If you'd like a more visual experience you can watch my youtube review HERE!
With Hercules we get a new film starring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson that also happens to be a new film from 'hit and miss' (mostly miss) director Brett Ratner. Believe it or not this movie is based on a graphic novel called 'Hercules: The Thracian Wars' (I didn't know until the end credits) and considering that kind of source material it could have been a really fun and pulpy piece of entertainment. Unfortunately it's a film that finds itself suck between fun pulp and brooding seriousness.
The cast is really solid; along with The Rock you have Ian Mcshane, John Hurt, Rufus Sewell, Peter Mullan and kickass newcomer Ingrid Bolso Berdal. They do a decent job with what they're given unfortunately it is rather bland, cheesy and cliché dialogue with a few emotional moments. The script actually has a few promising ideas in the mix especially with the revisionist take on the titular character but because it's being aimed at as wide an audience as possible those ideas aren't allowed to be focused on or fleshed out.
Now it's been a while since Brett Ratner has made a film but with Hercules he makes a decent action adventure film that should please general audiences and not make critics bang their heads on their computer desks. Now I'm not saying that it's good but it's not bad either. Unfortunately it's a rather average movie that doesn't really set itself apart from films of type that have come before it. Especially considering the source material; it could have been very stylised but instead it's stuck in a family friendly world and isn't able to go beyond the restrictions.
Now the action is pretty good and that's the main reason people will go to see this film;I especially like that it doesn't feel the need to go all shaky-cam. One negative is that blocking feels rather staged at times and the digital photography makes the costumes and sets feel rather fake (I honestly believe that most period films be shot on film). Quite a few lines of dialogue feel a bit too modern and take you out of the film but this isn't really a movie meant to be historical accurate anyway so it's not that big of an issue.
In the end what you get is an average yet decent film with enough going on for it not to be a big waste of time; I would actually recommend checking out on home video though watching it in theatres will be entirely up to your level of interest. Not bad but not that good either and I honestly don't think I'll be remembering it in the weeks to come.
2 1/2 stars out of 5
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