Hercules Review

Zero To Nowhere Near Hero, But Not Too Bad Either

This Dwayne Is On Fiiiiirrrrrreeee

Despite the fact that it's a $100 million movie starring Dwayne Johnson released in late July, the best parts of Hercules are simply the bits when the movie explores what differentiates this version of Hercules from past incarnations. This actually isn't sarcasm, there are some really unique ideas in this scripts written by Evan Spiliotpoulos (whose previous major screenwriting cred it was Poohs Heffalump Movie) and Ryan Condal. Perhaps the best scene of the entire film is a bit where the nephew of Hercules, Iolaus (Reece Ritchie) explains to a dubious general that the reason Hercules was able to penetrate the skin of an impenetrable boar was by the use of an impenetrable sword.


It's a nice moment that demonstrates the films pleasantly upbeat attitude. It doesn't take things too seriously, which is good when you have a movie where Dwayne Johnson wears a lion for a significant portion of the movie. Hercules is pretty much a summertime diversion, and nothing more, but that's not a bad thing to be, and it even helps the film in many respects. Characters who would normally come off as sloppily written here feel charmingly comforting in how routine they are. The young comrade with something to prove, the best friend since childhood, the old man with wisdom...they're all here, and they put in good work.

Of course, it helps that some of them put in good work on the acting side. Ian McShane actually does a pretty good job here, delivering funny quips and some deep bold lines perfect for both being used in trailers and inspiring our titular protagonist. Ingrid Bolso Berdal and Rufus Sewell pretty much play their characters as you'd expect, but at least they aren't boring, while Reece Ritchie gets some of the movies best one-liners (and what I believe to be a subtle dig at that other 2014 Hercules motion picture) I do wish John Hurt had more to do here though, as all he does is just yell a lot. What a waste, especially after he brought so much to Snowpiercer.

And of course, there's Dwayne Johnson. Johnson is one of the few real movie stars around these days, a guy everyone knows the name of, and for good reason. Not only can he toss a punch in a movie, but he's charming as hell. The guy loves what he's doing, as can be seen from his social media presence that is guaranteed to brighten your day to all the passion he conveys in every Facebook post. Playing Hercules, he does a good job at displaying some subtlety in his performance, while maintaining that real life charisma to make it seem obvious why people will join him in combat. My only complaint with him is that he obviously stole my workout routine to get that muscular body of his.

While Johnson has some fun moments on the battlefield, it's in these moments of action where things dip considerably for the movie. Shaky-cam is avoided, thankfully, and the movies opening sequence introducing us to Hercules and his gang of do-gooders is filmed nicely, but a major set piece where Hercules leads a ragtag army of farmers is filmed so incoherently that it was impossible to figure out where the hell anyone was the entire time. Director Brett Ratner avoids shaky-cam, but he's allowed fast cuts to be used that make a search for coherency in these sequences a fools errand. Aside from one cool bit involving Hercules' carriage, the whole thing is a bust. Things don't improve as we go forward, especially since the overly graphic violence doesn't mesh well with the tone of the rest of the movie.

Another thing; why can't we get a good villain here? I mean, we got a cool protagonist, why not get another cool actor (Oooohh!!! Maybe Joel Edgerton!) to play a hammy baddie for Hercules to face? That would have really helped the finale, which feels a bit contrived and is also clumsily filmed. A real shame, especially since it comes off a neat scene (one that Dwayne Johnson noted he passed out multiple times filming) and really doesn't utilize the films positive aspects. Whenever it uses its creativity and cleverness, Hercules become an entertaining ride, but unfortunately, anytime a scene heavy on battles or dialogue is afoot, it's scarier than any mythological monster of legend.