Dear Hollywood, more Paul Bettany please. Even in this, he’s quite lovely.
Legion is, I think , an attempt at the Christian-horror genre. It’s not good, but it’s interesting in its own ways. In fact, as Christian horror, it’s an utter failure, unless you think that the whole angels-as-killer-zombies thing is NOT blasphemous. If you can let go of that, you might have a good time, if you also let go of the fact that it’s deeply silly.
And oh yeah, there’s the whole sometimes-you-have-to-disobey-to-do-the-right-thing problem. I can’t imagine that’ll go over well.
In it, God is so ticked off, he’s wiping the slate clean. But the angel Michael loves us so much that he’s willing to renounce his wings and disobey his boss to help out a group of misfits in an isolated roadside diner. After all, the waitress is pregnant with the blessed child sent to save us all. Kind of like Terminator.
But there’s no flood this time, instead, He’s going with the very inefficient zombie massacre route. Apparently angels can possess the weakest-minded humans to do their dirty work, which give us the pleasure of seeing a little granny go all Exorcist on us, climbing the walls and spitting out hateful theology. The ice cream man even gets a little werewolfy, growing elongated limbs. And there’s a creepy child. There must always be a creepy child.
But really. If God wants to get rid of his most beautiful creation, why would He do it in a way that is so easily thwarted with machine guns? Or why not possess one of the people in the diner?
And the whole love-the-human-race-so much thing is done up much better in Wings of Desire. I would love to see that again.