Legion (2010)

This slick apocalyptic melodrama is long on style but short on substance.

Archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) descends on an isolated diner in the middle of the desert. For being an isolated diner, it contains a lot of characters: owner Bob (Dennis Quaid), his son Jeep (Lucas Black) who is in love with pregnant waitress Charlie (Adrianne Palicki), cook Percy (Charles S. Dutton), traveler Kyle (Tyrese Gibson), and upper class couple the Andersons (John Tenney, Kate Walsh) and their spoiled daughter (Willa Holland). In the film's most memorable scene, sweet old lady Gladys (Jeanette Miller) wanders in and upsets the patrons and staff of the diner by insulting Charlie and her unborn child, crawling up walls, and trying to kill everyone. There's a battle going on in Heaven, and the diner is the first line of defense here on Earth.

The cast is full of underrated performers who almost pull this otherwise silly stuff off. The theology and reasoning behind the heavenly battle is never made clear, as is Charlie's baby's involvement. For every startling scene of havoc, we get a lot of talk and some awkward characterization that drags the film to a crawl. Stewart has a good eye and the screenwriters play up the sense of dread, but the viewer requires more reason to support the characters than what we're given. The script doesn't get bogged down in heavy theology, but a little guidance as to what exactly is going on with Archangels Michael and Gabriel (an always great Kevin Durand) might have helped- instead of a long physical fight. Kudos to the production design and set decorators, I totally believed this was a desert-bound diner in the middle of nowhere.

"Legion" is ultimately forgettable, don't confuse this with Stewart's "Priest" (also starring Bettany), or William Peter Blatty's director's cut of "The Exorcist III: Legion" based on his novel. Followed by the television series "Dominion."

Stats:
(2010) 100 min. (5/10)
-Directed by Scott Stewart
-Written by Peter Schink and Scott Stewart
-Cast: Paul Bettany, Adrianne Palicki, Dennis Quaid, Charles S. Dutton, Lucas Black, Tyrese Gibson, Kate Walsh, Kevin Durand, Jon Tenney, Willa Holland, Jeanette Miller, Doug Jones, Cameron Harlow
(R)- Physical violence, strong gun violence, strong violence involving children, strong gore, profanity, adult situations, alcohol and tobacco use
Media Viewed: Streaming