By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
The Bible has been the inspiration for countless stories and adaptations, including Russell Crowe’s Noah, the classic, The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston, and even Veggietales. Legion, released in 2010 and now available on Netflix, shows a version of the Biblical Apocalypse that turns angels into the instruments of God’s disappointment, turning the usual stories of the Second Coming and the rise of the forces of Hell on its head. It’s also another action horror hated by critics, but yet successful enough that it spawned a sequel series on SyFy.
Heaven Brings Hell To Earth
Legion doesn’t turn the Devil into a good guy like Netflix’s Lucifer. Instead, it turns Michael (Paul Bettany) into a hero trying to save humanity under the belief that they deserve a second chance. Opposing him is the Heavenly Host, possessing humans in grotesque moments of body horror, who seeks to wipe out a small group taking shelter in a dinner as Heaven descends around them. Among the survivors in the diner is a young, pregnant woman, Charlie (The Orville’s Adrianne Palicki), carrying the future savior of mankind.
The rest of the human survivors in Legion are barely fleshed out enough to call them characters, but yet somehow, the cast is filled with recognizable faces. From Dennis Quaid as the diner’s owner to Tyrese Gibson, Charles S. Dutton, Kate Walsh, and Willa Holland, you’ve seen everyone before in other roles, none of whom are able to do much with the material. The exception is Lucas Black, from Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift as Jeep, who quickly emerges as the child’s best hope for survival.
High-Concept Low-Budget
The biggest problem with Legion, and its slightly offset streaming on Netflix since it’s easy to speed up or scene skip, is that despite the crazy setup and the opening sequences that culminate with the ominous arrival of an ice cream truck, the pacing is so off that it feels like nothing happens for multiple scenes. Then, everything goes to Hell, and the final third feels like it rushes to a conclusion with a literal bang. It’s in those moments of pure horror, with humanity’s back against the wall and bullets flying against the angelic monstrosities, that the film finally comes alive.
Legion isn’t the best film on Netflix despite being a surprise box office hit, earning $67 million worldwide against a budget of $26 million, but it did get an odd revival on SyFy in 2010 with the sequel series Dominion. Featuring none of the same stars as the film, the show is 25 years into the apocalypse, centered on Las Vegas, now a fortress called Vega. Michael is back, leading humanity against his former brethren, led by Gabriel.
As with the movie that came before it, Dominion is filled with high-level concepts that it lacked the budget to properly see through and remains better in the abstract than actually watching it. Legion is a better watch on Netflix when it’s separated from the cost of a movie ticket, but it’s clearly still a B-movie with a script that’s rough around the edges. A few special effects are impressive, including the Ice Cream Man, but it’s perhaps most effective as a palette cleanser after a more intense horror film like Hereditary, and it’s best with friends who can appreciate the low-budget insanity.
Legion is available to stream on Netflix.
