Legion Movie (2010)

God has been furious with their children before, sending a wave to wash them away and start anew. This time, they’ve opted for a more horrifying measure; sending an army of the possessed guided by their loyal angels to eradicate God’s great mistake: humanity.

The concept of Legion (2010) is an intriguing one, with God’s angels possessing the weak-minded to engulf and kill the strong, thus ending humanity. It has the makings of a movie that would entail dark scenes of horror, waves of violence, and a lot of thrilling fantasy-action scenes. As the film features the likes of Paul Bettany, Kevin Durand, and Dennis Quaid, one could expect at least a fairly decent film: but one would be wrong.

Legion fails to live up to its potential due to its weak, cliché-ridden, cheesy script, its lack of thought for logic or its own internal logic, the seemingly low or poorly utilized budget, and the chosen setting of the story amidst what could be an interesting and very cinematic plot.

After a quick monologue concerning the state of the earth and God being mad, the film shifts to the angel Michael (Paul Bettany), landing in a dark alley, wings apparent. After being startled by a barking dog, the camera quickly cuts to a knife in the stabbing position, the dog pacing and whelping, and then Bettany sans wings. After an explosion, some police shouting their cinematically-generic lines, and a hard-to-watch possession sequence – which sees a police officer shake his head back and forth until he gets sharp teeth and dilated pupils – Michael busts out his angel skills, leaving the two officers dead, driving off in a police car.

While the film tries to land its footing in horror, fantasy, and action, it merely dips its toes into each, demonstrating the lack of direction and lack of thought given to a potentially exciting movie. The interesting overall plot could be given justice by ambitious filmmakers with a deeper roster of talent and a bigger budget. Legion comes off as a very lazy movie that originally lured people in with its promise of an interesting story and plenty of big fantasy-action scenes – no wonder God is mad.