Memorable, crazy movie

Let's be realistic.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Heracles, the greatest of the ancient Greek heroes. My dad told me all of his adventures and labors and heroic doings when I was growing up. There is such a rich and bountiful history behind the demi-god, so many tales that would easily make great movies, but instead we get this.From the director of action classics such as Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger, comes this steaming pile of crap straight from the butthole of a $70 million project.What even was this movie? The Hercules done by Brett Ratner was coming out later that year (which turned out to be far better than this), so why was this one necessary?Acting - I don't think you can call any of this acting, just people reciting lines with either shouty voices or normal voices. Okay... - Kellen Lutz is not Hercules. Dwayne the Rock Johnson was more believable as Hercules. - Scott Adkins was wasted (not that he's a great actor). If you've seen his movies, you know what he's good for...sweet fist fight action sequences. He has one in this but it's poorly done. - The bad guys were just acting like over-the-top douche bags with no layered performances.Story - The romance plot line took up way too much time. It wasn't believable, or touching, in fact, it was quite dead and emotionless and I felt nothing for the to lovebirds. - There is 1 labor performed in this film, the Nemean Lion. It was rushed and lackluster, poorly executed. - It feels too much like Ben-Hur, Spartacus and Gladiator, 10/10 films. But they had layered characters, superb writing, an emotional story line and brilliant acting and this has none of those things. It doesn't feel original and it isn't even done well so you can't forgive it for being unoriginal.Action - (Cinematography and Editing) - It's PG-13 so there's no meatiness to the fights - There's no blood or real visceral violence of any kind - Looks like a bunch of people rolling around swinging wildly, mixed in with some WWE performances - Clone of 300, or Immortals. Same style, but poorly executed. - No point to slow motion because there's nothing impressive happening and there's no blood flying across the screen. - Cuts away when anything cool might happen - It just feels boring to watch - This is the most decent thing about the movie though, soooooooo...Costumes and Set Design - Costumes just look cheap - Sets look cheap - Backgrounds sometimes look like paintings - When they don't look like paintings they look like terrible animation - Terrible animation complimented by wonky green screen blending - Why did so much have to be CGI if it was garbage? Why not create a miniature model of the city and film that rather than create an obviously fake, video-game looking world?Writing - Dialogue is cringey, cheesy, corny, terrible....take your pick. - Nothing feels tense. - Characters might as well be 2D cut- outs. There's no layering to any of them. They're either good or bad. None are tormented or have problems. Take for example Joaquin Phoenix's Commodus - clearly disturbed and vile, tormented by his thoughts and emotions. That's a character. - Come to think of it, I don't think there was an actual script, just dot points written by 4 dudes in a room.Music - UninspiredSound Design - UninspiredMovie Overall - UninspiredRating 2/10What on earth actually happened here? Could barely slog through this turd.

Not the worst of anything to do with the Hercules legend, there are a few obscure low budget animated adaptations (not feature length) that are marginally worse. When it comes to feature length films, it would be very difficult to think of a worse depiction of Hercules than 'The Legend of Hercules'.The sole saving grace is Liam McIntyre. He is the only actor who tries and the only one to feel right for his character and within the tone of the story. However the rest of the acting was just diabolical. Kellan Lutz has to be one of the most charisma-free and can't-act-his-way-out-a-paper-bag actors working today, he brings none of the heroism and conflict of this great charismatic hero and spends all his screen time looking blank and wooden and uttering his admittedly terrible lines with the flattest and most awkward line delivery imaginable.Can't say anything better about the ladies either, who also show their acting limitations, especially the portrayal of Hebe who is in dire need of an acting coach. The obligatory villain acting is so pantomimic and overdone that one's surprised at how there was any scenery left from all the chewing, and it is so cartoonish that it veers on at times unintentionally comical rather than menacing.Blame cannot be entirely laid at their door though. 'The Legend of Hercules' is very incompetently directed by a director that in the film's worst parts even makes Uwe Ball look good. Even worse is the script, which is extremely flabby and heavy in banality and melodrama. The characters are genre stereotypes basically and have the development of a thin piece of cardboard. The story, what there is of it (for the running time this is often wafer-thin and threadbare storytelling) rushes from one scene and plot point to another, and jumps around constantly that following what's going on is not always easy. But because the writing and characterisation has so little to them and that thrills, emotional engagement and such are next to none the film feels interminably dull and lifeless often.Some bad fantasy-action-adventure films have the credit of looking good. That cannot be said at all for 'The Legend of Hercules' that looks like direct to video fodder from SyFy or The Asylum. The photography is unfocused and editing choppy, with an irritating over-reliance of slow motion and impregnated pauses that come over often as gimmicky, excessive and unnecessary. The sets and costumes look recycled, and to say that the special effects are dodgy is not just an understatement but actually pretty insulting, some of the worst effects of any film seen in recent years.What little there is of the action is at best uninspired choreographically, an eyesore visually and in terms of peril they're somewhat tame. The music score is lifeless and forgettable, very generic genre scoring actually. The 50s and 60s Hercules films may have been cheap and cheesy, but at least they knew what their goals were, who they were aiming at and what tone to take. 'The Legend of Hercules' fails at all three of those things, often it was difficult to work out what it was trying to be or what tone it was aiming for as it tries to be light-hearted fun and also take it seriously and fails abysmally at both.To summarise, very bad film. How it made it to theatres/cinemas and not straight to DVD is honestly a complete enigma to me, and this is coming from a very subjective person when expressing opinions. 2/10 Bethany Cox

The Legend of Hercules(2014) Starring: Kellan Lutz ,Gaia Weiss ,Scott Adkins, Roxanne McKee, Liam Garrigan ,Liam McIntyre,Rade Serbedzija ,Jonathon Schaech,Luke Newberry , and Kenneth Cranham . Directed By: Renny Harlin Review Every man has a destiny, and every Hercules fan will hate whatever the heck this was suppose to be. You will not believe how stupid this all looks, it will blow your mind. The movie has no plot what so ever but it kind of feels like this we see Hercules with another name which you won't remember or care for, his brother takes credit for killing the lion that Hercules kills is going to marry the princess but she doesn't want to marry him cause she loves Hercules, Hercules is presumed dead. But he does a gladiator type thing gets kidnapped and bands an army who will fight beside him to stop the king and his brother. There was another Hercules movie that came out after this one and while I don't like it and consider it to be kind of bad, I honestly think that was a better adaption of the legend of Hercules then this. All this film seems to be is some sort of Greek film with a famous character with one poor action scene after another that consist of slow mo when you know for a fact it isn't needed. Along with all the other horrendous movies that have come out this year it like the actors are sleep walking or are a loaf of bread. When I think of a movie that says the legend of(insert famous character) I'm always hoping it will be awesome but it never is. Don't waste your time with this I give The Legend of Hercules a 0.5 out of 5.

There were three films made about the famous Greek mythological hero with great strength in 2014, I'd heard about the Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson version, nothing about the John Morrison version, this was the first of the three to be released, directed by Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2: Die Harder, Cliffhanger, Cutthroat Island, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Deep Blue Sea). Basically in Ancient Greece 1200 B.C., Queen Alcmene (Roxanne McKee) succumbs to lust for Zeus, king of the gods, she bears a son that is prophesied to overthrow tyranny and restore peace. The son, Hercules (Kellan Lutz), has grown up as a prince, with no knowledge of his true identity or his destiny, his only desire is the love of Hebe, Princess of Crete (Gaia Weiss), who has been promised to his older brother Prince Iphicles (Spartacus' Liam Garrigan). Hercules does learn of his greater purpose and must decide between fleeing with his true love, or fulfilling his destiny and becoming the true hero of his time, he chooses the latter and endures gladiatorial arena death matches and harrowing battles, but in the end he does defeat King Amphitryon (Scott Adkins) and takes back his rightful kingdom. Also starring Liam McIntyre as Sotiris, Johnathon Schaech as Tarak, Rade Šerbedžija as Chiron, Luke Newberry as Agamemnon and Kenneth Cranham as Lucius. Lutz may have the body for the leading role, but he is rather drab, and Garrigan and Adkins are okay as the villains, one of my beefs with this adaptation is that there is not enough mythological stuff, almost none of the Greek monsters and creatures we've come to expect, the special effects are fine and the fight scenes alright, it is mostly let down by predictable script, it verges on pantomime, and overall it is a boring action fantasy. Pretty poor!