The Legend of Hercules (2014) (Movie Review)

The Legend of Hercules (2014)
Dir: Renny Harlin
Cast: Kellan Lutz, Gaia Weiss
Duration: 1 hr 38 mins

A good number of us might already have heard of the legend of Hercules. What if anything sets this film apart? Well, honestly, nothing. It’s the same thing garbed differently, that’s all.

For starters, the film lacks the feel of an ‘ancient’ time (apart from the sets and costumes) and the action (if I can call it that) lacked punch (literally). The movie opens with a war between two kingdoms. The Kings face-off and King Amphitryon(Scott Adkins) emerges victorious. It is into Amphitryon’s family that Hercules is born. He is a gift of Hera, a goddess to whom his mother, Alcmene (Roxanne McKee), was devoted and a Son of Zeus, who mysteriously impregnated her, to the king’s chagrin. He is named Alcides (Kellan Lutz) although Hera foretold he would be called Hercules and is the second son in the royal family.

After his birth, we are transported 20 years in to the future. Alcides and Hebe (Gaia Weiss), princess of Crete are in love but Iphicles (Liam Garrigan), Alcides’ elder brother and heir to the throne is set to marry her against her wishes. In an attempt to cut out Alcides from the equation, he is sent on a suicide mission to Egypt. Somehow, he and a commander, Sotiris (Liam McIntyre) survive. They are sold as slaves and ‘wrestle’ their way to freedom.

While being captured Alcides reveals his name as Hercules and this change is crucial to the plot. Upon returning to their native kingdom, Sotiris, his fellow survivor, rallies around Hercules, some of the honest chiefs of the King’s army. They galvanize the villagers to rise up against the tyrannical Amphitryon. In the final battle, Hercules with Divine assistance and the courage of his followers takes the palace by storm. When he is about to end Amphitryon’s life, Iphicles appears with Hebe and threatens to kill her if his father is not released. She drives the sword through her own body and kills Iphicles in the process. Hercules finishes off Amphitryon with the same dagger his mother was killed with. The movie closes with a child being born to Hercules and Hebe.

There was plenty of animation to supplement the largely blasé action. The effects were good but failed to inspire awe. The film pales in comparison to classics like Troy and others. It appears to be an attempt to breathe new life in to old, stale bones. Great try guys, but this anachronism is too far lost.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Great Grand Masti 2 (2016) (Movie Review)

Image
Dir: Indra Kumar Starring: Vivek Oberoi, Riteish Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani, Urvashi Rautela Dur: 2 hrs 10 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: 1/10 Comment: The jokes, gestures and costumes are sexually suggestive. An absolute waste of time. “What an opening line”, you might think. But to say otherwise would be an absolute lie. This film is in fact, a great grand waste of time. It’s horrible whichever way you look at it. The story is weak and thrives on cheap thrills and sorry jokes. The actresses are no doubt eye-catching but the rest is all a blur. The comedy is in fact tragedy and the film attempts to play on the basest desires of man. It’s unbelievable that actors like Riteish and Vivek would do such a film. I am not a big fan of bollywood but I still feel bad when I see bollywood making films like these. All of a sudden, I see that sex is being propagated through Indian cinema. The views of sex are changing and filmmakers and actors are not hesitating to take on unconvent
Read more

St. Joseph: A Father after the Father's Heart (Book Review)

Image
  St. Joseph: A Father after the Father’s Heart , Hyderabad: Don Bosco Publishing House, 2021, Rs. 150, pp. 240. The book is a compilation of articles from various authors writing about qualities of St. Joseph. They have used the litany of St. Joseph as an index and have put together articles on each of the invocations. All the contributors are Salesians from different parts of India but there a couple of contributors from abroad as well. The book lends itself to be a souvenir of the Year of St. Joseph that Pope Francis declared. Let me start out by commenting on the quality of production. The paper is of good quality and so is the design and layout. It is neat and has an attractive cover. Coming to the content, it gets rather repetitive but that is understandable considering that there is so little Biblical foundation for an exposition of St. Joseph. The articles often reference Pope Francis’ letter Patris Corde and extensively utilize Pope St. John Paul II’s apostolic exhortatio
Read more

A Day with Don Bosco

                              Don Bosco was declared the Patron of Youth by Pope John Paul II in 1989. He received his mission: to be Father to the young, in a dream at the tender age of nine. He nurtured this call throughout his life and never wasted an opportunity to gather boys and direct them to God. He did not do this as a spiritual director, (at least no at first!) but rather as a friend, a companion and a seminarian. As a young boy, he would attract youngsters with his magic tricks, tightrope skills, games etc and then get them to recite the rosary with him or recount to them the Sunday sermon (which he remembered thanks to his prodigious memory). Already then, he had ingeniously found a way to combine religion and entertainment. His entertainment was necer for entertainment sake but rather a façade or an advertisment for religious instruction. Even as a young priest, boys would long for more than just a wekkly encounter with him. They loved him and found in him a friend w
Read more