Review: Legend

Legend, the latest biopic on the notorious Kray twins, starring Tom Hardy and Emily Browning, was to put it bluntly, not a great film. Putting aside a very memorable performance from Tom Hardy, who somehow manages to play both twins with such distinction that you would almost believe its two actors rather than one, Legend sacrifices an actual coherant and steady storyline for a funny script and some very pretty production design instead.

First of all, the good points. The film was actually much funnier than I thought it would be. Whether that was intentional or not is another question. I was also extremely impressed with the seamless way in which both Kray twins were placed on-screen. It makes my head hurt to think about how they managed to show the same man twice at the same time simply because it is done so well. At the risk of revealing a slight spoiler, there's an excellent fight scene between the two Krays that is so well done, you'd forget it was the same actor.

Unfortunately, cool special effects and some funny moments can't save this film. It has next to no actual storyline. It tracks the Kray brothers, and their life, but there's no rise and fall, no driving conflict, it just ends. The film is only just over two hours but I felt like it was longer, and actually sat in the cinema waiting for it to end. It bored me. Whilst being funny, nothing really happened, and the characters aren't even portrayed as anti-heroes. There is nobody to root for. For something that is being referred to as the Brittish version of Goodfellas, I expected more.

2/5