This movie is quite entertaining from start to finish. Boring bits are rare and don’t last long. It has some powerful scenes, although the grandest one seems a bit over-cooked with the lightning wielding effects that don’t seem to have been ‘built up to’ as well as the super-strength from a few scenes prior.
But my main bone to pick with this movie is its inappropriate implication of what constitutes morality. How can Hercules be acting righteous and fighting to save people’s lives while simultaneously mindlessly slaughtering people forced into duelling with him? I guess this is a common theme with Hollywood action movies, but it doesn’t make sense morally, especially when they act like it’s all in the name of goodness and caring, like this movie implies. An action hero should be much more careful who he injures and kills. And it’s not just promoting a thoughtless disregard for life, it’s following the worst scenes of slaughter with scenes of prosperity and contentness. It’s is clearly leading people into associating murderous deeds with peace and happiness thereafter, probably as a way to boost enrolment in military forces, but make no mistake, there’s nothing righteous about slaughtering people without even caring to speak with them first, and those who do such things tend to become suicidal out of an extreme guilty conscience rather than being really happy in the end, assuming they’re not killed or maimed instantly on the battlefield like so many are.
Anyway, Kellan Lutz does a decent job as the lead actor, Hercules. A bit camp, but looks the part and is almost serious enough for the role. Scott Adkins puts in a fair performance as King Amphitryon – he shows a bitter personality here but that’s just the role he’s been given and he holds it down quite well. His son is no less nasty and is played by Liam Garrigan quite convincingly. Liam McIntyre does a decent job as the military squadron leader Sotiris who fights alongside Hercules throughout the movie. Rade Šerbedžija does a decent job as Chiron, the old man on Hercules’ side. Kenneth Cranham also does a decent job as Lucius, the smalltime fight club owner who bought Hercules & Sotiris then sent them to the big stage and set them free. The main women in this movie are Gaia Weiss playing Hebe, Hercules’ lover, and Roxanne McKee playing Alcmene, Hercules’ mother – they’re both quite basic and expressionless – not terrible in their roles but quite forgettable performances.
This movie is fairly action packed, with a few strong scenes, although the action is also monotonous at times. There are a few interesting plot features making it generally enjoyable to watch once every few years – it has a story you can get behind, although it’s quite simple and shallow in script. All in all, I rate The Legend of Hercules (2014) about equal to or slightly better than the Black Panther movies, and to Bloodshot, as they have a similar level of action-packedness and awesome scenes, played by a similar mix of so-so to decent actors, following a similarly simplistic plot with a similar mix of pros and cons to the script, but have a bit less of a dominant action hero vibe – they’re kind of off genre and pandering to snowflake culture too much, while this movie’s a bit more on point in the action hero department.
If you enjoyed this movie, see also Hercules (2014) starring Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) – it’s a totally different movie but has a lot in common with this one, not just in name and year released. Funny how two strong Hercules movies came out in the same year – this is not the only time such things have happened either.