Starring: Dennis Quaid, Charles S. Dutton, Jon Tenney, Kate Walsh, Paul Bettany, Adrianne Palicki
Rated: R
Twenty minutes into Scott Stewart's end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it parable, "Legion," I was thinking how great the film would be on a warm summer night at a drive-in theater. Less than a minute later, my film compatriot leaned over and said, "This is drive-in material!"
I can't stress the importance of having a kindred spirit attend a movie with you. It makes good movies better and bad movies bearable, even fun.
As a foreword and full disclosure, "Legion" is not a film that I will defend. Had I been in a different mood, I may have decided it was not worth the minutes of my life I was spending watching it. I felt that way about the first two acts of "Avatar," a film on its way to being the highest grossing movie in history.
But on the other hand, there's something to be said about good dumb fun, and "Legion" is as fun as it is dumb.
Part "Night of the Living Dead," part "Terminator," with a good dose of the film noir classic "The Petrified Forest" thrown in, it's a mash-up of film references by an obviously novice director. But again, it's fun. If you like this sort of thing.
Not to be confused with classic "post-apocalyptic" scenarios - from "The Road Warrior" to the more recent "The Road" and "The Book of Eli" - the plot of "Legion" is pre-apocalyptic.
The film also deviates from the norm in its premise of the end of the world as we know it. The oncoming of the inevitable isn't directly attributable to the technological or bio-scientific mess that mankind has made.
No, the end of the world in this story is based on the fact that God has merely decided it's time for this world to end. He created it and has long threatened to end it and has decided now is as good a time as any to do so. He's not happy with humanity. Not at all.
As "Legion" opens we are introduced to a group of people in an out-of-the-way diner appropriately named "Paradise Falls."
There's some unknown tension in the air. When phones and radio and TV transmissions start failing, the feeling grows more tangible. When clouds of insects appear and a little old lady who had been chewing on a steak suddenly turns into a crazed cannibal, all hell is obviously beginning to break loose. It's a classic B-movie scene, as funny as it is scary.
After Granny Cannibal is dealt with, things continue to get worse and the people in the diner look outside to see a scene from "Night of the Living Dead" or "Last Man on Earth": crazed zombies.
It's no coincidence that this is happening at Christmastime. Neither is it coincidental that Charlie (Adrianne Palicki), the pretty waitress at Paradise Falls, is also quite pregnant.
Enter the scene, Michael.
The audience has already followed his immediate past. We've seen him shed his wings, load up a cache of weapons and steal a cop car.
Michael is an archangel who knows that God is sort of in a bad mood and has decided that humankind is becoming too much of a bother. But Michael thinks God's mood will change, and he (Michael) has gone against God's will and come to save we Earthly mortals. He's the "good guy" in the film.
On the opposite side is the archangel Gabriel, who is intent on letting God's will be done and has come to Earth to keep Michael from stopping it. Gabriel also has to make sure that Charlie's baby is not born before the destruction is complete.
I remember the first time I saw "The Terminator," before James Cameron was a household name and before he had budgets that surpass the gross national product of many a nation. Arnold Schwarzenegger was stiff and laughable and the film seemed so convoluted. After "Terminator 2," which had decidedly higher production values and money behind it, I revisited the original and changed my mind about it.
I'm not sure if "Legion" will ever reach the status of "The Terminator," or even "Night of the Living Dead" (a true low-budget classic that's actually well-written and groundbreaking in many ways).
But I'll say about it what I've said about several films over the years: I wish we still had drive-in theaters. "Legion" would be even more fun there.
Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield freelance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.[[In-content Ad]]
