THE LEGEND OF HERCULES

I had the pleasure of waiting in line about 3 hours for a screening of this film. Thankfully, we got to be inside the theatre in a seat for the last hour of wait time. It was presented in 3D and honestly that's the ONLY reason someone might want to check this out. I thought the 3D was actually pretty good as it had effects coming at you from the beginning and in various sequences throughout the film. It was just one those where film countdown and end credits are the only discernible bits of 3D. You actually get 3D for your money here. Problem is you have to stomach the horrible dialogue and reading of it. The shouting nature of some of the lines. Kellan Lutz. Bless his heart I liked him in Immortals but this five o clock shadow Hercules was not a good choice. Just shave boy. Anyway, watch it in 3D or not at all.

Grade - D

Wow, it must be bad if nghtvsn gives it a "D".

Why in the world would you wait 3 hours in line for this film? I didn't wait that long for midnight ROTS.

It was a free public screening. Damn regulars show up early. Got to get a decent seat.

I have a soft spot for sword-and-sandal films, even B- or C-grade ones, but The Legend of Hercules is a dud through and through. The moments of potent unintentional humor found throughout do not result in an easier overall sit. The film positions itself, of course, as a grim and grounded origin story for the title hero, from his supernatural conception onward to his embrace of his father Zeus and heroic emergence. Despite a reported budget of 70 million dollars (a respectable figure, if not an astronomical one), the visuals are unconvincing throughout. It is as if every scene were shot with the same 15 or so extras in different costumes. "Today, you're soldiers! Tomorrow, farmers!"

The action sequences are, I admit, not awful in regard to choreography and framing (which is crisp and straightforward), though the extreme use of 300 style slow motion is frustrating and, in calling attention itself and its inherent artifice, disrupts the sense of propulsion which renders a scene of combat truly exciting. No swing of a sword or leap through the air is completed without a super-slow-motion pause so we can admire the flexing muscles and individual drops of computer-generated perspiration populating the air. And, of course, it goes without saying the performances range from modestly functional (at best) to, for the most part, inept, and it is hard to imagine any viewer becoming invested in the characters and their overheated, yet underdeveloped loves and rivalries. This is simply and purely a bad, bad motion picture. I obviously did not enter it expecting a proper, rousing screen version of the Hercules story, but it also, sadly, fails to provide any notable popcorn pleasures or even much so-bad-it's-good camp value. It is straight-up boring and definitely a career low point for Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger director Renny Harlin, who just last year made a decent and undervalued horror film, Devil's Pass.

F

I hope you downloaded it for free, David. Otherwise you're crossing the line between movie-buff and masochist.

I saw it at a discount second-run theatre.

One of the few films I actually paid for this year because it didn't screen for the press here and considering my rock-bottom expectations, I was slightly positively surprised. Mind you, it is still not a good film at all, but some fight scenes are decent and the 3D was surprisingly good. Like pretty damn good.

This sucked period the end.

The Legend of Hercules

This is utter crap. It is such a shoddy production with some laughable choreography. The story is fine only because it is a remake of Gladiator, Spartacus etc. What the hell happened to Renny Harlin? The man behind Cliffhanger, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and Cleaner is now making worse-than-TV-level codswallop. His cameo is also hilarious. But most of the film is riding on its lead, Kellan Lutz, being able to do something, which he cannot. Big, dumb, and wooden. A complete bore in performance and stature. Scott Adkins enjoys himself with a hammy performance, though forgettable. The film as a whole is one big bore fest.

F