 | A film that pretty much no one has heard of, let alone seen footage from, Legion has generated a fair share of buzz at this year’s Comic-Con. In part it’s to do with the enormous poster of Paul Bettany as the Archangel Michael holding a submachine gun that’s hanging in the entrance to the Convention Center. So, it’s with some anticipation that we nip back in to Hall H to see an exclusive clip.
The sequence starts with an Ice cream van driving through the desert. The driver steps out – it’s Doug Jones – but his arms stretch, his shoulders dislocate and his jaw extends before rushing towards the camera in a spider-like crab walk. This isn’t your average Mr Whippy. A voiceover talks of prophecy as a huge dust cloud blooms over the desert. We see Paul Bettany’s Archangel Michael in silhouette, his wings furled behind his back. Cut to Michael in the rain, screaming as he cuts off his wings with a knife. Blood pools in the rain and a runed silver collar (something we’ll later learn is a Halo Collar – a heavenly lowjack) falls to the floor. We see racks of assault rifles in a storage room, Michael strides in and begins to tool up. As he leaves he’s confronted by a pair of cops who try to stop him. Bad ass angel that he is, he takes them out with barrels blazing. Afterwards one of the officers is still standing, his eyes turn black and his teeth sharpen. It’s another angel who threatens Michael, “you can’t protect the child.” it says.
Cut to Paradise Falls diner, a truck stop eatery in the middle of the desert. Inside the diner, a heavily pregnant waitress serves coffee while Dennis Quaid stands by the counter. Kate Walsh sits in one of the booths. As the waitress pours for an elderly lady she’s asked when her baby’s due. Soon, she says. “That’s too bad, your fucking baby’s going to burn!” The old dear turns into a similarly nightmarish angel visage, biting a chunk out of a patron with her fangs before crawling across the ceiling. Thankfully Quaid takes her out with a shotgun. Outside, Michael pulls up in a stolen police car. Faced down by Quaid he snatches the shotgun.“They’re here.” He says. ‘They’, it turns out, are a convoy of cars, their passengers possessed by evil angels. We see a shot of the sky filled with flights of angels, all descending on the diner. “Are you here to protect us?” asks Quaid. “No,” he replies. “I’m here to protect her,” gesturing at the waitress. “Turning to her, he says “Your child is the only hope humanity has of surviving.”
What follows is an action montage as Michael kicks large amounts of arse. He ignites a petrol pump to use as a flamethrower, dual wields machine guns and faces off against Kevin Durand’s Gabriel – a hulking beast of an angel with huge black wings that he swings like scythes and wielding. The clip ends with Michael being asked “are we safe now?” “No.”
We have to admit the footage was very impressive, director Scott Stewart’s background as an effects artist clearly showing in his slick use of CG imagery and eye-popping visuals. It’s not going to be sweeping Cannes or anything but in our opinion Legion is shaping up to be a whole lot of fun.
The film takes a story as old as, well, the bible and retells it with a host of pyrotechnics. The idea is the God is mightily pissed off with humanity’s sinful ways and, like Noah’s flood, decides to cleanse the Earth once more. Michael, though, takes issue with this and sets out to save the human race, protecting an unsuspecting waitress who just happens to be carrying the infant messiah – mankind’s only hope to survive. God doesn’t like to be disobeyed though and sends the angelic host to take care of business.
The director is joined by stars Doug Jones, Tyrese, Adrianne Palicki and Paul Bettany to shed some further light on the film. According to Stewart the film came from a very simple concept : angels with machine guns. “it gives a whole new meaning to ‘stained glass’” quips Doug Jones. To placate any Christians offended by the notion of evil, genocidal angels, Doug Jones says the story was pitched to him with the question, ‘what if we were living in an age where another apocalypse was warranted, like Noah’s flood?’ That’s where we are at the start of Legion, on the wrong end of the Almighty’s omnipotent temper. Bettany is the man to stand up to the man upstairs, though, looking buffed to the max in his role as Michael. “I think Johnson and Johnson were sponsors of the film,” says Tyrese. “Tthe whole town ran out of baby oil thanks to Paul’s muscles.” Tyrese plays Kyle Williams, a guy on his way somewhere who happens to pull over at the diner and get caught up in the “baby mama drama” that unfolds.
“I got tricked into making this film by Scott Stewart who told me I was making a nice little art house relationship drama,” jokes Bettany, who’s on very good form. “No, I desperately wanted to be in an action film. It was like my very first day on a movie set, it was so much fun. “
Stewart says that Paul’s ‘Terminator’ moment saw him firing an M16 in one hand and an MP5 in the other, emptying both clips. “Afterwards he looks at me and says ‘I was in the Royal Shakespeare Company but THIS is why I wanted to be an actor’”.
Legion will hit cinemas at the beginning of next year.
|
| |
