'Hercules' only strong enough for Mediocrity
It doesn’t appear that Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson can hold an action film on his own. He was great in Get Shorty, and he was fun in Race to Witch Mountain, but in his role as Hercules in the movie of the same name, he just doesn’t have the same charisma.
It seems like this movie wants to bring back the epic of the 1950s when movies like Spartacus and Cleopatra ruled the screen. Unfortunately, it fails. It has lush backgrounds huge sets and a cast of hundreds, maybe, that get lost in the sets. While it is disconcerting to see such large expanses of space with so very few people, what hurts this film the most is its pacing. It tramps across the screen much like the army of farmers that Hercules leads. It is paced like it has three hours to tell the story, but with a run time of just under 100 minutes, those slow areas of traveling from place to place are wasted, especially when they do nothing to allow the audience to develop a relationship with the main characters. The film concept of Hercules is based on a comic book series that reduces Hercules to an extremely strong and athletically gifted man, which seems right up the Rock’s alley, with a good PR man to tell the stories of Hercules. There are some allusions to how those stories came about that are clever, but it isn’t enough. Films have been using misleading advertising. What worked so well for Frozen set up Hercules for failure. You will be better off spending your money elsewhere. It isn’t that this film is terrible; it is just that it doesn’t live up to the legend of Hercules. It is a better option than January’s Kellan Lutz stinker, but until someone can embody the role in the way that Kevin Sorbo did, Hercules will have to remain a myth more than a legend. In the end, you can’t smell what the Rock is cooking, which means at least, it doesn’t stink. |
Read the review for the much worse 'Legend of Hercules' with Kellan Lutz
Read about the perception of self vs. how others perceive you Help develop the Legend of Bagelcles |