The Legend of Hercules (2014)

In 2006, the film 300 was released.  It brought about a style of action that has been reused by other similar genre films and television shows since.  The Starz series Spartacus used the speed ramping style that Zack Snyder popularized in 300.  The ancient Greek gods were brought to the big screen in the film Immortals by using this same action technique.  Earlier this year, Renny Harlin decided to try his luck at aping the style by releasing The Legend of Hercules.

Kellan Lutz of Twilight fame stars in this action movie as the titular Hercules.  After being ostracized by his father and brother, Hercules must fight his way back into his kingdom and save the woman he loves.  That woman is to be married to his brother, the future king.  It is a tale of love and muscles.

When I say that Hercules fights his way back to his kingdom, I mean that the entire movie is fighting.  He fights in gladiator matches to earn his way back to Greece.  Then Hercules starts a war against his father, the king.  All of the action is in a style very reminiscent of Zack Snyder’s Spartan epic.  The fact that the action is relentless only makes the movie feel more tedious.  This style can be very effective in small doses but when all of the action plays out this way, it becomes irritating.  That’s the big problem with The Legend of Hercules.  I don’t mean to keep bringing up 300, but this movie feels like the pit kicking scene of 300 for an hour and a half.  Slow motion kicks, lots of yelling, and sped up impacts.  The whole movie.  It doesn’t stop until the end.

At the end of The Legend of Hercules, once the awe at how terrible the action was wore away, I was left with one thought.  Near the beginning of the film, Hercules managed to kill the Nemean Lion.  That is the first of the twelve labours of Hercules in Greek mythology.  Mind you, his name was Heracles in the Greek mythology, and Romans changed it to Hercules.  That’s not the point.  My thought upon the slaying of the lion was that the movie was going to cover the twelve labours.  I was excited.  What I soon discovered was that the Nemean Lion would be the only labour that Hercules performed during The Legend of Hercules.  Why bring up the idea of the twelve labours without following through?  Why go on this entirely different tangent that involves lots of fighting and very little of the Hercules mythology?  It made no sense to me.  There is a nod to the mythology that some people know and then the movie turns into a below average gladiator movie.  If there were more nods to the other labours, the movie may have played a little better.  As it is, there are hints at something with a little more substance, yet no real exploration.

Also in the no exploration section of The Legend of Hercules come the performances.  The vast majority of the performances are very one note.  Kellan Lutz does not bring anything to Hercules but muscle, in much the same way that Scott Adkins brings nothing but brute force to his role.  Though, I guess Adkins at least got to chew up a few lines in there making his performance at least the smallest bit entertaining.  The highlight of the movie is Liam McIntyre who plays a betrayed, beaten down soldier named Sotiris.  His performance has enough depth that you feel his pain.  He stands above and beyond the other performers by making you care for what happens to his character.  He has enough presence to make his part of the story captivating.  He’s only playing the partner of Hercules, but manages to be the more interesting character of the two.  McIntyre both brought more to his performance than anyone else brought to theirs, and brought down the movie by overshadowing the lead who should be the most fascinating part.  It was a damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario and he decided to do.  At least someone in this movie decided to do.

The Legend of Hercules is not a good movie.  The action is bad.  The acting is bad.  The whole movie is just plain bad.  I wasn’t expecting much in terms of quality going into the movie but it really surpassed my expectations in how bad it is.  It’s not even an entertaining kind of bad.  It’s just a bland, poorly made movie that tries to hide how bad it is beneath a bunch of muscles and derivative action.  It is not worth the time it takes to watch.  Damn you, Renny Harlin.  Damn you.

Notes, notes, I’ve got your notes:

• There is another Hercules movie that was featured in the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  I watched Hercules in New York a while back.
• An actor named Trayon Milenov-Troy was in The Legend of Hercules.  He was also in a movie called Death Race 2.
• If you have any suggestions or you just want to give me your thoughts on The Legend of Hercules, comment.  Or go to Twitter and find me there.  Either way works.