The Film
In Legion, the end is sight, but it will take a painful hour and 40 minutes to get there. The basic plot is sort of a twist on similar "end of the world" themed movies - with a mix of The Seventh Sign and The Terminator. In this case the Archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) clips his own wings to save humanity after god has given up faith and sends a demonic/angelic (who can tell the difference) army to Earth to kill the potential savior of mankind. Legion is thus about the army of god, but don't expect the angels to be the good guys, instead they sort of do the possession of regular Joes thing like the agents in The Matrix. If none of this sounds very original it isn't, and heaven help you for it.
For another take on Legion check out Lora Grady's review.
The Picture
The end of the world of course takes place in the middle of nowhere, and in this case that's a stereotypical horror-esque movie dinner off a two-lane highway. As a result you can expect the usual muted Earth tones, and lots of action that happens at night. The 2.40:1 picture has good black levels, and while there is a bit of graininess to the visuals, its sort of what you'd expect from a B-movie. The colors, what colors there are that is, are actually pretty rich and accurate. The downfall of mankind looks surprisingly good.
The Sound
The 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack is also excellent. The dialog comes through loud and clear, background and ambient sounds are present throughout, and while the gunshots and other bombastic action-packed moments are a tad hot, that's probably the intention of the director to give this a really over-the-top presentation. Legion is the latest recent release that heads to Blu-ray with excellent audio whilst being a lousy film.
The Extras
The Blu-ray isn't short on extras - why is it that bad movies get the best extras? - with this one including a closer look at the physical effects, along with an overview of the cast and characters, plus a look at the visual effects. The film has a few "how'd they do that?" moments and the extras offer some interesting insight. However, even the picture-in-picture Blu-ray exclusive on "Bringing Angels to Earth" doesn't answer the bigger question, "why'd they do this!"
Final Thoughts
One of the first "possessed" characters warns "you're all going to burn," and after watching this Blu-ray you might want to burn the disc instead. While the plot is about saving mankind, this is one nonsensical story that can't be saved by excellent visuals or audio, and after the near two hours of torture watching it, hell might not sem all that bad.
Product Details
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