Review of Hercules (2014) by Bruce722 — 23 Feb 2015

Brett Ratner's Hercules film struggles with a bit of an identity crisis. On the one hand, I really like what Ratner tried to do in making the myth and lore of Hercules just that; myth and lore. He made the character simply a fantastic warrior and eventual mercenary who, along with the help of his comrades, played into the living legend in order to acquire jobs and terrify his enemies.

I mean, who would want to go toe-to-toe with the mighty Hercules? The problem with the film is that Ratner doesn't leave the fantastical at the door as he should've. On the one hand, he portrays Hercules as a mortal and mocks the existence of hydra, centaurs, and cerberus.

On the other hand he includes a psychic who can see visions of the future and he has Dwayne Johnson's Hercules perform superhuman feats that no mere mortal could do. Many of the action and battles sequences also fail here, with Hercules leveling many a foe with a single swing of his club.

This identity crisis doesn't ruin the viewing experience completely but it does hinder the film's ability to create serious drama or intrigue. This film ultimately feels a bit shallow and the underutilization of Irina Shayk might be the biggest disappointment of the entire movie.

She seemed to get half of the screen time in the trailers but gets maybe 30 seconds of screen time in the actual film. That's called poor representation. Overall, it's a decent watch and one of the better live action Hercules films I've seen but it fails to live up to its potential, largely due to poor direction.