At any other time of the year a
Brett Ratner production of Hercules starring Dwayne Johnson may seem baffling but
it is Summer Season. It is perfectly
acceptable. The trailer looked decent
and with a run time of 98mins surely all would be fine………
PLOT: Hercules (Dwayne Johnson) and his band of
merry men travel the length and breadth of Thrace (Older Greece) working as
mercenaries. Hercules is famous for his
twelve labours and infamous for the murder of his wife and young family. Hercules is hired by Lord Cotys (John Hurt) to
defend his city and battles for money. Hercules
finds that all is not what it seems and battles for honour. END PLOT
The film does not stick close to
the traditional legend but Hercules and friends embellishing the lore to boost Hercules’s street cred had the potential to be a fun addition to
the proceedings. Unfortunately the film took itself seriously and the script was
far too weak to give any credence to the tone. The annoying narration by, Ialaus, (Reece Ritchie) did not help.
Although the trailer may have
indicated otherwise the labours only appear in flashbacks and have very little
to do with the main events. The trailer
for Hercules is very misleading as the film is actually about Hercules
training a small army then being ambushed twice whilst rambling through Thrace.
The storyline was paper thin but
a walk through history was not the reason I went to see the film. The reason was Dwayne Johnson aka The
Rock. Johnson is at his best when he
pops up as a secondary character and gets to bring his beefy badass shtick but he
took the role of Hercules very seriously and with that he lost his charm and sense of fun.
John Hurt, Joseph Fiennes and Ian
McShane made up the supporting cast and all were fine, if uninspiring, in their
roles. Rufus Sewell was great fun and
lifted the drab proceedings when he appeared on screen. Unfortunately for us all Hercules was masquerading
as a serious biopic therefore Sewell’s screen time was limited. This was one of many mistakes.
As there was more walking in
Hercules than The Lord of the Rings there were countless helicopter shots showing pretty scenery. The
sets weren’t unpleasing to look either at but there was nothing spectacular on
offer. The same can be said for the
action. It was all decently choreographed
but there was no attempt at anything new. The
feeling of familiarity was rife throughout the entire film.
It is quite an achievement to
have the audience looking at their watches during a film that is only 98mins
long. There were periods when absolutely
nothing happened. If the feasting and
walking scenes were removed from the film it would be a 40min big budget episode
of… erm…. Hercules. It may have been
better for it.
Hercules took the tried and
tested and made it tired and detested*. As a fan of The Rock I will give it a very
forgiving 5/10. If others aren’t so
lenient I couldn’t argue against it.
*Yes. I kept this in.
