HERCULES (2014)

It is quite remarkable that we get two movies in recent months based on the epic Greek myths of Hercules; it’s also remarkable that both (for quite different reasons) fail to live up to the source material. Hercules has, at least on paper, some advantages over the previously reviewed ‘The Legend of Hercules’. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson makes a far more convincing son of Zeus than Kellan Lutz and his ancient Greek crew cut. His wrestling background also makes him a more convincing on-screen hero making him believable as a larger than life, battle-hardened champion. What we don’t get, sadly, is a better written, more interesting plot - there are holes in this one that you could drive a one-eyed, three-headed, chariot-riding demon through. And it is this, the real failing of Hercules - the story is just not up to the job. The film limps from one action scene to the other hoping the audience won’t fall asleep along the way. When it gets to the action the filmmakers suddenly recover their confidence and are able to put together several competent battle scenes that give glimmers of what of the film might have been. The problem is that for supposedly action-packed adventures there are surprisingly large gaps between the scenes that forces the film to fall back on its characters (mostly one-dimensional) and its script (which is hardly Shakespeare). It is only fair to note that the film is clearly not meant to be taken too seriously and so any deep analysis is obviously not relevant. Even if it was aiming for a silly adventure film it still does not measure up to better efforts in the genre. FINAL VERDICT 5/10 It’s not dull but it could have been much more exciting.