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So what did you think? Personally, I want my eleven bucks back. I thought it was going to be a freaky scary movie based on the commercials. You know, the creepy elderly woman with the teeth and the big mouthed ice cream man. What other freaky people were in it? None. That was it. The commercials showed the best parts.
The plot? God decides that He is, once again, dissatisfied with humanity, and like the Great Flood, is going to kill all the humans. With a flood this time? No, this time he turns all of the angels into something that George Romero would be proud of. Do they attack a major population center? Well, we hear about Los Angeles being attacked. But the Holy Zombies go after the real target: A run-down little diner in the middle of the desert. Why? Because some blonde bimbo of a waitress named Charlie is pregnant with a child who will somehow redeem humanity. We learn this from the Archangel Michael, who openly defies God’s will by turning the diner into Ruby Ridge.
Of course, the angels were not really angels. They were the good citizens of Los Angeles posessed by angels. Then they converged on the diner to launch an attack. Why didn’t they just posess the people in the diner to begin with?
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
But that’s kind of missing the point. The point of this movie is lots and lots of gun play. And there’s a bit with Gabriel getting all smashy with a holy mace. That was kind of cool. And it had people (well, two) crawling on the ceiling. And Michael dies, but gets ressurected so he can save the day from bad Angel Gabriel. Hey, nice plot twist. Wish Tolkien could have thought of something like that.
Come to think of it, this movie is like a combination of Lord of the Rings, Night of the Living Dead, and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.
My exact words when it was over were “I didn’t love it, but I liked it.” It wasn’t nearly as good as I’d hoped, but I still found it entertaining for the most part.
Having said that, a few questions:
Why was the ceiling bleeding after posessed grandma was killed? They made a big deal of showing it dripping on the daughter of the travelling couple, but they didn’t do anything with it.
Where the crap did the posessed little boy (the one who cut his own thumbs off) go?
What was up with the posessed girl (I think) with the burlap bag on her head beating on the cop car hood with a stick? These were supposed to just be normal people who got posessed in the middle of their everyday lives, yes? So this girl was just wandering around with a burlap sack on her head and a big ass stick in her hand?
So it wasn’t scary at all? Because that was the only reason it was on my ‘must see’ list. Although I must admit, a kid cutting off his own thumbs sounds promising.
Was it a great show…no. The ending was weak which is a problem with many movies. However, I liked it.
It was religious fiction. It took itself seriously. The movie needs to be enjoyed with this in mind.
Another thing I liked about the show was that it didn’t explain itself. A may be a weird duck …but I like books and movies that do that. There were many things in this movie that I ‘got’ because of my upbringing. Stuff I didn’t get (like the sack over the head girl) I jsut assume is a reference I didn’t get).
There are 3 things about this movie that will make most people not like it.
It is religious fiction and takes itself seriously - so making it seem stupid to non-religious.
It portrays a vengeful/angry God turning his back on humanity plus bloodthirsty angels who happily would kill babies.
It portrays angels (well one anyway) as being able to defy God.
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I am pretty much athiest now. However, I was brought up ‘very’ Catholic. My mom was a traditional/old-time religious and so was the church we went to. We were fully exposed to the concept of Purgatory and many of those aspects didn’t seem fair - like my mom worried that she would have to spend more time there because of what her kids did.
The God I grew up with was someone to love and be loved by…but he was also scary. He wouldn’t put up with your shit and your excuses. He would and could punish you with a capital P if he thought you deserved it. Even today I am amused by the ‘sissified’ God many people worship - who think they can do things and then beg forgiveness. The God I was indoctrinated with when growing up would cut through that bullshit really fast.
Angels were not always nice ‘people’. Angels are the messengers and the also the ‘get things done’ of God. They could kill…and kill enmasse. The thought of meeting an angel wasn’t an automatic ‘good thing’…it could be very bad for you.
This movie reminds me of my childhood…what I grew up indoctrinated with…
I enjoyed the movie. It is what it is, and I knew going into it not to expect too much.
It was mentioned that the angels could only posess those with the weakest will. I don’t know what kind of criteria they were using for weakest, but that was why the people in the diner weren’t affected.
I didn’t get the bleeding ceiling either.
I was wondering about the kid too. I guess he couldn’t do anything without thumbs.
Sack girl was probably some crazy mental patient.
My friend pointed this out. In the end, this wasn’t God losing faith in humanity. It was more like a test for the angels and Gabriel along with a few thousand others failed. Giving humanity a savior was besides the point because all along God only cared about whether or not his angels would obey a completely shitty order like genocide. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have sent Michael back since he lost to Gabriel and God had no reason to send him back if he wasn’t testing the angels.
So it was like God’s test of Abraham except if God let Abraham go ahead & cut Isaac’s throat & ritually burn him? Or were all the slain/zombified people illusory or restored at the end?
(I had the same question about all the people killed by Bartleby at the end of DOGMA when God cleans up. Did they all suddenly wake up at home, thinking “That was a weird dream about going to the cathedral anniversary”?)
[spoiler]The dead people weren’t restored as far as I know, but I didn’t stay past the credits.
Michael kept talking about how Charlie’s child will grow up and lead humanity back into what I’m assuming is a non-sinning race of evildoers. At the end of the movie, when Gabriel is defeated and leaves, Charlie and the guy who loved Charlie (forgot his name) makes their way towards the safe zone they heard about earlier on the radio. The camera pans up over a cliff and we see some tents and buildings in the distance of what looks like a makeshift camp. Apparently most of the world’s dead or dying, the earth is in ruins, but hey, Gabriel learned his lesson: Next time God asks for iced tea, you give him lemonade![/spoiler]
One thing (just one?) bothered me about the ending.
It was vital that Charlie’s baby be born. All of the angels were dead set on terminating the pregnancy, because that way the world would end in doom. So the baby was born, and everyone lived happily ever after.
Did it occur to God that he could send angels to kill the newborn? Or, being the Almighty, cause the kid to have massive birth defects? Or be stillborn?
I can’t believe I’m arguing about the pile of suck that is this movie but so be it. To say people won’t like this movie because they don’t have a religious background and hence, won’t understand the material (such as it is :rolleyes:) is obnoxious and condescending. I’m more than familiar with Christian theology and I hated this movie. A paper thin plot, a deus ex machina ending that made no sense in context to the rest of the movie, cardboard cutout characters, piss poor dialogue, terrible acting, terrible editing (the dripping blood on the ceiling obviously led to a cut scene) etc. etc. etc.
I love horror movies and I’ve seen pretty much every thing. This one scrapes the bottom of the barrel (along with many, many others). There are excellent religious-themed horror movies out there, as well (The Exorcist, The Omen, Frailty, The Sentinel, The Prophecy, Rosemary’s Baby etc.) but Legion isn’t one of them.
…but I like books and movies that do that. There were many things in this movie that I ‘got’ because of my upbringing. Stuff I didn’t get (like the sack over the head girl) I jsut assume is a reference I didn’t get).