LEGION

On the night of December 23, Michael, an angel of the heavenly armies sent to Earth by God to lead the Apocalypse and kill a child who is about to be born to a Texan girl, falls upon an arms warehouse in Los Angeles. God, in fact, is deeply disappointed by human behavior and has decided to exterminate all of humanity by using the angels, who, by possessing the bodies of the weakest men, will lead the race to extinction in a short time. Michael, however, disobeys God and, armed with all sorts of firearms, goes to Paradise Falls, a diner in the middle of nowhere in Texas where Charlie, the future mother of the child to be eliminated, works, to protect her from the legion of angels who are going to the place to kill her. Of all the horror films about the Apocalypse and rebel angels, "Legion" is probably the craziest one made so far; after all, it is enough to read the plot to get an idea of what to expect. No, the simple plot does not do justice to the jumble of images and recycled ideas with which this incredible and hilarious b-movie is built. "Legion" takes the simplest Christian iconography and, in a confusion of random references from the Old and New Testament, "Terminator" and "Night of the Living Dead," constructs an irresistible pop stew, one of those films for which one feels obliged to feel guilty if one finds oneself in the situation of appreciating the work. Because let's be honest, "Legion" is really a stupidity, a film of easy entertainment that paradoxically succeeds in its intention more than other better-known colleagues. Scott Stewart, usually in charge of creating visual effects for blockbusters ("Pirates of the Caribbean"; "Iron Man"), makes his debut here as a director and screenwriter by looting the lootable of the fanta-horror imagination of the last 25 years. Someone has talked about "Legion" comparing it to "The Prophecy," an angelic horror film from 1995, with which, excluding the figure of the rebel angel, it has very little in common. The work with which Stewart's film has the most points in common is instead "The Skeleton Key," a feature film signed by Ernest Dickerson for the series "Tales from the Crypt," also a scenario of confrontation between good and evil in a very pop siege situation, perhaps mixed with the recent "Feast" regarding the setting. "Legion" is nothing more than the most classic of siege films, of those that, from Romero to Carpenter, have often been seen in modern horror cinema; only instead of the classic zombies, here we find men possessed by angels who behave like enraged beasts and transform the flesh wrappers into grotesque arachnoid creatures that jump to the right and left and speak with a cavernous voice. The result? One hundred minutes of sure fun, often politically incorrect, where the elderly and children are the worst imaginable threat and God is as vengeful as capricious. It's a shame that Stewart, intent on staging single cult/trash scenes (above all the one with the adorable old lady) and setting up delirious yet effective action scenes, did not find a way to add even a small dose of splatter, an element that would have certainly fitted perfectly in such a situation. Being a choral film, "Legion" includes a fauna of characters as heterogeneous as possible. From the upper-class family with a somewhat slutty daughter to the small-time black criminal with a heart of gold, from the gruff disillusioned owner of the place to the black cook with a hook and a bit of a philosopher. Stereotypical characters and nevertheless, for the most part, with the function of cannon fodder but unexpectedly well managed and outlined. Among them stand out the archangel Michael, played by an effective Paul Bettany ("The Da Vinci Code"; "Master and Commander") who manages to be tough without ever being repetitive, and Bob, the owner of the diner played by an expressive Dennis Quaid ("The Flight of the Phoenix"; "The Horsemen"). The cast is completed by Lucas Black ("Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift"), Tyrese Gibson ("2 Fast 2 Furious"; "Four Brothers"), Adrianne Palicki ("7 Mummies"; "Supernatural"), Charles S. Dutton ("Mimic"; "Gothika") and Kevin Durand ("Wolverine"; "Quel treno per Yuma") in the role of Gabriel, Michael's nemesis. Quote from "It's a Wonderful Life" by Frank Capra, an angelic film of a completely different kind that is broadcast on the broken-down TV of Paradise Falls. In short, if you expect a mystical, serious horror film full of points of reflection, stay away, "Legion" is the exact opposite, a nice American movie with angels beating each other up, zannuti monsters, explosions and a lot of healthy b-movie fun.