Legion of the Dead (2005)

Purely Joyful Movie!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Another brain dead selection from the production company Asylum. LEGION OF THE DEAD attempts to mix mummy movie with sexploitation flick. The result, hardly a first, looks like an inferior remake of the much-maligned LIFEFORCE. This time, instead of a naked space-vampire chick that sucks the lifeforce out of entranced males, we get a naked mummy-vampire chick that sucks the lifeforce out of entranced males.Calling this movie a rip-off would be a compliment, however. It would ignore how really bad this film is. Unconvinced? Think about this: the best feature of the movie is the bad acting.So what are we left with? There's laughable CGI. A "legion of the dead" that amounts to a few badly made up mummies. An Egyptian tomb set that appears to have been made of cardboard (but perhaps that's how California's ancient Eyptians once constructed them). I kid you not, people. This tomb was discovered in the woods of Southern California. And don't make me start on the script. Please. I don't want to think about it in any kind of detail.Worst of all, I saw this damn thing on the Sci-Fi Channel, so the main reason for its existence (the nudity) was edited/blurred out.

Of course I already knew at advance that this movie would be a bad one but in a way the movie was even worse than I could had ever anticipated.Real problem with this movie is how amateur like it got made. Bad directing, bad editing, and bad camera work. It also doesn't help that the movie is very cheap looking, this lets the movie look all the more weak and ridicules.The sound also got messed up pretty bad. The one moment some of its sound effects are too loud while the other things and dialog are too soft. This is also variating and at times you can't even hear some of the characters, while the others are clearly understandable, even when they are in the same scene's at times.Also the story is just plain ridicules. I mean, an Egyptian mummy buried somewhere in the good old USA? It's just their way of saying; we want to do a mummy movie but we don't have the money or resources to go for Egypt for it or try the recreate it somewhere else. Also the way the entire story progresses results in the fact that nothing in the story just ever works really out. It makes the movie boring and real tiresome to watch. And of course the story needs to feature a couple of teenagers in the main lead but oh well this always had been the case in these sort of genre movies since the '70's on. The movie and it's story really start to get out of control as it heads more and more toward its incredibly poorly done last 20 minutes.The scare effects of the movie just don't work out and they try to enhance it by adding some gore but instead it works out all the more ridicules since it's just not very convincing looking. The special effects are just too lame. The movie also doesn't exactly get scary due to the fact that the mummy is a beautiful, young, half-nude, Arabic girl.The acting in this movie is all in all not that bad, especially considering the genre but of course the actors aren't exactly helped by the movie its incredible weak and silly script. What's even the main point in the movie its story? The movie really isn't going anywhere with its story. There is mummy on the loose who kills a lot of people in an horrible way but yet no one seems to be worried about the fact that their friends getting killed. The cast mostly consists out of young unknowns with the exception perhaps of Bruce Boxleitner who is a well known in certain circles.Well OK there are worse movies to watch out there but that doesn't make this movie a good one. The fact that the movie has such a tiresome story is the foremost reason that this movie is a completely dull one that certainly isn't recommendable, not even for the genre fans or lovers of 'bad movies'.2/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Legion of the Dead starts as a young & attractive Egyptology student named Molly (Courtney Clonch) pulls up to an extraordinary find somewhere in California, apparently there's an Egyptian tomb that's been unearthed out in the sticks somewhere. Dr. Ari Ben-David (Rhett Giles) & Dr. Swatek (Zach Galligan) are in charge & they are both very excited, however a great evil has been awakened in the shape of the re-animated Egyptian priestess Aneh-Tet (Claudia Lynx) who needs 6 souls to bring her 6 zombie mummies back to life & take over the world with the aid of a big slimy monster thing which can only be brought into this world by a virgin sacrifice. Molly discovers whats going on & it's up to her to save the day!Apparently shot under the cheeky title of Unravelled, written & directed by Paul Bales I thought Leigon of the Dead was an OK time waster although many may feel I'm being too generous with that description. The script obviously uses mummies & ancient Egyptian mythology presumably to try & cash-in on the huge success & popularity of Universal's two recent Mummy films with Brendan Fraser, unfortunately the budget didn't stretch to any location filming so in flash of inspiration the filmmakers thought to themselves if we can't go to Egypt Egypt will have to come to us in California! Hence the absurd notion of an ancient Egyptian tomb in the middle of rural California which isn't where the silliness stops but since Legion of the Dead is just a low budget horror film I doubt anyone involved was aiming for authenticity, if you know what I mean. I wasn't convinced about the unlikely notion that if you make a groundbreaking discovery like the one in the film the only people you bring in are young, hunky teenage students to assist you. The character's & dialogue aren't great but they suffice although what saves Legion of the Dead is some reasonable gore, the fact it's a little bit different, it has some good looking birds in it & it moves along at a fair pace. As I said it's an OK way to pass the time, just don't expect a masterpiece because this ain't it.Director Bales does OK & keeps the annoying MTV style nonsense down to a minimum, it actually looks like a professional film which I guess I should be grateful for on it's own considering some of the low budget horror crap that's floating around out there. I wouldn't call Legion of the Dead particularly scary & the action scenes lack a certain spark although the zombie mummies are quite cool. There's some decent gore here, there's various melting faces, a ripped out heart & a couple of really cool bits where people have their spines ripped out which is novel (if you haven't played Mortal Kombat) if nothing else. There's some nudity as well if that sort of thing interests you.I have to say I'm pretty impressed with Legion of the Dead considering the supposed $500,000 budget, it looks alright & while the special effects aren't going to win any awards they're not too bad. For what it is it's reasonably well made & the acting is OK as well although it saddens to see decent actors like Zach Galligan & Bruce Boxleitner reduced to bit-part roles in films such as this.Legion of the Dead isn't a great film that's for sure but I found it a mildly entertaining way to pass 90 odd minutes although I wouldn't be able to argue with anyone who called it crap, not as bad as I was expecting but still far from what one might call a good film.

I really do not like being harsh but this movie is awful! I mean sometimes I find at least one good thing to say about a movie but there nothing good to be said about this one. There is a a lot of senseless action in the movie that has no flow, people die needlessly and repeatedly, there is scary music when there is no need for it, importance is placed on certain roles and then they are removed from the movie by being killed off, and the action scenes involving the lead actress is like watching a Barbie doll trying to defend herself. Especially at the end when she plants the ankh in the neck of the woman! It really looks like she does not have the strength to hold the ankh let alone drive it through someone's neck. Also let's not forget how she evades the mummies at the motel. She can play an intellect in front of a camera but someone put this actress in a class that teaches how to act out action scenes. I usually keep a copy of all my movies but not of this one. I am deleting this one just like I deleted Gargoyles by Jim Wynorski.