What exactly does one do when God gets pissed? Do you run and hide and pretend that he can’t find you? Do you stand your ground and curse at the sky above? Do you perhaps look around for the devil and try and strike up a last minute deal? Either way, if you were to indeed be around for the day that God decides that the human existence needs to end, you best get on your knees and pray for a pregnant woman to fall from the sky because if you don’t then you might as well bend over and kiss your sweet ass goodbye. I’d have to say that this movie let me down…sadface.

Sum It Up:

Legion is a twist on the tale of the apocalypse to come. The day that god will end all and you will be judged. Though, this apocalypse has a slight twist…an angel doesn’t exactly agree with God’s plan and flies down to protect the humans that he has grown to love. It’s this angel that gives us weak and helpless humans a chance to show God that maybe we’re not ready to be destroyed and he can just go ahead and “start over” …

the Good:

I’m going to get right to the point on the good things of this movie.

I for one think that  the original idea behind this movie is what should’ve pulled any audience that it might’ve got, in. I guess I’m a sucker for the angels/demons plot lines, but there was actually more to this than say Heaven and Hell. This story was actually about the characters’ faith in what was going to pull them through this ordeal and above all, God’s faith in humanity.

The main character, the angel Michael, played by Paul Bettany is pretty awesome. This is not the first time we’ve seen Paul play a “religious” role and the part seems to suit him. He tends to be able to transcend the character of “faith” fairly well and it comes across on screen. My one regret is that he could’ve had more screen time, a lengthier back story, possibly a few more lines to help give his character some depth.

And honestly, after those two things I’m finding it hard to push my brain any further to come up with anything else, nope wait. I do have one more – the character design was pretty kewl. For instance, if you look at how they made the wings, and that the angels use them as weapons – that’s pretty awesome. Throw in some attention to detail as far as costumes and a few key items (the attack mace for example) then I’d say that character design somewhat shines through.

Ok, an that’s it for the Good.

the Bad:

I don’t want to talk about everything that was bad with this movie, but I need to warn people if not for their own right to know.

You can’t just throw us into the apocalypse and not explain anything…? The movie drops Michael out of the sky, he cuts his wings off, blows up a building and then goes to help these people. Then we find the people, alone and stranded out in the middle of nowhere’sville and the savior of humanity happens to be there. Of all places! We’re given a laundry list of characters that we feel nothing for because all the while we don’t exactly know why everything is happening. (don’t get me wrong, we’re given some vague idea but it doesn’t make me care any more …)

We’re also given way too many character development scenes for each one of the people that are stranded at the ” Paradise Falls” pitstop. Oh, and that’s another thing – “Paradise Falls”??? Come on, really? I think that there was a movie this past year that enchanted audiences everywhere with it’s little old man trying to get his little old house to “Paradise Falls” with a bunch of damn balloons … and then you go and tarnish that thought with this crappy po-dunk diner pit stop thing? Pssh … for shame. Ok sorry, back to the point. So anyways, at the “Paradise Falls” (hack) … we are seriously given about 5 to 10 minutes for each character to spill their guts about their life and meaningless stories that we could obviously care less about. I understand what the director was trying to do here but they were so random and so pushed that we end up either not caring at all, or we fall asleep (as I did during the girl’s monologue about how her “life sucks blah blah blah” …)

So here’s the sequence: Scene one, Michael falls from sky. Scene two, Michale cuts wings off blows up building and kills cops/angels (though they look like demons-remember this I’m coming back to it) Scene three, “Paradise Falls” and girl/guy have a talk in the morning. Scene four, guy/father talk. Scene five, people at “Paradise Falls” talk in diner – people upset and restless. Scene six, kill granny angel (yes angel – wait for it I’m getting there). Scene seven, Michael gets to “Paradise Falls”. Scene eight, Michael says “get ready” and gives everyone a gun. And so on and so on, the point to any of what I just described is that the pacing was so screwed up from the word “go” that you can never buckle yourself in and enjoy the ride. That’s kind of the point with a action/fantasy/thriller/horror movie. It’s supposed to show us something we’ve not seen and keep us glued to our seats. This movie didn’t. Between all the character monologues and the few and far between action scenes you find yourself more bored than anything. I personally found myself yearning for Michael to strap his wings back on just so I could at least have something to look at.

Oh and let me touch on the angel/demon thing. So why is it that when an angel possess someone, they end up looking like really scary demons rather than just people? It really threw off the audience and myself through out the entire movie. Because now instead of making the audience by into the plot and story, you are confusing us and pulling us from the experience. Now instead of watching and knowing what’s going on, I’m thinking of why the person that was a nice old lady now has sharp pointy shark teeth and dark dead zombie like eyes.

Need I go on?

Final Thought:

I could’ve gone on with some more things that upset me about this movie but I digress. Don’t be fooled by the trailer like I was … I really went in expecting this to be a fun movie to watch. I didn’t go in expecting a Oscar nominee or anything, but it had Paul Bettany and a good premise backing it up. This just goes to show that a good concept and a lead man to back it aren’t going to always pull it off in the end. You might rent this movie someday, but save yourself the 8 or 9 bucks.

Rating: 5/10