Hercules

This review may contain spoilers!

An epic tale of an ancient hero famed for his many battles in a film that needed a little more epic and a few more battles. I would give Hercules a 5.5/10.

Hercules sported an impressive visual look, with some very swift and intense cinematography and some fun CGI that really captured Greek Mythology. The music within this film was also a big pull, being quite epic in how it added to the film. The story itself got very good in the end, creating a closing act that was nothing but a thrill to watch, pure blockbuster at it's best.

Rufus Sewell, who played Autolycus, was a brilliant member of the cast and actually felt like he belonged within the era, a truly funny and aggressive warrior role.

It was Ian McShane who basically kept this film alive in his role as Amphiaraus. McShane treated his misguided drunken seer with a calm and collected demeanour that made him easily the best actor in the film. He had two of the best moments of comedy in the film when he predicted his death incorrectly.

This film was a bit of a shambles when it came to it's big budget sets and battle choreography; nothing felt real nor did any battle feel all that intense as most of it did not seem to be aided by a large number of extras. The story itself was a bit weak as Hercules was not who I expected the role to be, nor was any portion of the film really unexpected. Furthermore, the use of flashbacks and backstory was so confused and misguided that I tended to forget about it, until I was forced to pay attention to it when it was very poorly incorporated into the main story at the end of the film.

Dwayne Johnson. who played The Scorpion Ki-I mean Hercules, was a bit of a joke and proved that having muscles does not cut you out for a historical blockbuster; his accent and dialogue was incredibly stilted. John Hurt, who played Lord Cotys, may be getting too old, as he did not put a scrap of voice work into sounding any different from his other roles in the past ten years. Aksel Hennie, who played Tydeus, was neither scary, loveable or an important subplot character; all things he was supposed to be. Ingrid Bolso Berdal, who played Atalanta, was a strong attempt at a strong female character; too bad she only had about five lines to work with. Reece Ritchie, who played Iolaus, was weak and timid, even when it came to his big heroic moment; I found him to be a terrible actor. Joseph Fiennes, who played King Eurystheus, had very little presence in the film, and the fact his character was even in it was confusing. Rebecca Ferguson, who played Ergenia, was grossly underused for an actress who is so well regarded.