The
challenge for Dwayne Johnson and director Brent Ratner, I
guess, would be if they could turn out a better Hercules film
than the one that Kellen Lutz and director Renny Harlin turned
in earlier this year. If this was a blind bet taken
before either movie came out, I would've put my money on Renny
Harlin… I mean the guy did make Deep Blue Sea and Cliff
Hanger, albeit that was a virtual lifetime ago.
Unfortunately, if I took that bet I'd be out a few bucks
because Harlin's 'The Legend of Hercules' was awful. So
there wasn't much of challenge to be better than that
movie. But standing on it's own… this version of
Hercules was pretty okay.
The warm, comforting tones of Ian McShane as the sage
Amphiaraus will narrate for us on the myth of Hercules, a man
allegedly born of a union between the god Zeus and some really
hot woman. Seriously, I don't know who that woman was
they got to do that one scene playing Hercules mom, but she
was distracting. Here's the thing about the myth of
Hercules though, in this particular time, it's just myth.
Sure, in the current time that this movie is set in, young
Iolaus (Reese Ritchie) is telling some miscreants the tales of
how Hercules single handedly took down the Erymanthian Boar or
the Nemean Lion, and yes, it does look like when Hercules
(Dwayne Johnson) shows up on the scene he wipes out most of
these miscreants with a single blow from his mighty spiked
stick… but unseen are The Crew of Hercules who are helping
sell this myth, because once you get into the enemies head,
the battle is half won.
The Hercules that we know, while plenty strong, is little more
than a mercenary, doing jobs for the highest bidder while
attempting to suppress some great pain that he hides
inside. Even his trusted crew doesn't exactly know the
truth of the Pain of Hercules, which kind of doesn't make
sense since his most trusted friend, Autolycus the Handsome
(Rufus Sewell) tells the story of how he and Hercules were
raised together as boys, so if anybody should know, you would
think he does… but this version of Hercules really doesn't
encourage much critical thought so put all that to the side.
On this
particular day, Hercules has been swayed by the beautiful
Ergenia (Rebecca Ferguson) to work for her father Lord Cotys
(John Hurt) to eradicate Rhesus, the scourge of Thrace.
For the price of his weight in gold, and that's a lotta gold
to be sure, Hercules will train these scattershot men of Lord
Cotys to do battle Rhesus and his warriors of legend, which is
thought to even contain minotaurs. But that's not
possible, because none of these myths are real, right?
Hercules and his crew will train these men, and they will
train them well… but alas… all is not what it
seems. When is it ever? Our hero will have
to dig deep into the recesses of his mind to slay his final
labor, to discover the demigod inside of him… or not because
who knows… to make things right.
Somewhat based on the comic book by the late Steven Moore,
which is a bit of messy situation since Mr. Moore was not too
happy with this movie or the fact that he received no
remuneration from this film… but that's another story…
'Hercules' 2014, more likely due to my rapid aging process,
illustrates what I like and what I don't care for as much in
these modern action films. For instance, for the first
half of this film I was completely engrossed in the narrative
as it was something of a character study with action slotted
to keep things interesting for those who need that kind of
thing to keep them awake. By turning Hercules into a
regular dude… a freakishly strong regular dude… freakish… it
makes him semi-relatable. Only semi because he's still
almost invincible, but he does still suffer from the same
issues that most of us non-demigods have to deal with on a
daily basis. It also helps to have some high quality
actors in support of this quasi character study such as John
Hurt, Rufus Sewell, Ian McShane, Joseph Fiennes in a bit of a
wasted role as a slimy king and of course Dwayne Johnson as
the lead. Mr. Johnson should be quite pleased with his
place in the business today for while there are a number of
people who could pull of this role physically, and a number of
people who could pull of the role emotionally, the number of
actors who can do both is pretty slim. He happens to be
one of them. Heck if I know another one at the
moment. Regardless, the first part of the film spending
time with the characters, setting up the story, dealing with
Hercules and his various issues and his relationship with the
crew was satisfying for me.
The second half, more so the last act when it became a typical
action picture, this I found less satisfying. The all
out action was decent I guess, but it was still somewhat
repetitive, predictable, ridiculous and a little stupid.
Up until that point, with a few exceptions here and there,
'Hercules' had done a pretty good job of not being too
terribly stupid, even clever in some parts, but all that goes
away by the time we get to the action filled finale.
Regardless, I thought Lou Ferrigno closed the book on Hercules
back in 1983, still easily near the very top of one of the
wackiest movies ever made. This version, was even better
than that, and believe me when I tell you, that's no simple
feat.
