Légion : L'Armée des anges

I saw the film last night. It started out like a typical "Survival Horror" film. A group of different people. A mysterious stranger rolls into town. All Hell (excuse me...HEAVEN) breaks loose. Then just as soon as the film got going, someone stabbed a pitchfork in it and turned it over. It totally changed gears.

Once the film first set-piece ended it turned into a slower version of Night of the Living Dead. This is largely due to a plot point that set this rule into action: God put a restraining order on all ZombAngels. They were not allowed to get too close to the main protagonist. So without giving anything away; you can now imagine the pacing of the film up to the climax. Slow and uneventful.

The acting was a caliber above most Horror films. Quaid, Black, and Bettany were all fine. However none were memorable. Even the two main Godsends, Gabriel and Michael, managed to have conflict that was forgotten seconds after the next scene started.

So I would say it's a "Catch on Cable" viewing. Unless you're a huge Bettany fan. Then I would say avoid this like the plague.

If you were to ask me, 'Is Legion a good film?' I would have to reply a resounding 'No.' However, that flies (like an angel?) in the face of the fact that I originally hired it, then bought it on DVD and have subsequently watched it a few times since. What can I say... I clearly have little taste in films! Sometimes you don't want DeNiro's excellent acting ability, or Christopher Nolan's tales of head-scratching, mind-bending concepts. You'll even forfeit decent dialogue and little character development for simple shooting monsters with big guns. And this is what you get right here.

Basically, God himself is disillusioned with the human race and decides it's time to get rid of them (and kill a baby while he's at it). However, God's top angel (played by Paul Bettany) says 'No way!' and decides to save this special child and, while he's at it, all of us mortals. Now, if this sounds like a feat that couldn't possibly be crammed into just an hour and a half, it all takes place in a restaurant by a freeway in the middle of the desert. Our - sort of - winged hero has to help a band of human survivors fend off wave after wave of (fallen?) angels until the child is born.

It's basically a 'siege' movie. Think 'Assault on Precinct 13' but with monsters attacking those held up in a small, barricaded dwelling. There's nothing more grandiose than that, so if that's the sort of low-brow film you want to watch at the end of a long day's work then you should get what you're looking for. There's plenty of action and shoot-outs and for what it is it's not bad. Just don't go expecting anything too deep and dramatic and you won't be disappointed. Oh and Dennis Quaid is also in it - he tries to act his best with the script he's been given and occasionally comes close to succeeding. But then another battle comes along and you end up losing another extra in a hideous way possible.

It's not amazing, but then I don't think it ever tries to be. Know what it is and keep your expectations low. Don't worry, there's plenty of time to check your smartphone during the lulls in the action. You won't miss a thing.

God loses the faith in mankind and order the Angel Michael (Paul Bettany) and a legion of angels to bring the Apocalypse on Earth and exterminate the human race. However, Michael rebels against the order and decides to help the humans. Meanwhile in a diner in the middle of nowhere, the owner Bob Hanson (Dennis Quaid) runs the place with his son Jeep (Lucas Black), the pregnant waitress Charlie (Adrianne Palacki) and his friend Percy Walker (Charles S. Dutton). Their costumers are the Anderson family that is stranded in the place waiting that Jeep fixes their BMW and the lonely Kyle Williams (Tyrese Gibson) that is lost and wants to make a phone call. When an old woman named Glady Foster (Jeanette Miller) arrives in the diner, she attacks Howard Anderson (Jon Tenney) on the neck with her shark teeth and she is finally killed by Kyle. When a police car arrives in the spot, the stranger Michael advises that Earth is the battleground between angels and humans and Glady was only a vessel possessed by an angel. Further, Charlie's should be born to save the humankind.

"Legion" is a film with a promising beginning and a disappointing conclusion. I really expected to enjoy this film, but the story has many clichés and there is no explanation why the bastard son of Charlie would save the human race. I do not understand how people that can find religious background in a blockbuster action movie. Further, if they have trauma with this theme, why wast their time watching this movie? My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Legião" ("Legion")

The Angel Michael (Paul Bettany) plunges from heaven to Earth, after which he cuts off his wings and gets busy with gathering up an arsenal of weapons. In the meantime in an god-forsaken diner in the middle of New Mexico several lost travellers and the diner's employees surprisingly become a central point to the apocalypse. All because of the unborn baby of the diner's hapless waitress. Soon people possessed by angels appear and only Michael's arrival helps stave off the impending doom...

Even with the above basic premise it is easy to figure out where this movie is going. It that sense it is basically a homage to the brilliant Prophecy series (brilliant more in content than acting or direction). Now I must say that I am extremely surprised by the low grades the movie has on IMDb, given that so many worse movies have ratings in their 6s or 7s...

There are definitely things not right in this movie with the whole middle sequence surprisingly poor and borderline terrible in its lack of logic - possessed suddenly stop attacking and let the one thing they are preventing from happening happen... That said the acting was at least good and characters are well presented. Add to that a very good fight sequence with the angel Gabriel and I found this movie a good if uninspiring watch.

Enjoying this movie might enrage God more than anything that happens in it .. but seriously though (and hopefully you are not offended), this movie is illogical and has quite a few clichés going for it. You might see where it is going (or "staying" if you will) and you might not like quite a few reveals or the ending. But the good thing about it is, you can sit back and enjoy it, without having to think about certain story related problems or continuity and other stuff.

Of course if you were to use your brain while watching this, one of the things you'd notice, is the fact that Dennis Quaid seems to have a bad choice of movie roles lately. "Bad" if you consider what he is capable of and what he ends up playing (this might actually take under 10% of his abilities to pull it off). But then again, you shouldn't care. You also shouldn't care too much about cardboard cut outs presented as "characters". But if you do, this is were I warned you. Which is more of a warning then someone else gave before unleashing ... but you know the rest or are about to see the rest.

The Prophecy is still the better movie (first one), but for a quick and fun movie, you can always rely on the action on hand here (which is shot very nicely)