Movie review: Legion

Hey, look, a review for a movie that's actually still in theaters! Cool. Okay, let's get to it.

As far as horror/action movies go, I can't say this movie was bad, but I certainly can't say it was great, either. The very premise of the movie, that God is sick of humanity and decides to kill us all off with angels, is out there at best. Apparently there's a baby about to be born, one that will somehow save mankind, and the angel Michael decides to defy God and come to earth to make sure that baby is born. The other angels, by possessing ordinary humans, are trying to kill the unborn baby, and anyone else who gets in the way. So Michael, the mother, and the people who just happen to be at the diner in the middle of nowhere the mother works at have to defend themselves from the angels until the baby is born. With guns. Lots and lots of guns.

The movie tries to flesh out the other characters, but ultimately fails. Why does the one guy have a hook for a hand? We don't know. Why is one guy going through custody issues, and why does he carry a gun? We never find out. There's a lot of stuff like this. We also never find out exactly what the significance of the baby is. Is he somehow holy? Well, that's doubtful, since the forces of Heaven are trying to kill him. But how, then, is he supposed to lead mankind out of the darkness? Wouldn't that be something God would be down for? At one point in the movie Michael tells another character to "find the prophets," and "learn to read the instructions". There's a brief reference later to the instructions being the angelic tattoos all over Michael's body (and that somehow manage to appear on a human for no apparent reason), but there is no mention at all of any prophets. None. They're not brought up again. Was this something the writers just forgot about? If I buy the inevitable extended director's cut DVD, will this be explained?

And on top of all of that, the dialogue was not great. A lot of unnecessary cursing. I'm not opposed to foul language in a movie, and this was rated R after all, but these lines sounded like they were written by an eight year old kid who just discovered swear words.

All of these problems aside, though, it was still worth a watch. But I wouldn't pay full price in the theater for it. If you can catch a matinee showing, go for it. Or maybe wait for it to hit second run theaters, it probably won't be long now. Or you could just wait for the DVD and rent it. There were some good actors in the movie, and they made the best of what they had to work with. The action scenes were decent, even if there weren't enough. Just don't expect it to be a riveting story. It's basically Terminator with a lot of underdeveloped characters and subplots. And a questionable religious angle.

Oh, I almost forgot. The one really awesome thing about this movie? I saw a trailer for the new A-Team movie in front of it! That looks awesome!