Legion
I was looking forward to this film and in the beginning it didn’t disappoint. The angel Micheal falls to earth in a scene reminiscent of the start of Terminator, loads up on guns, as angels do, steals a car and drives off. Switch to mismatched group of Joe soaps stranded for various reasons in a diner/gas station in the middle of nowhere.
While they’re coming to terms with television and phone breakdowns, obvious signs of the collapse of civilisation, and an encounter with something quite nasty, Michael turns up to tell them everything’s not going to be alright and that God’s decided to kill them all especially the child of the pregnant smoker girl (is it the new messiah? Nothing really said), and hands out the guns. Cue failed attempt at evacuation of wounded and general denial. So far so good.
The pace changes abruptly and we’re treated to some character development which doesn’t really make you care about any of them except perhaps the angel who seems to have got the short end of the stick. While they’re moping about, whinging, the army of God arrives, in the form of angel-possessed people indistinguishable from your average zombie and apparently not much smarter. There follows a comprehensive whittling away of characters interspersed with pseudo religious claptrap, people fire their guns a few times and throw them away spent, in true American style. A couple of the better characters simply cease to be in the film around now and it completely lost my interest. There’s a big fight towards the end with another real Angel complete with bulletproof wings and medieval style weapons, pretty good but doesn’t make up for the rest.
The film ends as it began, with a scene from Terminator, which disturbingly sets up the possibility of sequels and trequels. This looks like a movie made by Christian fanatics with a poor understanding of real people and a low opinion of their intelligence, it meanders around ambiguously making vague threats about lifestyle choices and the consequences of disobedience. It shamelessly steals scenes from other movies and reminds me of religious education videos I saw in school. I think to include any more references to directors or even to mention actor’s names would give credibility where none is due, although some cinematography is good and some of the actors perform well.
I’ve learned that God lies to Angels, doesn’t care about anyone, flare guns ineffective against Angels, no other religions or countries are involved in the end of humanity, most Angels are bloodthirsty zombies and that smoking while pregnant is apparently okay if you’re feeling sorry for yourself.
Started well, looked great, petered out, picked up, ended. If you’re expecting an epic battle of good versus Angels? Guess again. For me the film falls into the category of a DVD you watch with a few drinks and then fall asleep not remembering much and then getting the sequel. Do I rate it out of 10? No I don’t.
Release date 5 March, director Scott Stewart, includes Dennis Quaid and Paul Bettany.
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Feck that – just bring out the Preacher film/series!
nice review – thought it looked good but I guess the best bots were in the trailer