“Legion,” yet another movie about the apocalypse, is the kind of film that would bore a lot of us. However, people still seem to enjoy it, as it is number two in the box office competing with James Cameron’s “Avatar”. From the trailers, audiences perceive the idea that God has finally snapped and that humans are ultimately responsible for their own demise. The plot of the movie is not much different from this.
At the start of the film, everything is very confusing. It seemed that the movie jumped into the middle of the problem with no explanation as to how it got there. Within the first half hour, the audience is left unaware about why the end of the world is coming. The story starts to unfold after we are introduced to Jeep Hanson (Lucas Black) and Charlie (Adrianne Palicki). Jeep plays the ultimate good-hearted young man, who seems to be haunted by his dreams and unable to make sense of them. Charlie plays the young, tough, cynical pregnant girl who plans on putting her baby up for adoption. Both characters work for Jeep’s father, Bob, played by Dennis Quaid, at a diner in the middle of a desert.
The movie plays out in this diner after tensions grow when mysterious people stop by. One of the customers turns out to be a possessed old lady who tells Charlie that her baby will burn and that everyone will die. The next customer to walk in is Michael (Paul Bettany), who informs everyone in the diner that humankind is in danger. He goes further explaining that God has ordered his angels to destroy Earth and he was one of the angels ordered to destroy Charlie and her child, but his love for humanity stood in his way. He has come to the diner to help prepare for the war against the angels. He speaks to Jeep about how he must save Charlie and the baby and continue with his destiny and restore civilization.
The fight between the humans and the angels was interesting, but it was a bit hard to believe that you could kill an angel with a gun. It also seemed bizarre that God would send his angels to destroy humankind, when God could destroy it himself. Either way, it still entertained me. One great part of the movie was when God sends Gabriel to destroy Michael. There is a confrontation between the fallen angel and the angel who only seeks to obey and serve God. Kevin Durand plays Gabriel and does so perfectly. I was captivated by the warrior in Gabriel and his anger against Michael for defying God’s command. The combat between the two was exhilarating; it was choreographed wonderfully and packed with hits. The most exciting part of the movie was at the end of the fight when Michael delivers the line to Gabriel, “You gave him what he wanted, I gave him what he needed.”
Personally, the only reason I liked the movie was because the action scenes and Paul Bettany’s performance. He played the role wonderfully as the fallen angel who tries to save humankind. He captured the part without flaws and made audiences root for him and sympathize with him. Dennis Quaid and Adrianne Palicki were also exceptional in the movie. Lucas Black doesn’t seem like the right fit for the role of Jeep at all, he was too na’ve and young to play the lead role. The overall storyline is a bit controversial to a lot of people because of the connotation that is given to God, Gabriel and angels and seen by some as blasphemy.