not much more Legion is worth your time.
What did you think of Legion? Rate It!
It was a good fun movie. It was dumb and stupid but it was fun and that’s about as much as you can ask for a movie of this type. I know what you mean about the baby. The Christmas setting set the story up as “the second coming” but then never explored it. Interesting you mention Paul Bettany as a “worthy option for future action movies”, not sure if you know but he already has the action/vampire/comic book movie “Priest” in the can. He plays a vampire killing priest, it is also directed by Legion director Scott Stewart.
My review is here: http://wp.me/prVbF-12Q
It was dumb and stupid, and the genre isn’t particularly my bag, but I was entertained and I didn’t even expect that to be delivered.
I had no idea about Paul Bettany, but I’m pretty excited now. He was really charismatic and did a lot with his role when there really wasn’t a ton to do. Off to read your review now!
If I didn’t watch two really bad straight to DVD action movies, Legion would probably end up being the worst movie of the year. The dialogue, the incomprehensibly…I was pumped because it looked interesting, but they didn’t connect with anything. Then again, with a cast like that (save for Bettany, who could do better), to expect anything better than this was probably a bad idea.
I have already seen five worst films (at the cinema) this year: From Paris with Love, The Lovely Bones, Ninja Assassin, Edge of Darkness and The Wolfman.
I didn’t hate Ninja Assassin. I had fun with it’s cheese, but that lead actress was an effing nightmare.
Naomie Harris is normally really good, she was great in 28 Days Later. The really bad acting was Ben Miles, even if he did a better job I would still laugh at him trying to do a serious role as I know him as a TV sitcom actor.
And by the way the film was beyond bad!
Edge of Darkness wasn’t that bad, it was just super forgettable and had the worst Massachusetts accent of any movie I have ever seen (I may be a TX resident now, but I spent over a decade in MA so I can say that).
Sounds like a good Sunday afternoon mindless action flick. I’ve been interested in seeing it and I’m sure I’ll get around to it.
You are actually someone I would recommend this one to. Nothing fancy or schmancy about it, but you would probably be disappointed in the lack of gore.
Well, I will check out the DVD! The trailer looked a bit too run-of-the-mill. I actually had a free advance screening for this but decided not to waste my time lol
It is pretty run of the mill but it has a few saving graces that make it a little more interesting than your simple and forgetful action/horror flick.
Did you catch this at the cheap theater? It’s not out on DVD yet… my wife is religious and she doesn’t even want me bringing this flick into our house but a film fan must do what a film fan must do!
i saw this film but i dont recommend. let say 3 points