Someone on here said the Director hates Christianity...
No he doesn't, he hates his audience.
(Also, a Director doesn't create the content of the film... they direct movies they are given; writers write the material that the Director has to work with... which in this case wasn't a whole *beeping* lot.)
They (screenwriters/director/producers) had a great opportunity for exploring, exposing and satirizing religion's naturally exploitative, oppressive and abusive nature, but they just weren't up to the task; they missed it by a good country mile... they were more interested in just how terrible CGI can be made to look; CGI is at its best when it is subtle and understated, unnoticeable little tweaks here and there. In this film it was too distracting, too at the fore when the story is what should drive a film (Moby Dick, if well cast and acted, could use an inflatable pool toy and people wouldn't notice). Well then they wouldn't have been able to make this film without CGI?! Ay, now you're getting it!
But back to the writing; some really solid writing really could have tied this to, not only the most recent troubles of the Catholic Church, but those from centuries past. From the selling of indulgences to literal witch hunts to corruption and massive cover-ups, there is some real material from which to draw inspiration. By the midpoint of the film, I half expected there to be some hackneyed and clumsily revealed plot that The Church was behind it all, keeping people afraid and thus totally reliant upon the protection of The Church for their very survival (but by that point I had already seen half the film, so I knew better). Nope! Prima facie, it was what it appeared to be; straight-forward, simple and dull, yet somehow still clumsy, careless, slipshod. It felt a half-hearted attempt, and only halfway finished at that, as though the script had every other page torn out. There was a chance to take on theocratic and totalitarian regimes, much like V for Vendetta did (though I really didn't care for that film in the least, it was Gone with the Wind compared to this drivel). This film could have been Orwell, it could have been Huxley... hell, it could have just been the Nike Superbowl commercial! It says something about your talents when, at the end of post-production, there is a nearly 30 year-old two minute shoe commercial that is more compelling, entertaining and suspenseful than your entire film! In thirty years is anyone going to remember this film? Compare other films to it? Use it as a benchmark? No! Good god no! I cannot believe that after being screened for critics, this film didn't implode in on itself like the house at the end of Poltergeist.
Someone compared the cityscape to Blade Runner... To me, the whole walled city (as well as many other aspects) was more in the vein of Judge Dread, I was just waiting for Dennis Leary to pop up and start telling Bill Hick's jokes. In fact, and I know this has been mentioned countless times already, this film stole little bits and pieces from two dozen films across a half-dozen genres (as films are wont to do); there's absolutely nothing wrong with that... only, in this instance the films from which it stole were all cut-rate, B flicks with C-list actors. I cannot imagine how bad Christopher Plummer's crack habit has to have become for him to appear in this... or they had photos of him strangling a prostitute. Hell, that wouldn't even do it, they must've had video of him murdering and skinning a dozen prostitutes and prancing around in their skins to the soothing melody of Goodbye Horses.
Brad Dourif, always popping up in the most unexpected places, always incredible, always underutilised!
And Paul Bettany as a Hard Man? C'mon. He looks like a Boarding Schoolboy who is playing "Crusades" with his friends and painted a cross on his face with mum's lipstick.... You're no Jason Statham or Clive Owen there buckaroo. Hell, he looks more like Prince Henry or Prince William than he does some tough geezer.
I don't imagine that a sane man could even begin to have a logical, rational discussion of the plot of the film (so I'll take a crack at it). They finally win a millennia-old war against vampires (most *beeped* up looking vampires I ever did see) and... what? Lock the survivors away? Why? Killing them is inhumane? They aren't human, just leave 'em outside to bake, you literally wouldn't have any blood on your hands. They've disbanded all the militaries? Well yeah, all the vampires are locked safely away; the humans are locked away too, in high-walled (but mostly unarmed) super-city-states (with only a wish and a prayer to defend themselves), and apparently, in such a resource rich world as this, humans have lost the desire to fight one another over vegetable gardens and watering holes. The filmmakers have had to create so many tremendously ludicrous and insulting "explanations" as to why only these three people can stop an army of undead hobos (geddit, they ride the rails?) that it boggles the mind that this got a green-light, while so many fascinating films are out there languishing in development hell. How many incredible films did they have to grind up to make the 80% post consumer recycled paper to print the scripts for this on?
And not to be terribly sexist, but there wasn't a single pretty lady in the whole film. I don't need gratuitous nudity or blouses popping open, but c'mon, this film was terrible, give me something. A pretty face to look at... please?
It was almost sad, after having watched the whole film, how they were desperately pleading for a sequel. It really was sad, they seemed so earnest; like that little, skinny bench-warmer that the coach puts in for the last two minutes of a game where they're up by 20 points. "Go get 'em, slugger" you say, giving him that light, friendly shoulder punch, "mom and dad are in the stands tonight, make 'em proud!" They were like sad puppies, sad puppies on rocket-cycles (the only cool part of the film, and yet another deus ex machine device, they seemed to materialise from nowhere whenever they were needed)... It was sad until I realise that each of the "stars" of this film were paid more than I make in two years, and that I just sad through over an hour of complete horse *beep* So *beep* you!! No! No sequel! Bad dog!!
Being as Legion was such a colossal bomb, and this train wreck of a film (geddit?) probably didn't make back its budget (factoring in the costs of marketing and the always unnecessary conversion to 3-D after-the-fact), I'd wager that there is a high probability this director won't land anything more star-studded or high octane than a Lifetime Original Movie... and for that we should all thank god.
something terribly clever.