Hercules

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, John Hurt, Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, Aksel Hennie, Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Reece Ritchie, Joseph Fiennes
Directed by: Brett Ratner
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure
2014

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Hercules (Dwayne Johnson) is recruited to help defend a kingdom from its possibly supernatural enemies.

Review:

Tim: I was excited to see Dwayne Johnson's Hercules for a couple of reasons. First, after the abysmal The Legend of Hercules, it couldn't possibly be the worst Hercules movie of 2014. Secondly, I believe Johnson was genuinely passionate about creating a great Hercules movie and I was excited to see what he'd come up with. Unfortunately, this film was directed by Brett Ratner, so the end result isn't as good as it should have been. This was a decent film, but it makes me lament what could have been.

The movie tries to take a "true story" approach to the legend of Hercules, giving a grittier, more down-to-earth version of the tale. I think. Honestly, I'm a little confused about where reality ends and the myth begins. I suppose that was somewhat intentional, trying to tell a story about Hercules and show how his actions took on a life of their own and were exaggerated to superhuman feats. The problem is that the telling of this is muddled in the film. Instead of being cool and ambiguous, the whole thing felt unclear and confusing. I didn't understand what I was supposed to believe- that Hercules was the son of Zeus and indeed managed otherworldly labors, or if he was a human whose legend grew out of proportion to the truth. Both sides of the coin are presented at different times and it was a little exhausting trying to make sense of it all. Ultimately, I realized I didn't care enough and just shrugged it away. If you're wondering, no, that is not a good thing at all.

I feel bad that I didn't like this movie more because I genuinely believe Dwayne Johnson tried as hard as he could to deliver a cool Hercules movie. He really gives a great deal to the performance. Unfortunately, it's becoming clearer and clearer that Johnson is best as part of an ensemble, surrounded by better actors. When he has to carry a movie himself, the results are most often disappointing. He does have some decent talent around him, but this movie is first and foremost about him, and the film stumbles a bit with all that riding on his shoulders. He was good, but just not quite good enough. I liked seeing Ian McShane and Rufus Sewell in this role. Both lent strong supporting work. John Hurt is always a good addition to a cast. I like Joseph Fiennes, but he was either miscast or just delivered a shoddy performance. I never believed him in the role and he always felt out of step with the rest of the movie. I'd bet this is a performance he would like to forget. As a whole, the cast is strong and one of the best aspects of the movie.

I hate to harp on Brett Ratner, but the guy has a bad reputation and movies like this don't help. I've actually been pretty kind to him over the years and rated his movies fairly well. So, I'm certainly not a Ratner hater. However, I feel like a lot of the film's flaws rest on his shoulders. When I heard that Dwayne Johnson was making an action adventure Hercules movie, I expected something really, really good. This movie had loads and loads of potential. And yet, Ratner turns in a fairly lackluster effort. The movie never does anything especially well. Besides one or two very good moments, the movie is mostly made up of average or slightly below average sequences. I never really cared about any of the characters or anything that happened on screen. Ratner completely fails to engross me in anything on screen. It was quite disappointing, because I should have been loving what I was seeing. Instead, we're treated to 98 minutes of completely average film-making. Ratner shoulders the lion's share of the blame here.

In the end, Hercules is a decent movie. With a strong cast, decent special effects, and a lot of passion from Johnson, the movie has a number of strengths. True, all those strengths are tempered by the average directing effort from Ratner, but this movie is still worth seeing. Just don't expect too much. And hey, if you're looking for a silver lining, this movie is massively more entertaining than The Legend of Hercules.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Hercules (1997), Clash of the Titans