Review of Hercules (2014) by Neekreviews — 02 Aug 2014

I just took my 13 year old nephew to see this film last night and as soon as I left the theater I was trying to figure out if I liked the movie or not. In this review and others to come, I will always say that the movie lives and dies with the villain. Sometimes the villain can carry a movie to greatness, and sometimes it can hinder the movies progress. This was one of the latter times. First off, when we left the theater, my nephew asked me if I liked it and I told him I was unsure because I loved the supporting cast and the Rock is always fun to see on screen, but I didn't like the villain all that much. His reply sealed it for me when he said...who was the villain.

As I said, I thought the cast that supported the demigod was great. Rufus Sewell and Ian McShane added much of the needed comic relief, but Aksel Hennie's berserker was a little too much for me. Over all, the cast was the strongest part of this film aside from Dwayne himself.

In movies like this when we don't get to see the growth of the villain, it does a great disservice to the audience. I get why we didn't with the "saw that one coming" twist mid way through, but still, it just didn't work in this film. And what made me the most upset was towards the end, I felt that I was being manipulated, almost forced into hating the villain as he was saying things that would make anyone wanna pop him one. I want to hate the villain on my own terms, I want to come to the end of the film and feel vindicated or saddened at the death of he or she...but here...I couldn't have cared less what happened to him.

This one is worth a rent, but no need to rush to your local theater to catch it on the big screen. Thanks to the supporting cast and the performance of the Rock, this guy dead lifts an almost 7, but ends up with a 6.