Legion (2010) starring Paul Bettany, Lucas Black, Tyrese Gibson, Adrianne Palicki, Charles S. Dutton, Jon Tenney, Kevin Durand, Willa Holland, Kate Walsh, Dennis Quaid directed by Scott Stewart Movie Review

Legion (2010)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Paul Bettany in Legion (2010)

Hell's Angels

Having fallen from grace Archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) crashes down to earth where he chops of his wings and raids a weapons depoth, filling two bags with more weaponry than most people could carry. As it turns out God has had enough of what is going on down on Earth and is ready to do what ever to destroy man, be it plagues or setting man against man. But Michael has other ideas and in a diner in the midst of the desert is a pregnant woman whose child may be the saviour of humanity and it is up to Michael to protect it from what ever comes their way including Gabriel (Kevin Durand).

10 minutes is all it will take to tell you everything you need to know about "Legion" and whether or not you are going to be able to stick it out, and yes "Legion" is one of those movies which is all about sticking it out. So those 10 minutes gives us some dark action stuff with Michael crashing from the sky, slicing his wings off and then raiding the weapons store all of which is snappy, promising but generally typical of this sort of fantasy, action movie. But then that initial taste of energy is lost in some tedious, slow paced scenes which are simply dull. In fact the would have been unwatchable if it wasn't the fact we have a recognizable cast with the likes of Dennis Quaid and Charles S. Dutton giving us characters full of quirks.

Dennis Quaid in Legion (2010)

But as I said those 10 minutes will tell you all you need to know as this is a movie with ocassional action, but no where near enough, lots of uninteresting talking which is not what you are expecting. But more importantly a cast of actors who turn the dial up on the quirks to try and make it watchable and the likes of Dennis Quaid almost save the movie thanks to their OTT performances.

You wonder what went wrong as the synopsis is simple enough, God plans to wipe out humanity and the archangel Michael decides to save the day with the help of those at a diner. What you want is action, more action, some symbolism and more action but we don't get that and it is the lack of action more than anything which lleaves you seriously disappointed. For me if it wasn't for the entertaining performances of the cast "Lgion" would be unwatchable.

What this all boils down to is that "Legion" disappointed me and maybe I watched with the wrong expectations of what the movie was going to be. Fortunately at 100 minutes it isn't too long and it has a very good cast who breed life into the stuttering movie.


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