Legion Leaving Netflix in November

The film industry has pivoted to a feast-or-famine style for theatrical distribution in the 2020s. Anything that gets a run on the big screen is either a blockbuster with a nine-digit budget or an indie production. It is either The Odyssey or Backrooms, with nothing in between.

Movie theaters used to have a well-established middle ground for comedies, higher-concept thrillers, and occasional action movies. These releases were never meant to be the main event of the summer, Oscar bait, or a billion-dollar cultural phenomenon. Instead, they served as reliable midcarders built to entertain audiences for an evening before finding a respectable second life on cable or airplanes.

Legion, a biblically themed, zombie-adjacent action horror movie starring Paul Bettany as a heavily armed archangel, serves as a prime example. With Bettany’s star rising following the announcement of the forthcoming VisionQuest series on Disney Plus, now is a good time to revisit the weirder side of his filmography. Viewers must act fast, however, because 2010’s Legion leaves Netflix on Aug. 31.

The better angels of our nature

Legion, which is unrelated to the 2017 television show, begins with the archangel Michael played by Bettany falling to Earth in downtown Los Angeles. He cuts off his own wings, raids a local warehouse for all the guns he can carry, and steals a police car.

Charlie, played by Adrianne Palicki from Friday Night Lights, works as a waitress at a failing diner halfway between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. She is eight months pregnant and dealing with a boyfriend who abandoned her. Her situation worsens drastically when one of the diner patrons becomes demonically possessed and attempts to kill her.

Michael arrives shortly afterward to arm the people in the diner and explain the situation. The End of Days has arrived, and Charlie’s unborn baby is destined to be humanity’s next savior. Michael has gone rogue from heaven to protect the child from hordes of possessed humans poised to besiege the diner.

Legion shares many conventions with traditional zombie movies, but it uses its biblical inspirations to deliver massive set pieces and gross-out moments. One particular sequence involves a massive cloud of insects surrounding the diner’s perimeter to prevent escape, creating one of the most memorable scenes in the movie.

The cast elevates the material above a standard shoot-em-up. The diner patrons, who mostly exist to be murdered, are portrayed by a recognizable lineup of actors including Dennis Quaid, Tyrese Gibson, Charles Dutton, and Willa Holland before her role in Arrow. Their performances turn the story into a genuinely tense snapshot of the end of the world.

Critics gave Legion negative reviews, but the movie still turned a profit at the box office. That commercial success led to a 2014 television spinoff titled Dominion, which ran for two seasons on the Syfy Network.

Legion has largely been forgotten as the industry shifted away from mid-budget genre experiments. The film is too intense and gross for standard prime-time cable, yet its supernatural themes and biblical murder sprees prevent it from fitting neatly into a traditional action category. Sitting at the intersection of multiple genres, the film resists easy classification and has quietly slipped off the radar of modern moviegoers.

Legion is certainly no lost classic, but it qualifies as a sleeper hit and offers an entertaining way to kill a couple of hours.

Legion is streaming on Netflix until Aug. 31.

Source: Polygon