Legion (Blu-ray)

Paul Bettany playing an angel, you say? Well, surely this isn’t too out of character for one of the UK’s most sensitive performers, having brought us Charles Darwin in last years Creation and the wise doctor Stephen in Master and Commander, amongst others? Ah, but when you add a dash of rebelliousness and God’s anger to the mix (not to mention a truckload of firepower), it becomes clear that Bettany’s casting is quite savvy, imploding that reserved British exterior from within.

Actually it doesn’t, given that all Scott Stewart’s derivative religious horror, Legion, requires Bettany to do is perform a Keanu: look damn cool whilst firing an Uzi. The same ethos applies to the whole production: slick, good looking, great fun, but ultimately forgettable. It’s a shame Stewart didn’t give his talented star, or indeed the equally talented supporting cast, more to work with, but then that’s not the point. Instead it’s content to fling pathos and subtlety into the dustbin, cooking up a stew of shallow religious hysteria and prophecy (very 90s; somewhat tedious), plus bizarre, dead-eyed demons straight from TV’s Supernatural. It’s a lie though to suggest it isn’t a (stupid) blast.

Bettany plays seraphim Michael, ejected from Heaven and landing on Earth on December 23rd. He’s hust in time to help a group of misfits (among them father and son Dennis Quaid and Lucas Black) stranded in an out-of-the-way diner as the apocalypse descends. As Adrianne Palicki’s pregnant waitress, whose unborn child is central to events, observes: ‘Maybe [God] got tired of all the bullshit’.

Yes, that’s as profound as its adolescent mindset gets. Measured religious observation? Why not read a handwritten wax crayon alternative? Truthfully, Stewart is less interested in the back-story, using it instead to exploit the classic old granny and evil child horror movie tropes brilliantly, and conjuring up some truly disturbing ghoulies (watch out for the stretchy ice cream van nasty). By the time Kevin Durand’s Gabriel turns up with bullet-proof wings, you wonder why the director even entertained the slightest thought of religious conviction in his screenplay.

It does, however, look fabulous in its new Blu-Ray transfer, possessed of a pin, sharp steely atmosphere, making one dread that enormous cloud on the horizon or the foregrounded swing moving ominously. The shrill sound design is also layered superbly, although extras are standard: perfunctory nuggets centering on effects. Like the film itself, don’t expect a juicy steak when you can settle for a McDonalds.

Overall Verdict: Utterly bonkers, utterly stupid, as deep as a half-evaporated puddle but then, given this proposes a universe of angels with machine guns…surely you’d expect that going in? Take it for what it is and Legion offers just enough mindless entertainment.

Special Features:
Designing Paradise Falls
Blueprint of a Scene
movieIQ+sync
BD-Live
Bringing Angels To Earth: Picture-in-Picture
Creating the Apocalypse - Behind the Physical Effects
Humanity's Last Line of Defense - The Cast and Characters
From Pixels to Picture - A Look at the Visual Effects

Reviewer: Sean Wilson