Legion (2010) Review

I was't planning on seeing this film, yet after being surprised by The Book of Eli, I decided to give this film a chance. The trailer for this film was terrible and I have to admit that I had no plans to see this atrociously horrible film. My younger brother needed someone to get him into the movie, I had nothing to do, and I knew that my best friend was going to tell me to see it; so I went to Legion. What a mistake that was.

The movie uses the classic zombie movie formula by putting a bunch of strangers together in an enclosed building to fight off crazy people, and throughout the film I was reminded of the classic Romero movie, Night of the Living Dead, especially when the lumbering possessed people start showing up and the heroes board themselves up in a diner. At the start of the film our main hero Micheal, a fallen angel, shows up with a police cruiser full of automatic weapons, and by this point I was actually excited to see some action as the movie was almost an hour in. Too bad for me that they're were only two good action scenes, the rest of the film expecting to be taken seriously. During one of these serious stupid scenes Micheal is trying to convince his brother to spare him, during this however a girl wearing a paper bag over her head is hitting a car with a stick while speaking gibberish. How can this film be taken seriously when it is so damn silly? The whole film was full of stupid religious bullshit that has worked in some great films (Kevin Smith's Dogma used a similar premise amazingly), yet in Legion it tries so hard to make itself spiritual and religiously important that it becomes idiotic and silly when clashing with the action and horror elements.

It is never made clear why God wants to exterminate humanity, which I could deal with, but the movie leaves to much to the viewer to just assume, especially the importance of the baby. The movie even suggests that the end of the world can't be prevented and after the baby is born the fighting is still occurring and people are still getting killed. Why was this baby so important if nothing happens after it's born? I was expecting all sins forgiven and bright lights and a heavenly glow, yet instead we see more people die and an incredibly lame fight scene between Micheal and his brother Gabrielle. Gabrielle is also probably invincible, as he survives a car crash, explosion, falling fifty feet, and being cut incredibly deep, yet when Micheal returns again Gabreielle shits bricks because Micheal points a sword at him and then admits defeat. The movie basically ends there, but another scene shows the remaining survivors with a bunch of weapons loaded in the back of their car implying the possibility of a sequel. I really hope that there isn't one.

Legion had potential as an action movie, but it was so pretentious that it becomes stupid and hilarious. The action scenes are few and far between long scenes of religious babble and judgment day paranoia. It takes way too long for the movie to actually get going and by this point I was already bored to tears. It tries to be emotional and deep but cuts between these scenes show incredibly laughable moments that I suppose the producers thought were scary. Legion fails on everything it tries at; it is a bad action movie, a bad romance, a terrible drama, and I in no way recommend seeing it. For the love of God do not see this film as its bad and blasphemous enough to actually cause the apocalypse.

Rating: 2/10