Legion was a film that, by no means, intrigued me from the get-go, but the trailer looked stupid enough that a friend and I Redboxed it when it hit disc. What we ended up getting was an abomination of the highest degree, a shit-storm better suited as a late 90′s Dimension offering or a post-Matrix farce*. Its “originality”** is tired now as it would have been a decade earlier.
For whatever odd reason they did, Screen Gems had enough faith in the film to get Paul Bettany and Adrianne Palicki signed on for potential sequels, but the final product was hated by everyone from readers like you to my friend’s 60-something lawyer father, who after seeing the film with us said something to the effect of “that fuckin’ sucked.”
Because only a small handful of people compared to the thousands of masses needed to make Legion 2: Michael’s Ascent and 3gion into decent-budgeted theatrical efforts, the folks over at Syfy are willing to let the franchise bypass the direct-to-DVD realm for a TV series. Scott Stewart, who unleashed this and Priest on us, will return to direct the pilot, written by Sons of Anarchy writer Vaun Wilmott.
I don’t want to judge a book by its cover and automatically develop prejudice against a project because it’s unappealing to me, but I doubt this is gonna do some kind of Friday Night Lights-esque revitalization to the property on cable.
You’re welcome, Rene. The rest of us have been warned, and God help us all. By God, I don’t mean Paul Bettany toting submachine guns and knives and shit.
* – If only this had happened, then we would have been blessed with a godawful video game by Acclaim (who else?) for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 (Dreamcast version goes unreleased).
** – My thoughts from The B Action Movie Thread, May 12, 2010:
…horrible, a hair better than Alice in Wonderland but still ungodly awful. … Imagine eating a burrito that had The Terminator, Dogma, Preacher, The Stand, Assault on Precinct 13, and Maximum Overdrive stuffed in it with a side of Night of the Living Dead and then puking it Brundlefly-style all over yourself as your body disintegrated into a harbor for infection. …laughable… Dennis Quaid gives the worst performance of his career playing Harrison Ford…I mean a dude whose only facial expressions and communication are based around scowling. That hot redhead from the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff does her best imitation of the “WEEEEEEEEEE MAAAAAAADE YOUUUUUUUU!” waitress from Maximum Overdrive. Charles S. Dutton has a hook on his hand.
The folks over at SyFy are insane, there can be no other explanation for this. Unless they know something we don’t, perhaps the script for the pilot is the best thing since sliced bread.
I didn’t make it through 20 minutes of this shit bag movie.
Anyone remember a couple years back when Nick went on a lengthy tirade about how he was pissed because the Regal he went to canceled their midnight showing due to what was essentially an overwhelming lack of interest, like they were the only chain that ever did this and this was the only time that such a thing had ever happened? And then he saw it and fucking hated it anyway. Good times, good times…