Review of Hercules (2014) by Dawdlingpoet — 26 Nov 2021

This is an action adventure film, with themes including greek mythology, fate, faith and destiny. It looks, visually, like a war epic type of film (think Alexander, Gladiator etc.). There are numerous impressive landscape shots shown and there is the usual rousing classical style music played in the background of many scenes. The main difference with this film compared to the previously mentioned ones, however, is that this one doesn't take itself quite so seriously. There are some instances of characters making quite witty side comments which I found amusing. There are some cheesy aspects within the plot, such as the young boy who idolises Hercules to a point of cringe-dom (is that a word? if not then it should be!) but other aspects of the plot, or sub-plots, I appreciated more. I found myself surprised by some of what happened and I wouldn't say its entirely predictable. I was also quite pleased that it has a running time of an hour and 40 minutes or thereabouts, as most other war epic type films run for over two hours and they can drag on a bit but this I found to be an entertaining watch.

The fact that this is set in a time of greek mythology means that there are some pretty foreign looking creatures/characters around, which made it more fascinating from a visual point of view. It had quite a spooky feel to it, with some mildly frightening, or certainly unsettling, dream type sequences. Cast wise, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson plays the main character, Hercules. He gives a decent performance as the famed half God, seeming quite macho but also enjoying the father role he inadvertently becomes after the aformentioned young boy, a fan of his, comes across him. He comes across as a very protective and loyal person. Other characters include Amphiaraus, played by Ian McShane. I liked his character as well, as he gave the wittiest comments and remarks - he's quite a cocky and observant fellow. There's also Lord Cotys, played by John Hurt and Autolycus, played by Rufus Sewell, plus Tydeus who is played by Aksel Hennie and King Eurystheus, played by Joseph Fiennes. The cast all did well in their roles, I can't remember noticing any particularly bad performances.

Content wise, there are instances of nudity and sex references, plus some strong language and, inevitably, a fair amount of violence, including bloody violence (bloody injuries (facial and otherwise) shown after battles and the like) features. There isn't a lot of graphically explicit scenes - during the battle scenes, there isn't a large amount of specific detail shown as injuries occur, their mostly fast moving scenes and injuries are mostly shown after the fights have occurred. The film is moderately dark and spooky in tone throughout and so could be quite frightening to very young viewers, hence the 12 rating its been given.

Yes I would recommend this film, as I found it entertaining, sometimes amusing and it features a good cast, plus has some decent landscape shots. Its one of the shorter films of its type but I enjoyed it and as such I'd recommend it.