Release Date: Jul 25, 2014
Director: Brett Ratner
Genre(s): Action, Adventure
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Ian McShane, John Hurt,Joseph Fiennes, Rufus Sewell
Summary: Both man and myth, Hercules (Dwayne Johnson) leads a band of mercenaries to
help end a bloody civil war in the land of Thrace and return the rightful king to his throne. A tormented soul from birth, Hercules has the strength of a God but feels the suffering of a human.
Review: Give "Hercules" this much: It knows what it is.
And what it is is a meat-headed delivery system for action set pieces and Dwayne Johnson's brand of smirking heroics in a blissfully unserious take on the legend of Hercules, Greek demigod, son of almighty Zeus.
And for a spell, it seems like the movie is going to be a lot of dumb fun, opening with an eager, over-the-top history of the legend and the 12 labors, Hercules slaughtering Hydra and other cartoonishly designed CGI mythical beasts, emerging from the flames draped in a lion's pelt.
But that gleefully dumb fun doesn't last long. "Hercules" puts a human spin on Greek myth. And humans, as directed by perpetual frat boy Brett Ratner, are kind of boring.
Hercules isn't really a demigod, you see, just a super strong dude — he's a god in reputation only. He's also a mercenary, fighting battles with a friendly band of warriors (one of whom is a scantily clad woman who bares her midriff like it's armor) in exchange for gold so he can retire and live out his days in solitude and ruminate on the slaughter of his wife and children, of which he has been accused.
And what it is is a meat-headed delivery system for action set pieces and Dwayne Johnson's brand of smirking heroics in a blissfully unserious take on the legend of Hercules, Greek demigod, son of almighty Zeus.
And for a spell, it seems like the movie is going to be a lot of dumb fun, opening with an eager, over-the-top history of the legend and the 12 labors, Hercules slaughtering Hydra and other cartoonishly designed CGI mythical beasts, emerging from the flames draped in a lion's pelt.
But that gleefully dumb fun doesn't last long. "Hercules" puts a human spin on Greek myth. And humans, as directed by perpetual frat boy Brett Ratner, are kind of boring.
Hercules isn't really a demigod, you see, just a super strong dude — he's a god in reputation only. He's also a mercenary, fighting battles with a friendly band of warriors (one of whom is a scantily clad woman who bares her midriff like it's armor) in exchange for gold so he can retire and live out his days in solitude and ruminate on the slaughter of his wife and children, of which he has been accused.
That means one final score. He's commissioned by the lord of Thrace (John Hurt) to defeat a tyrannical warlord named Rhesus who threatens his kingdom. Things are not as they appear, of course, and, demigod or not, with his weight in gold on the line, Hercules has to do some soul-searching and decide how much of a hero he really is.
It's boilerplate heroics, the kind of movie where someone says, "The people need a hero." The battle sequences are equally undistinguished, busy, blurred melees that bleed into one another in a world where anything magical or mythical is a delusion, a trick of the light.
It has all been so done. But still, there's a welcome lack of pretension to the proceedings. Stalwarts like Hurt and Ian McShane are on hand to class up the joint — everyone's got a British accent except for Johnson — while the predictable story bludgeons its way towards an inevitable conclusion.
It's all just fun enough. And depending on how big a fan you were of "Deadwood," it's worth the price of admission to delight in McShane's performance as a smart-aleck soothsayer exclaiming his PG-13-allotted swear words with relish.
It's boilerplate heroics, the kind of movie where someone says, "The people need a hero." The battle sequences are equally undistinguished, busy, blurred melees that bleed into one another in a world where anything magical or mythical is a delusion, a trick of the light.
It has all been so done. But still, there's a welcome lack of pretension to the proceedings. Stalwarts like Hurt and Ian McShane are on hand to class up the joint — everyone's got a British accent except for Johnson — while the predictable story bludgeons its way towards an inevitable conclusion.
It's all just fun enough. And depending on how big a fan you were of "Deadwood," it's worth the price of admission to delight in McShane's performance as a smart-aleck soothsayer exclaiming his PG-13-allotted swear words with relish.
---
Comment and tell us what you think about the movie
& remeber to follow
---
No comments:
Post a Comment