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Legion
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Anthony Arrigo (21st August 2010). |
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The Film
 Why is it that almost every religiously-themed apocalyptic film needs to place the onus of mankind’s salvation on the shoulders of a child? It seems like this is one of the most overused of clichés in horror and, yet, people continually employ it for their hackneyed scripts. I can’t think of many times when it has worked with great success, but apparently the writers of “Legion” (2010) thought that it seemed like a great device to utilize. This isn’t to say that the film is problem-free without it. On the contrary, the film is rife with so many terrible choices, both in scripting and casting, that the “baby savior” angle is just another cog in the wheel of failure that is “Legion”. Another is the fact that, though the film sells itself as a battle between God and man, there isn’t much battling going on. Aside from the necessary scare scenes, which anyone who has seen the trailer is already well aware of, the film spends a lot of time droning on about religion, mankind, fate, etc. This is made all the more mind-numbing by virtue of the fact that every character is such a paper-thin archetype of those we see in every single other horror film. There aren’t many surprises as to who lives and who dies, aside from possibly one exception towards the end. But the biggest problem I had with “Legion” is that it brings absolutely nothing new to the table. If I wanted to watch a film about angels fighting on Earth, I’d rather pop in a DVD of “The Prophecy” (1995). At least with that one I get Christopher Walken’s creepy mug to keep me entertained for 90 minutes. Late at night, in a darkened alley, the Archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) arrives on Earth in Los Angeles. After securing a vehicle, he heads out to the Paradise Falls (how sly) diner located in the Mojave Desert. There he meets up with our dispensable cast, led by Bob Hanson (Dennis Quaid) and his son, Jeep (Lucas Black), after they endure an attack from a seemingly sweet old lady. Michael informs them that the child of Charlie (Adrianne Palicki), a waitress at the diner, is the only hope for mankind, and that God has decided to wage a war on them. Expectedly, each member of the cast is slowly picked off one by one as denizens of Hell come forth in an effort to kill Charlie before her baby can be born, eventually culminating in the Archangel Gabriel (Kevin Durand) coming to Earth so he can defeat Michael and lay waste to humankind. Even my brief synopsis manages to make this film sound better than it really is. I took issue with a great many aspects of the story here, but chief among them is that the film tends to go heavy on the dialogue and light on the action. There isn’t a whole lot of preaching to the audience (thankfully), but the film seems to think it’s something it clearly is not: serious. Chunks of dialogue come across as hammy and embarrassingly bad because they’re spoken with too much conviction, if that makes any sense. Of course, I should mention that the lion’s share of these offenses come solely from Bettany. He’s just not trying to make his character anything more than a one-note doomsayer. And it’s laughably bad when he’s dispatching evil minions with a semi-automatic weapon. Am I the only one who gets tired of seeing potentially awesome supernatural battles reduced to gun fights? This (on a similar level) was exactly what I hated about the first “Underworld” (2003) film. Not assisting in making the film any more enjoyable is the fact that if you’ve seen the trailer, then you’ve seen the best parts the movie has to offer. The two best scenes are, arguably, the old possessed woman attacking the diners near the opening of the film; and the arachnid ice cream man (played by creature vet Doug Jones) menacingly sprinting over to our characters. The full scenes in the film aren’t much longer than those seen in the previews, so anyone expecting some additional action with either creature will be disappointed. The rest of the confrontations are fairly weak and, frankly, not even memorable. Even the film’s climatic battle between Michael and Gabriel is terrible, made all the worse by the ridiculous armor Gabriel is wearing throughout it. He looks like he just came from the local Costume Castle and bought whatever was left on the racks before a party. Maybe I’m having a harder time suspending my disbelief with these films, but I find myself questioning far too many decisions made on the part of both the (presumably) sane and rational human cast, and by the hordes of possessed running around outside the diner. The film does a decent job of establishing that these creatures have a considerable amount of strength, yet none of them work together to smash open the diner’s door or windows to snatch the pregnant Charlie away from the group. Likewise, there’s a completely absurd scene near the end where a car crashes while one of the characters has a newborn infant on her lap. As you might’ve guessed, it survives unscathed. Mind you, someone else DIED in the crash, but a baby who’s only hours old and sitting on a lap yields no marks. Must be a miracle or something, right? I don’t want to turn this into a complete bash (though I probably should), so I will say that some things worked for me. The aforementioned scenes with the geriatric ghoul and the multi-limbed confectioner were effective, if not partially marred by bad CGI. I also dug the fact that the God in this film is an angry god. He’s tired of how humanity is defying his ways and going against him, so he figures it would be best to send a fleet of his angels to come and wipe us out. You see, unlike in the bible, where angels are all glow-y and virginal and pure, these angels are dark, sadistic and hell-bent on wiping out the human species. They could have easily claimed that Satan was behind it all, maybe have God’s special angels appear at the climax and defeat them back to Hell, or something like that. But instead they chose to make the angels of Heaven just as fearsome as those we might expect to see in Hell. It does nothing to make the film any better, but it is an unexpected touch in an otherwise typical offering.
Video
I can’t find much to nitpick regarding the film’s 2.40:1 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 encoded transfer. There’s a lot to love here, with some fantastic detail made prominent among the dusty, sparse desert landscape which surrounds the diner. Daylight scenes look incredibly bright and dimensional with wonderfully reproduced skin tones and a defined color palette. Darker scenes, which encompass a majority of the film’s second half, look particularly impressive. Fine detail is never lost to the shadows – faces and objects are easy to make out amongst all the black. Speaking of which, the black levels are strong in this image. Not only do they hold up considerably well, but they manage to avoid overwhelming the images contained within them – making this an ideal image when you’re viewing in a darkened room. There is a fine sheen of film grain present throughout, and at no time did I find it became distracting to the picture. Aside from the odd soft of slightly out of focus shot, this is a near-perfect image which takes full advantage of what high-definition on home video can offer.
Audio
I both loved and hated the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound track. Mixed at 48kHz/24-bit, the sound was an elephant when the action was blazing across the screen. Explosions shook my windows, gunfire erupted from every speaker, and demonic minions attacked from every angle… but once the action calmed down, everything else seemed to get REALLY quiet. In fact, I don’t think I’ve fiddled with my volume button so much before. The action scenes were so loud and intense that I found myself knocking the volume down a notch or four, but once the dialogue back in the diner picked up everyone seemed to like whispering their lines, which had me turning it up twice as high. So, this mix ended up being both amazingly incredible, and downright difficult to hear at times. I suppose I could have foregone my hearing and left it all at a higher volume, but I generally now what to set my system at so movies sound their best, and this one was one of the most inconsistent performers I can remember. Also included is a French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound track. Subtitles are available in English, English for the hearing impaired and French.
Extras
It may not be totally loaded, but there is a reasonably varied selection of supplemental material included for “Legion” in this 2-disc Blu-ray package. Aside from the requisite featurettes, there is also a picture-in-picture commentary that features some behind-the-scenes and anecdotal feature exclusive to the Blu-ray edition, as well as Sony’s MovieIQ interactive feature, a BD-Live link, bonus trailers and a digital copy of the film. DISC ONE: “Bringing Angels to Earth: Picture-in-Picture” (1080p) is a picture-in-picture video commentary feature which offers up a glimpse into the making of the film while you watch it. Via pop-up windows, director/co-writer Scott Charles Stewart and some of the film’s cast & crew discuss the genesis of the projects and its characters. We also get a look at some of the visual FX work used to create many of the key scenes, storyboards for many of the sequences, information on the shooting and locations, scripting decisions and a host of anecdotal material. Stewart starts of the track by stating his intentions of making this as informative as possible to “demystify the process of making a movie”, and he makes sure to give you everything he’s got. I think this is possibly one of the best uses of the picture-in-picture function and more Blu-ray discs should come with content this valuable to the film. “Creating the Apocalypse” (1080p) is a featurette which runs for 23 minutes and 13 seconds. This piece focuses on the creation of some of the more sinister set pieces and make-up effects featured in the film. The deformed ice cream man, the hellish grandmother and other nasty, bloody hordes of Satan are shown in their various states of development and execution on camera. “Humanity’s Last Line of Defense” (1080p) is a featurette which runs for 11 minutes and 31 seconds. Here, we get a closer look at the characters that make their stand at the diner fending off the minions of the Beast. There are interviews with each of the main cast members who discuss their respective roles and how they fit into the ensemble cast. “From Pixels to Picture” (1080p) is a featurette which runs for 10 minutes and 57 seconds. As you might guess, this is a closer look at the film’s visual effects work. The film’s visual effects team deconstructs some of the FX work and fill viewers in on how they achieved what is seem in the final film. There are a handful of bonus trailers (1080p) available for the following: - “Unthinkable” runs for 1 minute and 14 seconds. - “The Runaways” runs for 49 seconds. - “Youth in Revolt” runs for 2 minutes and 27 seconds. - “Chloe” runs for 2 minutes and 1 second. - “Wild Things: Foursome” runs for 1 minute and 13 seconds. - “The Road” runs for 32 seconds. - “2012” runs for 1 minute and 12 seconds. - “The Da Vinci Code” runs for 1 minute and 6 seconds. - “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” runs for 1 minute and 26 seconds. - “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans” runs for 2 minutes and 22 seconds. Sony’s MovieIQ interactive feature and BD-Live link are included, as usual. The MovieIQ provides facts, information and trivia on the film while you watch. The BD-Live link leads to Sony’s webpage, where no exclusive content related to the film is found. DISC TWO: This is a digital copy of the film available for use on Windows Media, iTunes, and PSP-supported devices.
Packaging
The 2-disc set comes housed in a standard amaray keepcase with each disc housed on either side. As usual, there is a production still on the back cover, giving buyers a little something to look at in lieu of a booklet.
Overall
Though the film may have featured a few decent scenes of horror, the whole thing just feels like we’ve seen it before. This subgenre, that of religious apocalypse, just feels tired and stale. None of the performances is enough to elevate the picture in ay way, and the one-note characters and boring script barely do enough to maintain interest. However, the lack of a good film is at least enhanced on Blu-ray with strong visuals and a roaring, if not annoying, soundtrack. Those who like knowing every aspect of making a film will really enjoy the supplemental material, specifically, the picture-in-picture feature. But nothing I’ve just mentioned can truly make up for the fact that this is a mediocre film, at best.
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