This year has seen two different Hercules movies hit the big screen, one a fun action romp through Ancient Greece starring action heavyweight Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, the other a messy (at best) trip to the land of poor-green-screens starring Kellan Lutz; sadly, The Legend Of Hercules is the latter.
Starring Kellan Lutz (the boy best known for being a recurring extra in the Twilight movies) as the titular Demi-God, The Legend Of Hercules takes us to ancient Greece where, in order to thwart a the tyrannical King Amphitryon (Scott Adkins, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning) his own wife (Roxanne McKee, Game of Thrones) decides to have an affair with Zeus (King of the Gods), and give birth to the legendary half-man, half-God Hercules, believing he will one day grow up to end his stepfather’s rule.
Obviously things aren’t as easy as all that; Hercules doesn’t know he’s the son of Zeus, and is instead raised as the King’s own son, alongside his half-brother Iphicles (Liam Garrigan, The Pillars of the Earth), and treated very much as an unwanted outsider, right up until the day his father gifts the love of Hercules’ life (a young woman named Hebe, played by Mary Queen of Scots’ Gaia Weiss) to his brother, things erupt, and he’s banished from the kingdom; leading to multiple attempts on his life, Herc eventually realising who he is, and attempting to seize his own destiny (though not before being sold into slavery, competing in Gladiator style death matches, and trekking around half the Ancient world on his way back to reclaim his forbidden love).
It sounds like an epic movie, and in many ways it is, the scope and ideas behind The Legend of Hercules are grand to say the least, the only problem is they fail utterly in their execution; strangled by an abundance of terrible green screen backgrounds, cheesy dialogue, and a formulaic, obvious, A-to-B, plot which seems to have ‘borrowed’ key elements from everything from Braveheart to Twilight, Gladiator to Spartacus (the TV show), scooped them all together with a dash of 300-style pomposity, and wrapped it all in a Moses-meets-Rocky tale that’s simply too busy, and lacks both the script, direction, budget, and acting talent to successfully pull it off.
Littered with problems, the bare bones of the script tell a serviceable enough tale, though fleshed out with painfully cheesy dialogue, clearly ripping off far better material (such as Gladiator), and not only surrounded by a collection of piss-poor CGI, and stylistically shocking green screen backdrops (which only make the transitions between green screen and real locations that much more stark), but delivered via the hands of some truly bottom-of-the-barrel acting ‘talent’ it’s difficult to get behind.
Scott Adkins is possibly the biggest name here, and there’s no denying he delivers during his fight scenes yet, even attempting to look like the sole survivor of the 300 Spartans (who went off and spent a little time as a porn star in the ‘70s) can’t detract from his laughable dialogue, over-the-top delivery, and generally unfocussed nature; which all make him look like a pantomime villain, something Liam Garrigan’s Iphicles is in every way (being a direct translation of Joaquin Phoenix’s bad guy from Gladiator; right down to the make-up, and “why don’t they love me?” attitude).
Roxanne McKee does a decent enough job (but is failed massively by the script, and doesn’t really look old enough to be Herc’s mother), Rade Serbedzija (Taken 2) is also acceptable in his minor role as the Queen’s confidant, yet Gaia Weiss is laughable as the damsel in distress Hebe, and while Kellan Lutz is clearly physically strong, he lacks any charisma, has no talent for acting, and is an undeniably poor choice for the Greek God compared to The Rock (or Conan‘s Jason Momoa), and is upstaged at every turn by Spartacus’ Liam McIntyre; a strange twist of fate given McIntyre’s fairly limited role, and the fact he actually played Spartacus in the TV show from which The Legend Of Hercules pilfered much of its so-called style.
In fact what we get with a lot of the Legend is a feeling of style-over-substance, the only problem being director Renny Harlin (the man behind one of cinema’s biggest ever flops – Cutthroat Island) hasn’t got the style to pull it off; the opening act is filled with an over-abundance of truly awful (yet apparently stylistic) CGI backdrops, and the majority of the action scenes, while choreographed well, and actually being more violent than The Rock’s Hercules (always a positive sign), are presented horribly, rely far too much on unnecessary and distracting slow-motion (clearly trying to capture a bit of 300 flair and failing miserably), and are littered with blatantly obvious and gimmicky 3D shots (swords coming out of the screen, and arrows being fired at the camera, not to mention floating petals etc. flying into almost every non-action scene in order to ‘amp-up’ the 3D effect), which often fall somewhat flat as a result.
It’s not all bad however; after you get past the pathetic opening (to Herc’s banishment), the middle act is actually pretty engaging and becomes surprisingly enjoyable (although it’s quickly tarnished by a poor final act), action can be engaging once you get over the terrible stylistic choices, and certain cast members manage to hold their own in the film; and as long as you treat the whole thing like it originally should have been treated; like a small, no-name, made-for-TV movie, you’ll be surprised, and have a good time watching The Legend of Hercules.
Though clearly plagiarising a number of highly successful movies, but failing to emulate them successfully, The Legend of Hercules has ideas well above its station, that it continually fails to fulfil. It’d be worth catching once it makes its way to a Sunday afternoon TV slot (nap time), but the DVD is hugely skippable, because The Legend of Hercules is failing on almost all fronts; a true Greek tragedy of a film with awful acting, dodgy direction, and a shambolic script, it has few redeeming qualities; sure it’s middle act is somewhat impressive but, like a piece of semi-acceptable chicken surrounded by two slices of mouldy bread, the Legend isn’t a sandwich many people will be desperate to bite into.
Picture:
In terms of video quality The Legend of Hercules is also a bit of a lacklustre affair; tonally the film looks simply too warm (sure it’s ancient Greece, but a more natural look would’ve helped everything look less orange, blurry, and generally more acceptable), and like the majority of picture elements the warmth of the picture is never consistent, leading to shifting skintones, and some general contrast issues. Detail is up and down, with slow-motion action sequences, and the odd close-up, often looking supremely impressive, but any low-light scenes suffering a terrible dip in picture quality thanks to iffy blacks, and numerous compression issues which lead to aliasing, pixelation, and a lowering of overall definition.
CGI elements are also far too obviously separate from the ‘real’ parts of the picture, and it provides sharply jarring effect when switching between real locales and those comprising of CGI backdrops (granted that’s more of a stylistic problem than a picture quality issue, but this is one instance where having a generally decent visual representation of the film may be harming the viewing experience), yet overall, despite rampant inconsistencies, the level of detail, and picture quality in general, is far from impressive, but more than apt for this particular movie.
Audio:
Faring better, the soundtrack that accompanies The Legend of Hercules is likely to please many a fan of low-budget action movies; whilst it can often be too loud for its own good, and feature some pretty over-the-top sound effects during the action scenes, dialogue is consistently clear and well placed, the surround channels are almost always utilised effectively (and often), and while not the clearest mix ever produced, it’s loud, bombastic, and delivers everything the movie itself was aiming for.
Extras:
With a 15 minute EPK style Making Of featurette (watchable, though nothing spectacular), and an audio commentary (with star Kellan Lutz and director Renny Harlin providing a few insights into the production, with a couple of interesting tidbits thrown in amongst the patches of silence and generally skippable track) providing the only two special features on The Legend of Hercules DVD, this collection of bonus materials ticks the necessary boxes, but delivers nothing noteworthy in the process.
The Bottom Line:
Average picture quality, average special features, and an average movie mixed with a decent soundtrack, and a singular worthwhile act in the film make The Legend of Hercules far from unmissable; cheesy dialogue, D-list actors, and dire direction do nothing to elevate a film which tries to copy so many beloved properties (300, Gladiator, Ben Hur) but comes nowhere near the success they had. Skip this movie, watch Dwayne Johnson’s take on the Greek God, and wait for The Legend of Hercules to hit network TV.
Matt Wheeldon – @TheMattWheeldon.
