{"id":1680,"date":"2010-11-30T14:19:34","date_gmt":"2010-11-30T19:19:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=1680"},"modified":"2010-12-20T21:53:11","modified_gmt":"2010-12-21T02:53:11","slug":"br-legion-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=1680","title":{"rendered":"BR: Legion (2010)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/ Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> \/ J to L<\/a><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Weak\u00a0\/ DVD Transfer: Excellent \/ DVD Extras: Very Good<\/p>\n

Label\/Studio: Sony\/ Region: A \/\u00a0Released: May 11, 2010<\/p>\n

Genre: Horror \/ Theological Thriller<\/p>\n

Synopsis: Unhappy with God’s spurrious decision to wipe out humanity due to its mounting \u201cbullshit,\u201d the angel Michael falls from grace and protects strangers at a diner until a sacred baby is born \u2013 the only contraceptive to a holy nuclear extermination.<\/p>\n

Special Features: 3 Featurettes: \u201cCreating the Apocalypse\u201d + \u201cHumanity’s Last Line of Defense\u201d + \u201cBringing Angels to Earth\u201d \/ MovieIQ and BD Live \/ Digital Copy<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

Theological thrillers are tough genres because they can seemingly work in two modes: as stories steeped in the logic of the religion, or with elements diluted to basic good vs. bad conflicts, and some heavy body counts.<\/p>\n

In terms of the latter mode, the most simplistic version (and most successful) is the\u00a0Omen<\/strong> films because they deal with a villain (Satan\u2019s child) out to rule the world, corrupting weak humans as he tries to acquire dominion over mankind \u2013 a goal that works as a parable of corporate, ideological, or despotic villainy. It\u2019s also a simple story that ensures creative deaths and a high body count, culminating in a one-on-one battle in the finale.<\/p>\n

The former mode is where things get sticky, because the filmmakers have to rely on\u00a0 audiences being fully or at least passingly familiar with the Bible\u2019s main characters, which in the case of\u00a0Legion<\/strong>, are angels Michael and Gabriel. For average horror fans wanting a few good scares and a satisfying resolution, the filmmakers have to ensure the story works within the horror realm, and director\/co-writer Scott Stewart manages to pull it off for the first forty minutes with creepy imagery and clich\u00e9d characters that straddle the border between earnest and hokey.<\/p>\n

Like\u00a0The Reaping<\/strong> (2007) or\u00a0The Seventh Sign <\/strong>(1988), there are bugs, a gradual loss of technological safeguards, and a theological strand that drives the respective stories of impending disaster gone global.\u00a0Legion<\/strong>\u2019s premise is simple: angel Michael disagrees with God\u2019s decision to wipe out humanity, so he rebels by falling to Earth, shearing off his wings, and driving to a truck stop where a common waitress will bear a child that\u2019s destined to counteract the holy SS troups headed by rival angel Gabriel.<\/p>\n

The truck stop, much like the mall in\u00a0The Mist <\/strong>(2007), the diner in\u00a0Feast<\/strong> (2005), or the truck stop in\u00a0Maximum Overdrive <\/strong>(1986), for that matter, is where disparate characters converge through accident, and barricade themselves against a legion whose sole goal is to kill them all. Amongst the holed-up innocents is Michael, armed to the teeth after raiding a Los Angeles Police armory, and he has three goals: convince the mortals the sharp-teethed zombies outside are real, ensure the baby\u2019s birth happens, and don\u2019t do anything stupid.<\/p>\n

Former effects expert Stewart directs the film with complete sincerity, and it sort of works for the first half as the surreal elements and character clich\u00e9s manage to co-mingle.<\/p>\n

Jeep (Lucas Black) is driven by an unknown desire to protect pregnant mother Charlie (Adrianne Palicki) even though the child isn\u2019t his, and Jeep\u2019s father Bob (Dennis Quaid) wants his son to leave the truck stop and make a more promising future for himself instead of following blind the faith as he did when Jeep was a child.<\/p>\n

Cook Percy (Charles S. Dutton, again spouting Words of Wisdom like his \u2018lost soul\u2019 convict in\u00a0Alien 3<\/strong>) is the token believer whose faith in God is tested when the good ideas he cherishes in the Good Book are flipped around as God\u2019s ire at mankind is followed by a mass species extermination.<\/p>\n

SPOILERS<\/p>\n

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Herein are the hurdles: we\u2019re not really sure why mankind has to die, nor why one baby can change everything that\u2019s gone wacko. The script makes sure virtually everyone dies except for Jeep, the token Joseph handily entrusted with bad boy Michael’s tattoos which will \u2018guide\u2019 him to raise the baby as a Special Child; Charlie, the token Mother Mary, will presumably live out God\u2019s new mandate because the opening and closing narration is from their child \u2013 a daughter \u2013 who explains the dark chapter in contemporary history was the result of God being tired of mankind\u2019s \u201cbullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Director Stewart crafts an eerie atmosphere and makes good use of the film\u2019s isolated location, but there\u2019s always the problem of why several hundred possessed killers just don\u2019t use their massive numbers to rush the truck stop, smash through windows and doors, and kill the 8 people inside. They\u00a0can<\/em> do it \u2013 they manage to snatch a father from inside, proving there\u2019s no \u2018moral force field\u2019 surrounding the building \u2013 and by the finale there are least a thousand possessed out there, dying to tear at some flesh. What keeps them at bay is never clarified, except that the final killing spree is reserved for bigwig Gabriel.<\/p>\n

There are also several discontinuities in the film’s sloppy finale. Angel Michael (Paul Bettany) has a massive ammo stash, and yet when he steps outside to save a character, he fires off a few rounds from two massive (and rather useful) guns before tossing them aside and using a knife, purely for a contrived hand-to-hand battle.<\/p>\n

The finale where Michael and Gabriel (Lost<\/strong>\u2019s Kevin Durand) go hand-to-hand feels tacked on because the footage was clearly shot in a soundstage with fake rocks, sand, bad dawn lighting, and terrible CGI backgrounds, all of which clash with the otherwise elegant \u2018scope cinematography at the truck stop.<\/p>\n

Cinematographer John Lindley (Money Train<\/strong>) knows how to pack action and atmosphere within the 2.35:1 ratio; the colours are beautifully saturated in soft greens, amber, and sandy browns, and the lighting in each scene always infers an unseen, dangerous force is slowly devouring the few truck stop survivors.<\/p>\n

The fight scenes are tightly edited, but as a character, Gabriel really has no resonance; he\u2019s an enforcer with a smidge of remorse for being pitted against a former ally; Durand tries to impart some nobility to Gabriel as a loyal functionary in a supreme army, but Bettany is much more successful with Michael, often giving his trite dialogue emotional weight, such as a quiet work room scene between Michael and Jeep, as the latter seeks some clear explanation for his intense devotion to unwed mother-to-be Charlie.<\/p>\n

John Frizzell\u2019s score is a solid balance of impressionistic liturgical choir and full orchestra, and the heavy brass sounds heighten the film\u2019s creepiest moments \u2013 including the pinhead ice cream man\u2019s appearance. The music also smoothens the clumsiness of the closing scenes where Gabriel fights Michael, Michael dies, but Michael suddenly reappears in an absurd \u2018I was God\u2019s test for you all along\u2019 twist.<\/p>\n

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END OF SPOILERS<\/p>\n

Stewart wanted to carve out his own theological thriller, mixing doctrine and horror into a shocker hybrid, but the results only work in the setup. The final product was sufficiently problematic for Screen Gems that\u00a0Legion<\/strong> was held back until a January 2010 release \u2013 far off from the implied release in the fall 2009 trailers which, quite frankly were awful. Rather than edit an impressionistic trailer \u2013 emphasizing the film\u2019s strong images and sounds \u2013 the compacted drama looked plain silly, which is the likely impression most will leave after giving the film a spin.<\/p>\n

Sony\u2019s Blu-ray sports a sharp transfer with a broad-sounding surround sound mix, and the added extras above the SD-DVD cover the film\u2019s production and effects. The picture-in-picture commentary track (part of the MovieIQ feature) has periodic windows of the speakers, production sketches, and behind-the scenes footage, and it\u2019s been handily chapter indexed, making it easy to skip to the next facet.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2010 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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Related links:<\/em><\/p>\n

Interview: composer John Frizzell<\/a><\/p>\n

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Related external links (MAIN SITE):<\/em><\/p>\n

CD: \u00a0Legion <\/a><\/strong>(2010)<\/p>\n

DVD \/ Film: \u00a0Money Train<\/a><\/strong> (1995) —\u00a0Reaping, The<\/a> <\/strong>(2007)<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> <\/em><\/em><\/em>\/ J to L<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Theological thrillers are tough genres because they can seemingly work in two modes: as stories steeped in the logic of the religion, or with elements diluted to basic good vs. bad conflicts, and some heavy body counts…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-r6","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1680"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1926,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680\/revisions\/1926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}