Review of Legend (2015) by Christopher E — 10 May 2016

Violence for the sake of violence, and a poor attempt to drive a story that peaks no real interest to me, so bad that Tom Hardy's performance goes out the window.

"Legend" is a biographical picture of the infamous Kray twins in the darker years of their lives. Through this, we learn exactly what these kind of men were and how the events that defined them.

I was excited for this movie for a very long time, but as time passed and I watched the trailers over and over again, something didn't feel right. There was a reason why this film's ratings were mediocre, and when the Netflix DVD arrived, I was skeptical. Safe to say my new found suspicions were right, as this movie fell short on many levels.

The only saving grace I really found in this film was Tom Hardy. This guy continually impresses me with every performance he puts out there. Although he often resorts to an awkward, low Hardy mumble, he still manages to bring out the best in the character he plays. Granted, I haven't seen him in a major variety of roles, but he definitely excels in the action/adventure/thriller type films.

One thing that I often hear about biographical gangster movies is the ultimate conflict that arises with it. Many despise the fact that some of these movies try to "glorify" or "justify" these criminals, but I don't necessarily agree with that. I can see where those people are coming from, and there are those moments where it seems semi glorified in here, but overall, I don't feel like that's the main purpose of these films. I feel like it's not a bad thing if they want to educate us on some crime lords, even if they treat it semi comedically. I felt bad for laughing sometimes in this movie considering some of this stuff was based off true events, but I feel like it's the movie's job to make you sympathize with the characters. I feel like this is more of a biographical picture rather than a tribute, and it's just a tone that's meant to entertain in different ways.

In complete honesty, I would be lying if I said I had interest in this movie. Personally, I just couldn't get hooked into the story-line. In all honesty, I was bored. The dialogue wasn't captivating by any means, and Hardy's mumble made it hard to understand at times. The story moved very slow, but at the same time, it was a bit jarring to follow along with. Narrative wise, nothing here is very captivating.

What I did enjoy seeing, yet not seeing, was Tom Hardy's duel role. It was awesome to see him bring out the personality of two different characters, and although I thought it would work, the editing side wasn't able to completely pull it off. Whenever both Hardy characters were on screen, they did a decent job for the most part. They utilized camera angles and choreography in order to pull off the illusion of both presences, but there were often times when an obvious double or bad editing would show. They did a decent job overall, but none too inspiring.

In the end, I didn't really have much enjoyment in this movie. It's an alright time, but I wasn't invested enough to give this movie a second thought.