Legion is a very bold and powerful combination of apocalyptic horror and spiritual drama all made in the hallway of a dusty roadside diner that soon turns out to be a battleground in the survival of humankind. The grungy atmosphere and raw story within the film grabs you instantly and makes you understand how hopelessly humans fight against demonic forms that appear when freedom and faith in people are lost by God. The stakes and tension in the narrative are also through the roof, as is the raw energy, because of which the tale gets charged and I was hooked to seeing some kind of a solution within the mess.
The overarching theme was what struck a chord the most, which is the role of faith, doubt, and resilience in the film. Actor Paul Bettany brings richness and texture to the good-turned-bad Archangel Michael, and in that, the supernatural warfare is put into the context of murky moral quandaries. The minor characters, the crowd of strangers on her way, present the chaos and desperation of the situation, so it becomes both personal and universal. Visually, the film is at its best showcasing the claustrophobic nature of the desert and the unnerving demonic effects, and the effective production design that aids in its art of juxtaposing with a keyboard and mundane surroundings the notions of apocalyptic horror, thus contributing to the impact a war you cannot see is bleeding over into normal life.
Albeit certain banal dialogue and overt cliches in terms of plot-lines, “Legion” manages to evoke enervating entertainment and propulsion of cognitive cogitation. The editing is jagged, the score tensed, and there are disturbing visual effects emphasizing the impression of urgency and peril. The overall emotion that was evoked in me by this film was a cocktail of fear, hope, and contemplation and it left me with the realization that we must remember just when times seem so black and bleak, faith and the human spirit can become powerful allies. It is an extreme, pulse-pounding experience that sticks with the audience after they reach the end credits forcing them to question their convictions and self-conflicts.
