The Legend of Hercules (2014) review

The Legend of Hercules (2014)

IMDB & Rotten Tomatoes 4%

When I first found out about this movie, I was SUPER excited to see it. I love things that are mythology like, and I adore Kellan Lutz! So the movie totally seemed like a win-win for me. Plus there was a promise of some possibly great fights scenes. I wasn’t going to miss this opening weekend.

Actors: Kellan Lutz as Hercules, Gaia Weiss as Hebe, Scott Adkins as King Amphitryon, Roxanne McKee as Queen Alcmene, Liam Garrigan as Iphicles, Liam McIntyre as Sotiris, Rade Serbedzija as Chiron, Jonathon Schaech as Tarak, Luke Newberry as Agamemnon

Directors: Renny Harlin

Writers: Sean Hood, Daniel Giat, Renny Harlin, & Giulio Steve

Genre: Action, Adventure, Mythology

Movie Release Date: January 10, 2014

DVD Release Date: unknown at the moment

The movie’s storyline follows Hercules as he is caste out by his stepfather and how he fights his way to return home. There are details to the Hercules mythology that are changed, but the main elements are still there. For example, Hercules kills the Nemean Lion in the movie but not because he was tasked to do so. There is also the role that Hera played which wasn’t right; in the mythology, she actually detested Hercules and tried to kill him as a baby. This movie seemed to want to ignore that fact though.

 
I wasn’t really all that blown away by the movie’s writing. It just didn’t flow nicely and felt off throughout the whole movie. The time that they did not invest into the storyline and plot seemed instead to be used on the fighting scenes. And I absolutely loved the fight scenes. They did some pretty cool stuff and had slow motion spots that added to the drama of the scenes. Something that did bother me about the fight scenes were the archers. I do know about archery, and there was so many bad forms being used and improper stuff. If any of those people actually shot, they would have hurt themselves. (It’s the small details of things that bother me.)

Overall, I would have been okay not seeing this in theatres. If you love Kellan Lutz and mythology (even if it is wrong), then this movie will probably be worth it to you. I’ll likely get it on DVD because I did enjoy it, but I didn’t love it like I was hoping to. The major flaw for me was the underdeveloped storyline. It especially shows in the ending of the movie, because it just falls so flat. It didn’t feel like an ending at all; it felt more like the writers weren’t sure where to go next so they just stopped writing the script. The minor flaw for me was the CGI. It could have been done a lot better…a lot, lot better…like seriously WTF was up with the CGI bits!? Obviously, my favorite parts were the fight scenes. The best fight scene to me was probably the battle against the six undefeated champions. If you have seen this movie, let me know what your favorite and least favorite parts were.

Hope you have a heroic day!

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