Not what you might expect

Rating: 5/10 (10 September 2015)

When you walk into a film with not one but two leading performances by Tom Hardy, who's back catalogue brings nothing but pleasure (apart from This Means War, but we'll let that slide), you cant help but feel disappointed when you leave the screen completely unaffected by what you've just watched, and that was certainly how I felt hen it came to Legend.
Labelled of course as a Kray twin biopic, it sadly offers no real insight into their story and only grazes the top of their criminal wrong doings. Instead it goes down the route of Reggie and Frances love story, who is a character so under developed that the fragility her brother so often reiterates, isn't actually explained what so ever and prevents us from feeling anything towards her.
As for Hardy he plays both characters exceptionally well, particularly Ronnie who's insanity and subsequent spontaneity provides some comic relief to it all, however his psychological state is something that could of been explored more thoroughly instead of labelling him as just nuts. The supporting cast, including Taron Egerton and Christopher Eccleston, also do a fine job though Ecclestone's police officer almost gets ignored completely.
The violence is also few and far between but when it appears they definitely don't hold back, providing entertaining scenes more reminiscent of other crime dramas and what you would expect going in. It shows us the real consequences of the lifestyle they live which does its best to offset the fairly superficial painting of 60's London but isn't enough and so the 'glossy' comments its been receiving are sadly warranted.
In the end this adds up to a rather dull final product that wastes so much potential in this genuinely interesting real life crime partnership.