Legion: My Wings Will SLICE YOU [Event]

Headed over to the LA Science Fiction & Comic Book Convention yesterday, a place I religiously haunted as a teenager, but haven't been to now in about six years. A slight drop in attendance since its heyday hasn't prevented the show from maintaining the same charm it always had. And it's the only place on either coast where I've been able to find the five issues of Buffy Season 8 I was missing, so, yes, I will be going back.

Because of the smaller crowd, I was very surprised to see a good number of people forming in the back for the day's big panel. Four of the actors (Jeanette Miller, Tyrese Gibson, Adrienne Palicki & Doug Jones) from Screen Gem's upcoming January release, Legion, were on hand to discuss the film with director Scott Stewart and came prepared with both a red band trailer & a world premiere clip. Now, I think I saw bits & pieces of the Legion panel at Comic Con, but nothing really substantial, so it hasn't really been on my radar til yesterday. Well, I have seen a shit load of billboards featuring a hot, angelic Paul Bettany, but that's about it.

Here's a summary of the film,

An out-of-the-way diner becomes the unlikely battleground for the survival of the human race. When God loses faith in humankind, he sends his legion of angels to bring on the Apocalypse. Humanity's only hope lies in a group of strangers trapped in a desert diner with the Archangel Michael.

Now that I've seen some substantial footage, I can safely say that yes, I wanna see this movie, and I'm not sure people quite realize the potential level of awesomeness it may achieve. The red band trailer was filled with fun, over the top violence & a few Sam Raimi-esque scares, which lead me to believe that while the film may be dark and dealing with somewhat heavy subject matter, it'll still be a good time and appeal to those types that just wanna see shit get blown up and flesh get eaten, as well as those types that would rather use their brains a little bit more.

The rest after the jump!


The clip they showed kind of encompassed all of that. It was a a portion of the final battle between Michael (Paul Bettany) & Gabriel (KEAMY! I mean, Kevin Durand) and was all kinds of badass. Gabriel uses his wings as a WEAPON. WINGS. SLICING SHIT. The fight totally sold me on the action (perhaps a particularly violent kind of action, which I'm ALL for) and then randomly, out of nowhere, at the end of the scene, a deeper, emotional side begins to show itself that somehow got lil ol agnostic me getting weepy at the thought of what it would really mean for a higher power to lose all faith in humanity.

Here are some tidbits from the panel itself:

- Director Scott Stewart was hired to rewrite the Legion script from a few years back & took a different approach. He Thought a lot about mythology and specific characters. Read & ultimately drew from both the old & new testement & lots of Sam Shephard plays.

- There is a graphic novel, also written by Stewart,called Legion: Prophets and it follows four different stories & four characters not in the film, but during that same time frame. It gives hints to the greater story at work.

- Doug Jones has a cameo showcase role as the ice cream man! He describes his characters appearance as a "raindrop of the flood, a harbinger of doom." And he gets to have his own face on screen! No makeup! Actual face! For at least a little bit. Before the demon-izing. :)

- Adrienne Palecki plays the Virgin Mary "without the virgin part."

- Tyrese's character stops at a diner to get directions and gets "sucked into the matrix." Didn't mean to be a part of the fight, but is.

- Jeanette "always wanted to be evil" - great that she finally gets to at 80 some aught years old!


- Apparently lots of people have been saying that Legion seems a lot like the film Prophecy. Stewart saw it a long time ago, but wasn't influenced by it at all. Actual influences include the Terminator movies, the Exorcist, Assault on Precinct 13, Westerns, Close Encounters.

- Re: Sequel/franchises: Stewart couldn't get into specifics because of spoilers, but confirms that there are two potential movies/sequels/spin-offs that could come from Legion. He is from the "Jim Cameron school of sequelizing" where the sequel is a different genre from the original.

-No demons or devils in this movie, it's all about angels - old testement version. Similar POV as Noah's Ark, kind of about angry fathers and asks the question, "What if God lost faith in Man?"

The movie opens January 22nd and I'm hoping the whole thing is good as the footage that was shown today! Also, snagged a signed poster from the event, so stay tuned! Closer to the movie's release, we'll be having a contest.