Does a reasonable job exploring the relationship between the Krays, but there are misses along the way and when the film is entertaining it's often for all the wrong reasons

Rating: 4/10 (28 September 2015)

Legend for me was quite a strange film as it initially seemed to take a fairly serious approach to its subject matter (as indeed it should given the fact it's about two of the most infamous and notorious gangsters in England). However, the writers seem to switch tones wildly throughout the film and it sometimes made me wonder what kind of film that I was watching - I'm not even entirely convinced that the writers knew what film they were making here. The general narrative focuses on the troublesome and sometimes volatile relationship between the two brothers, but far too often it seemed to resort to slapstick and farce; examples of this are the fight sequences - the first one in the pub looked like something out of a bad western and the fight between the Kray Twins in their club was more silly than brutal. Whilst these sequences were quite entertaining (I'd be lying if I said that I didn't laugh), this film is about two violent gangsters and giving some of these sequences a farcical slapstick approach ultimately cheapened the film slightly and at times made the film feel like it was a parody/joke rather than the brutal picture that it should have been.
There are other problems here such as Ronnie Kray and his homosexuality; again the fact that this aspect seemed to be played more as a joke and was hardly treated in a subtle manner once again cheapened the film and made it painful to watch at times (the scene with Ronnie Kray in his apartment perhaps demonstrates this point). I liked the idea that Ronnie's psychological problems are explored here, but didn't like the way that they were explored (again it all seemed to be played for laughs which doesn't sit well with the tone of the film). Whilst I'm prepared to commend the picture for offering an in-depth examination of the two brothers, this is sadly done at the expense of other more interesting aspects of their lives - such as the rivalry between the Richardsons. Whilst the exploration between the twins is quite interesting, the writers should have focused a bit more on other areas just to try and break the film up a bit - that way it probably wouldn't have felt quite as monotonous. Sadly because it mostly focuses on one thing it did make the film feel a little dull at times and as a result it drags quite often. The writers also do themselves no favours by offering a very disjointed narrative that was all over the place meaning that it had no real flow to it and as a result of the poor narrative it is a film that is very easy to lose interest in.
Aside from an initially interesting exploration between the Krays, the only other selling point for this film is Tom Hardy who it has to be said was magnificent. It's a good showcase for his talents and I can see him having a long career in the film industry, but sadly the script badly lets him down and doesn't do justice to his superb performance. Whilst it's not a total washout, it's a film that misses far more than it hits and as a whole it's a relatively unsatisfying experience.