Director: Renny Harlin
Released: 2014
Run-Time: 98 minutes
CAST:
Kellan Lutz: Hercules
Scott Adkins: King Amphitryon
There were two films about Hercules released this year. One starred Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the titular hero. It was pretty good movie. It took a very unique spin on the mythology of the character. The filmmakers of Hercules played with the idea that Hercules himself may or may not have been the son of Zeus as the mythology claims. His 12 Labors that he apparently accomplished by himself were exaggerated. Dwayne Johnson was the perfect choice to play Hercules. He had the charisma as well the physique to play the character. They took as much of a realistic approach to the film as possible, and actually made Hercules an actual human being, albeit an exceptionally strong one. In fact, you can read my review of that film here. So where was I? There were two movies about Hercules….oh, I remember now: The Other One. By The Other One, I mean The Legend of Hercules. Oh, dear, where do I begin?
This “story” begins with the invasion of the city of Argos by the tyrannical, mustache-twirling King Amphitryon(Scott Adkins). Later that night, Amphitryon’s wife gets pregnant by Zeus who happens to be invisible. She eventually gives birth to a son whom she calls “Hercules” in secret. When Hercules grows up he is betrayed by both his brother and King Amphitryon, sent to Egypt and eventually sold into slavery. He must then valiantly battle his way back to Greece to exact vengeance on the King and his brother. I’m not sure how you can convey sarcasm on a blog, so I guess I’ll just use pink. There are so many problems here, it’s hard to pinpoint where it all went wrong. First off, The Legend of Hercules was billed as an origin story. That’s all well and good, if the origin story was interesting to begin with, but Hercules never really had an interesting origin story outside of being the son of Zeus. While Dwayne Johnson’s film actually touched on a few of the labors, this movie only touches on one: The slaying of the Nemean lion. When you actually look at the story, it contains elements of far superior films like Gladiator and Braveheart. The problem here is that The Other One is not even close to being in the same league as those movies.
I knew that something was wrong when they cast Kellan Lutz as Hercules. I don’t think having Twilight under your belt qualifies you to play the son of Zeus. He’s horribly miscast. Yeah, he’s built, but he has the personality of a paper bag. Dwayne Johnson is light years ahead of Lutz in the talent department. I’ve never been impressed with Kellan Lutz, but I was hoping that Scott Adkins would pick up the slack. I’m actually not going to blame Adkins outright for how laughable Amphitryon is, but he did really overplay it. Adkins is at his best when he’s playing angry Russians. In The Legend of Hercules he’s only given two real moments to show off his physicality, but in between he’s scowling and screaming. That makes for an irritating villain, not an intimidating one. The rest of the cast is ultimately disposable, because there is nothing here that resembles a good performance.
The action sequences, likewise, are just as bland. You can tell that Renny Harlin was inspired by the look of Zack Snyder’s movies. I say that, because most of the action has slow-motion thrown in and not in a good way. Slow-motion should be used as a method of emphasizing a particular piece of the story. Here, it’s used as a gimmick. I suppose the same could be said for Zack Snyder’s movies, but at least he gives it some effort. It’s not that Renny Harlin can’t make a decent action movie, he can. Look at Cliffhanger. That was an awesome movie. I think that Harlin has a habit of surrounding himself with questionable talent as far the filmmaking aspect goes. The writing in this movie is terrible. Every moment that Hercules opens his mouth is a face-palm moment. Who the hell talks like that? The action’s inadequate, but what the special effects? I’ve seen better CGI in a video-game. There’s a sequence that was clearly made for 3D, in which Hercules realizes his potential and literally breaks his chains. he swings two gigantic blocks of granite around like they were tennis balls. It’s rather embarrassing to watch and unconvincing. The movie also feels like it runs forever and a half. It’s what a movie about Hercules should never be: Boring. That is the film’s greatest sin. It’s just not exciting to watch. If there’s anything good about this movie, it’s that some of the art direction is actually pretty decent with some fantastic backdrops and set designs. That’s it, though.
At the end of the day, all the problems that this movie has can be laid at the feet of Renny Harlin. He just made some seriously poor decisions. The casting of Kellan Lutz was just poorly though out. Scott Adkins wasn’t properly utilized, given that he’s actually a talented individual. The action sequences are completely generic and don’t elicit any kind of emotion except boredom. The music is completely over-the-top and unnecessarily grandiose. This movie was poorly executed. Between this and Dwayne Johnson’s movie, I’ll take The Rock’s movie over this garbage any day of the week and twice on Sunday. I will admit that Dwayne Johnson’s movie is far from perfect, but at least real effort was made to make it stand out. I can’t believe that I’m saying this, but Alan Steele’s Hercules Against The Moon Men is a better film than Renny Harlin’s, and Moon Men was an absolutely dreadful picture. There are better films about Hercules out there: Disney’s animated film, the original Steve Reeves movies and even Kevin Sorbo’s television series is pretty decent. Of the two Hercules movies this year, the winner is without a doubt, Dwayne Johnson’s movie. Stay away from The Legend of Hercules, far away. My final verdict is a 3/10. Send this puppy back to the pits of Hades.