RUTHERFORD ON FILM: 'LEGION'
Demonic Angels Stir Up an Apocalypse at a Dusty Desert Diner
Reviewed By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Entertainment Editor
Huntington, WV (HNN) -- Arriving prior to the destructive angelic chorus led by Gabriel (just after one of the diners utters something about finding a Bible), archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) has disobeyed the deity and fallen to earth to intercept God’s coming wrath. Michael has found an unmarried diner waitress (Adrianne Palicki.) and a good hearted compassionate red neck, Jeep (Lucas Black), who counters God’s loss of faith in men and women by enlisting a cross section of diner guests before the demonic angel apocalypse.
This oasis in the desert lies at the bottom of the economic strata. Its owner anticipated an interstate exchange, but the high traffic development went further west, leaving the so-called Paradise little more than a squinty beat up trailer parked on the lot with petroleum station junk tires and junk cars. This sandy strip’s mixture of down and out and stranded by fate do not anticipate coffee , beer, or biscuit eaters strolling in by day or night. Nope. It’s angels against angels; the kind with wings, not motorcycles.
Amidst this depressing hopelessness, Jeep still offers to befriend and take responsibility for the single mom and her child. An obvious yet mostly poorly executed representation of Mary, Joseph and the messiah.
“Legion” has an out of sync pendulum that the director Scott Stewart allows to stall at the “spoof” swing (think momentary touches of “Zombieland,” especially when a white haired lady shows her teeth) but then ramps it up for the opposite as it stalls on bullets, blasts, and wings fluttering. Under this uncertain, mostly darkening mood, it’s difficult to see beyond the square footage of the desert, rather than contemplating worldwide no sunrise tomorrow ramifications.
Ultimately, the flick ratchets into automatic weapon spraying shootouts, leaving slight prophetic inscriptions, such as that this might have been a narrow annihilation (the setting is very close to Vegas) than a Great Flood.
Faith in one’s self and others aside, any recommendation here would be for fans of dark graphic novel battles and penchants for bad breath, periodontal wretched mouths of bloody bicuspids. No lead or rusty colors either; brilliant red colors for bleeding on the gravel and floor.