La légende d'Hercule

Absolutely Average and Below in Every Way, this by the Numbers Filmmaking from a Very Inconsistent Director is so Unremarkable that it Barely Exists and is in Danger of Fading from Memory So Fast that the Mythology of Hercules is Safe.

This is Not Awful, Not Good, Not Much of Anything. It just Sort of Lies there with Nothing to Say, Attract Attention or be Concerned About. The Acting is Across the Board Boring. The Story is Unfaithful to its Source Material and the Story being Told is so Familiar and Stale that even Youngsters will be Disappointed.

It is Disposable and Dull with that Old PG-13 Curse of Banality and Yawn Inducing Action Scenes (that are worse when dealing with swords, spears, and Gladiator type mayhem) that the Battles are Rendered War Weary from the Outset.

Overall, Not the Worst Thing ever, but if You are Going to Watch it, do it Soon before it Ceases to Exist like the Pools of Sweat from a Strenuous Workout.

Hercules is not entirely a disaster, as one might expect. A low-budget PG-13 adaptation of 300-style movies made in Bulgaria, this movie is in line with the expectations on what Renny Harlin is capable of.

While not being a disaster on a whole, it's a disaster in parts. The special effects, while being descent 3D images at times, are badly connected with live shots. There are many moments when perspective of such sequences is distorted in really obvious (and unintentionally funny) ways. There are numerous anachronisms. Characters use costumes and jewelry that could not be available in ancient Greece. Screenplay, while not being completely absurd, has some rather awkward dialog lines and unexplainable plot moments.

Unfortunately, the movie is not a Hercules legend but rather a shallow love story and family drama. There's even a bathing scene in a romantic- looking pond with flowers under a waterfall (the water in the pond is so dirty though that one can only feel pity for the actors). There are no heroic deeds of Hercules depicted in this movie.

One last blow for Hercules is PG-13 rating. There's no blood at all. When swords pierce bodies, they re-appear absolutely clean. When one of the characters was struck in the neck, the next shot showed his neck without a sign of a would or even a drop of blood. One of the few things the movie managed to deliver were some dynamic battle sequences; but PG- 13 made them look fake. In the age of 300 and Spartacus TV show, this is not something you want to waste your time on.

Unless you wish to add to a surprising $8 mln box office success after its first weekend, which will probably make this movie more profitable than most other current releases.

In 1200 B.C. Greece, King Amphitryon conquers Argos by killing its ruler. Queen Alcmene is tired of his constant war. Hera allows her to have a baby with Zeus who would grow up to be the half-God champion Hercules (Kellan Lutz). He falls in love with Princess Hebe of Crete but his jealous older half-brother Iphicles announces his marriage to her. Hercules is sent to Egypt where he is set up for an ambush and sold into slavery.

The opening fight is slightly interesting. It tries to be 300 but it's not as good. It starts out as a cheaper version of that style. That would be fine but it only gets worst from there. Kellan Lutz comes in and the muscle-bound dude is not charismatic enough to lead. The action style becomes cheaper and weaker. This Greek epic story has never seem less compelling.

Not the worst of anything to do with the Hercules legend, there are a few obscure low budget animated adaptations (not feature length) that are marginally worse. When it comes to feature length films, it would be very difficult to think of a worse depiction of Hercules than 'The Legend of Hercules'.

The sole saving grace is Liam McIntyre. He is the only actor who tries and the only one to feel right for his character and within the tone of the story. However the rest of the acting was just diabolical. Kellan Lutz has to be one of the most charisma-free and can't-act-his-way-out-a-paper-bag actors working today, he brings none of the heroism and conflict of this great charismatic hero and spends all his screen time looking blank and wooden and uttering his admittedly terrible lines with the flattest and most awkward line delivery imaginable.

Can't say anything better about the ladies either, who also show their acting limitations, especially the portrayal of Hebe who is in dire need of an acting coach. The obligatory villain acting is so pantomimic and overdone that one's surprised at how there was any scenery left from all the chewing, and it is so cartoonish that it veers on at times unintentionally comical rather than menacing.

Blame cannot be entirely laid at their door though. 'The Legend of Hercules' is very incompetently directed by a director that in the film's worst parts even makes Uwe Ball look good. Even worse is the script, which is extremely flabby and heavy in banality and melodrama. The characters are genre stereotypes basically and have the development of a thin piece of cardboard. The story, what there is of it (for the running time this is often wafer-thin and threadbare storytelling) rushes from one scene and plot point to another, and jumps around constantly that following what's going on is not always easy. But because the writing and characterisation has so little to them and that thrills, emotional engagement and such are next to none the film feels interminably dull and lifeless often.

Some bad fantasy-action-adventure films have the credit of looking good. That cannot be said at all for 'The Legend of Hercules' that looks like direct to video fodder from SyFy or The Asylum. The photography is unfocused and editing choppy, with an irritating over-reliance of slow motion and impregnated pauses that come over often as gimmicky, excessive and unnecessary. The sets and costumes look recycled, and to say that the special effects are dodgy is not just an understatement but actually pretty insulting, some of the worst effects of any film seen in recent years.

What little there is of the action is at best uninspired choreographically, an eyesore visually and in terms of peril they're somewhat tame. The music score is lifeless and forgettable, very generic genre scoring actually. The 50s and 60s Hercules films may have been cheap and cheesy, but at least they knew what their goals were, who they were aiming at and what tone to take. 'The Legend of Hercules' fails at all three of those things, often it was difficult to work out what it was trying to be or what tone it was aiming for as it tries to be light-hearted fun and also take it seriously and fails abysmally at both.

To summarise, very bad film. How it made it to theatres/cinemas and not straight to DVD is honestly a complete enigma to me, and this is coming from a very subjective person when expressing opinions. 2/10 Bethany Cox

This wasn't a terrible movie, I kind of enjoyed it. It's like a mixture of 300 and gladiator. I don't get all the bad reviews. If you like a good action flick I would say watch this.