'Legion' (2009) - Scott Stewart.

After angelic-looking Angel, Michael (Paul ‘Priest’ Bettany) brusquely lands in cinematically ominous downtown L.A., appropriating a strikingly familiar Schwarzeneggerian manner we discover that our heaven-descending, god-defying, ripped-chested warrior is mankind’s sole protector now that ‘the big fella’ upstairs has damned us all to such a catastrophic end! While I have always felt the horror film was absurd enough without adding religion, all too many genre filmmakers just can’t help themselves from persistently pilfering ‘The Good Book’ and director, Scott Stewart’s ‘Legion’ is more gleefully god-bound than most! Sticking resolutely to a prototypical Romero scenario, a disparate group of demographically divined screenplay archetypes are anxiously holed up in a remote, rundown eatery called Paradise Falls, frantically fending off a ravening horde of piranha-toothed demons all apparently doing the lord’s (Skynet!) busy work, namely consuming the fleshly faces of those once so lovingly made in his sacred image and being murderously possessed to single-mindedly kill the fledgling saviour child (John O’Connor). No, I merely jest, as the mewling infant prophet/protector of errant mankind remains unnamed, but, for me, he definitely looks like a John! (Sorry, my bad!!!) 

 As a claustrophobically mounted ensemble piece, the acting is fairly robust across the board, but the especially gifted character actor, Charles S. Dutton’s earnest portrayal of the Truck stop diner’s demon-beleaguered, one-armed, philosophically-minded short order cook lends the frequently formulaic, cliché-riddled, bullet-raddled script some much-needed three dimensional, flesh and blood humanity. In this increasingly bellicose people vs. Pestilence, bible-pilfering B-Movie apocalypse, the colourfully CGI-assisted action comes thick and fast, doing its boisterous best to noisily distract the viewer from its innately Cameronian premise! Right at the very end it becomes abundantly clear that ‘The Terminator’ allusions were somewhat less than illusory, since the very last scene has our plucky survivor’s drive off into an uncertain future with its portentous, Noirish voice over is practically a straight lift from James Cameron’s still evidentially influential work! As an enjoyably hokey, fast-moving, bathos-bloated example of sub-Twilight Zone ephemera, ‘’Legion’ certainly makes for some effectively brainless entertainment.