User reviews

Hercules is not entirely a disaster, as one might expect. A low-budget PG-13 adaptation of 300-style movies made in Bulgaria, this movie is in line with the expectations on what Renny Harlin is capable of.

While not being a disaster on a whole, it's a disaster in parts. The special effects, while being descent 3D images at times, are badly connected with live shots. There are many moments when perspective of such sequences is distorted in really obvious (and unintentionally funny) ways. There are numerous anachronisms. Characters use costumes and jewelry that could not be available in ancient Greece. Screenplay, while not being completely absurd, has some rather awkward dialog lines and unexplainable plot moments.

Unfortunately, the movie is not a Hercules legend but rather a shallow love story and family drama. There's even a bathing scene in a romantic- looking pond with flowers under a waterfall (the water in the pond is so dirty though that one can only feel pity for the actors). There are no heroic deeds of Hercules depicted in this movie.

One last blow for Hercules is PG-13 rating. There's no blood at all. When swords pierce bodies, they re-appear absolutely clean. When one of the characters was struck in the neck, the next shot showed his neck without a sign of a would or even a drop of blood. One of the few things the movie managed to deliver were some dynamic battle sequences; but PG- 13 made them look fake. In the age of 300 and Spartacus TV show, this is not something you want to waste your time on.

Unless you wish to add to a surprising $8 mln box office success after its first weekend, which will probably make this movie more profitable than most other current releases.

Absolutely Average and Below in Every Way, this by the Numbers Filmmaking from a Very Inconsistent Director is so Unremarkable that it Barely Exists and is in Danger of Fading from Memory So Fast that the Mythology of Hercules is Safe.

This is Not Awful, Not Good, Not Much of Anything. It just Sort of Lies there with Nothing to Say, Attract Attention or be Concerned About. The Acting is Across the Board Boring. The Story is Unfaithful to its Source Material and the Story being Told is so Familiar and Stale that even Youngsters will be Disappointed.

It is Disposable and Dull with that Old PG-13 Curse of Banality and Yawn Inducing Action Scenes (that are worse when dealing with swords, spears, and Gladiator type mayhem) that the Battles are Rendered War Weary from the Outset.

Overall, Not the Worst Thing ever, but if You are Going to Watch it, do it Soon before it Ceases to Exist like the Pools of Sweat from a Strenuous Workout.

In 1200 B.C. Greece, King Amphitryon conquers Argos by killing its ruler. Queen Alcmene is tired of his constant war. Hera allows her to have a baby with Zeus who would grow up to be the half-God champion Hercules (Kellan Lutz). He falls in love with Princess Hebe of Crete but his jealous older half-brother Iphicles announces his marriage to her. Hercules is sent to Egypt where he is set up for an ambush and sold into slavery.

The opening fight is slightly interesting. It tries to be 300 but it's not as good. It starts out as a cheaper version of that style. That would be fine but it only gets worst from there. Kellan Lutz comes in and the muscle-bound dude is not charismatic enough to lead. The action style becomes cheaper and weaker. This Greek epic story has never seem less compelling.

Let me start off by saying I am a huge fantasy fan. I can usually enjoy any swords and sorcery type film and find something good about it. Now let me say Wow this movie was bad. I mean I thought this kind of clumsy, lowest common denominator filmmaking died in the 80's. It is bad when I asked the organizer to give me a refund on a free prescreening.

Where to begin? I don't expect much in this type of movie in terms of plot or characterization. In action "porn" like this, the plot is usually just barely coherent enough to move from one action sequence to the next and the characters are as black and white as a chessboard. This movie somehow delivers LESS than that.

It is staggering to me that with a mythology as rich and engaging to draw from, they choose a tired rehashing of Gladiator as the main focus of the film. No doubt holding the more interesting material back for future sequels. The laughable love story is unengaging, poorly scripted and given far too much screen time.

What really disappoints is the action sequences. Hercules is supposed to be a demigod that achieves the impossible; the movie portrays none of this. It wastes a good deal of time with a clumsy mix of fighting scenes in which Hercules is repeatedly captured and/or defeated. WTF? It is only towards the end that an attempt is made to show Hercules as he should be seen, but I had tuned out long before then.

Oddly enough, the blood and gore in this film is kept to a minimum, probably to keep it at PG-13 in hopes of duping the largest possible audience to drop money on it. It would have really benefited from a Conan-esque level of violence to give the movie more weight and better directed action sequences. The dramatic pause in the middle of the action (made famous in the movie 300) is in every single action sequence.

I really don't know what I recommend from this film. Everything in the movie has been done better in other films. I hope this film tanks but I doubt it. It will make a profit and encourage more of the same I'm sure.

The Legend of Hercules is one of two Hercules movies in 2014, the other one is set for release in July starring Dwayne Johnson and Directed by Brett Ratner. And I gotta say, after seeing this movie, I'm really looking forward to the Brett Ratner version, and that's saying something.

Where do I begin? The acting is hilariously awful (Kellan Lutz and the villains especially). The romance is laughable. The fight scenes are a total rip off of 300 and Gladiator, with obnoxious slow-mo being used every 10 seconds. And for a movie with a budget of $70 million, it looks cheap.

The Legend of Hercules has some of the worst production values I've ever seen in a film. The costumes look noticeably cheap, The props are low rent, The green screen effects are amateurish. The 3D conversion is even worse. And the CGI looks worse than an Asylum movie.

Final Verdict: Unless you're watching for a cheap laugh, you should avoid this stinker like the plague.

It is absolutely shocking that this movie came out in today's market. The dialog was horrible: cliché and predictable. The entire film was, in fact, predictable. We saw the previews, we went to the film, and about ten minutes in we knew it was bad. We gave it a chance, hoping it would get better, that it would redeem itself in some way. It did not. It got worse. If you are just looking for an entertaining film, this is a major disappointment, to say the least. Obvious special effects, slow motion for every other move in every fight scene, and terrible, I mean tragic, dialog. If you are a fan of Greek mythology, it's downright offensive. Don't waste your time or your money.

This movie lost me even before I was dragged into the theater. The trailers made it look like a movie made mostly for the sake of violence and for showcasing the sweaty, hairless, shirtless bodies of the male actors; there is plenty if the latter, but shockingly less than expected of the former so if you're interested in bloody and graphic violence skip it, there's nothing that graphic to speak of. The story of Hercules's impossible tasks, is abandoned (and only makes a cameo in a scene where he kills a lion) and instead it's been replaced with a meathead's view of Ridley Scott's, Gladiator. The story and characters are as shallow as kiddie pools, the editing never slows down the pace which is tiring after the first twenty minutes, the same establishing shots are used in the very first shot of every scene, the music also doesn't know how to tone down, as that the climax of each scene is accompanied with large, "rousing" crescendo, the writing is awful and gives you no look into the mind of the characters (at least I hope they had more going on in their heads than what was expressed), there is no acting to speak of, and the visual effects look like they're from a Sci-Fi Channel movie. To add to my disappointment, I also discovered that IMDb doesn't have a "0 star" rating, what the hell?

The Legend of Hercules spoiler free review

This movie is HORRIBLE. Where do i start. The acting is just laughable and bad. Kellan Lutz is bad as Hercules (Hopefully Dwayne Johnson will do better in the next Hercules movie). Every line is said horribly. Did i mention the dialogue is BAD.

The script is horrible. It has nothing to do with the original mythology. It tries to be like 300 and Gladiator but fails horribly. The romance is so cheesy with the worst romance dialogue i have ever heard.

Are the action scenes good?....No....Far from good. It always uses slow motion just like 300 (which was used better) but it was obnoxious and gets old and annoying.

The visual effects and green screen is horrible and this movie has a budget of over 70 million dollars!!! What?! Movies with lower budgets look more convincing then this.

Overall rating 1/10 One of the worst movies i have seen all year and we're still in January!!! Hopefully the Brett Ratner version is better and obviously it will be. You can't get lower than this.

The Legend of Hercules is a film directed by Renny Harlin, and stars Kellan Lutz, Scott Adkins and Gaia Weiss, and revolves around the character of Hercules, son of Zeus, who was born solely to end the life of the King of his people, and unite the lands in peace, or something like that. I didn't pay too much attention, to be honest!

This movie is horrible. It's clichéd to pieces, poorly directed, horribly acted and disastrously written. All the dialogue feels so god damned forced, and makes it incredibly difficult to latch onto any of the characters. Whenever they speak... It's like someone saw Spartacus or Game of Thrones and went "Well, now I certainly know how people of that era spoke!" and wrote a screenplay, full of fancy words and shallow speeches. You don't feel like a single word here is sincere; from Hercules speaking to his clichéd, forbidden love Hebe (Yeah, that's right; his forbidden love's name is Princess Hebe), and from the King to his son... It's all atrocious! The screenwriter also saw the speeches in Braveheart and LOTR: Return of The King and went "Well, we obviously need a battle speech!" and wrote a bunch of big speeches that were emotionless, and couldn't have been more forced. I'll move on, cause I could go on about the dialogue for days!

The acting... It's too much! The main actor, Kellan Lutz, came from Twilight... So you knew from the beginning you were in for a bad ride. He's completely emotionless, stale and you not for one second care for his character. His forbidden love, played by Gaia Weiss, is equally horrible! The only reason she was cast, obviously, is because she's pretty damned hot! Scott Adkins, though, leads the way in crappy performances! His entire performance revolves around him yelling every single word. He could be speaking to his wife in private, and still find the need to yell every word to her. It was dreadful to watch! The only decent performance was delivered by Liam McIntyre, who plays Hercules's friend and comrade. He could actually deliver the lines with a bit of power, emotion! Despite his decent performance though, the rest of the cast deserves Razzie's. I'm calling it people; every single actor and actress here will get nominated at the Golden Raspberries this year! That is not good!

The action is horrendous. Remember 300; that badass film about Spartan's kicking a bunch of Persian's asses? And remember how it used to go into awesome slow motion every once in a while during the fighting, when a sword was plunged deep into a body, or someone hit another over the head? Well, they do it here! And is it good? Hell no! They overuse it to pieces, and by the end of the film, you can't help but cringe every time it occurs. The action in general feels weak. There is never a moment in this film in which you worry for Hercules. You always know that he's going to beat his opponents, and that makes for fights that have you bored and uninterested! When the great hero Hercules lacks peril in his fight scenes, you have a problem.

The CGI here is again, horrible! All the green screen looks like it could have fit right into a 1980's action flick. For a film coming out in 2014, that's not a good sign! All the CGI aspects of this film look incredibly fake, and mixed in with the terrible live sets, it makes for a difficult experience. I'm so thankful I did not see this in 3D, I certainly wouldn't have been able to stand it all. And the extra admission price... completely criminal!

Overall, The Legend of Hercules is a pile of crap. Just please don't watch this! This film should be nominated for Razzie's, and make a minimal amount at the box office. It's one of the worst movies of all time, and certainly going to be on my top 10 worst of 2014. I need to watch 300 now, to feel good about this genre again.

1.1/10

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This wasn't a terrible movie, I kind of enjoyed it. It's like a mixture of 300 and gladiator. I don't get all the bad reviews. If you like a good action flick I would say watch this.

Not the worst of anything to do with the Hercules legend, there are a few obscure low budget animated adaptations (not feature length) that are marginally worse. When it comes to feature length films, it would be very difficult to think of a worse depiction of Hercules than 'The Legend of Hercules'.

The sole saving grace is Liam McIntyre. He is the only actor who tries and the only one to feel right for his character and within the tone of the story. However the rest of the acting was just diabolical. Kellan Lutz has to be one of the most charisma-free and can't-act-his-way-out-a-paper-bag actors working today, he brings none of the heroism and conflict of this great charismatic hero and spends all his screen time looking blank and wooden and uttering his admittedly terrible lines with the flattest and most awkward line delivery imaginable.

Can't say anything better about the ladies either, who also show their acting limitations, especially the portrayal of Hebe who is in dire need of an acting coach. The obligatory villain acting is so pantomimic and overdone that one's surprised at how there was any scenery left from all the chewing, and it is so cartoonish that it veers on at times unintentionally comical rather than menacing.

Blame cannot be entirely laid at their door though. 'The Legend of Hercules' is very incompetently directed by a director that in the film's worst parts even makes Uwe Ball look good. Even worse is the script, which is extremely flabby and heavy in banality and melodrama. The characters are genre stereotypes basically and have the development of a thin piece of cardboard. The story, what there is of it (for the running time this is often wafer-thin and threadbare storytelling) rushes from one scene and plot point to another, and jumps around constantly that following what's going on is not always easy. But because the writing and characterisation has so little to them and that thrills, emotional engagement and such are next to none the film feels interminably dull and lifeless often.

Some bad fantasy-action-adventure films have the credit of looking good. That cannot be said at all for 'The Legend of Hercules' that looks like direct to video fodder from SyFy or The Asylum. The photography is unfocused and editing choppy, with an irritating over-reliance of slow motion and impregnated pauses that come over often as gimmicky, excessive and unnecessary. The sets and costumes look recycled, and to say that the special effects are dodgy is not just an understatement but actually pretty insulting, some of the worst effects of any film seen in recent years.

What little there is of the action is at best uninspired choreographically, an eyesore visually and in terms of peril they're somewhat tame. The music score is lifeless and forgettable, very generic genre scoring actually. The 50s and 60s Hercules films may have been cheap and cheesy, but at least they knew what their goals were, who they were aiming at and what tone to take. 'The Legend of Hercules' fails at all three of those things, often it was difficult to work out what it was trying to be or what tone it was aiming for as it tries to be light-hearted fun and also take it seriously and fails abysmally at both.

To summarise, very bad film. How it made it to theatres/cinemas and not straight to DVD is honestly a complete enigma to me, and this is coming from a very subjective person when expressing opinions. 2/10 Bethany Cox

Oh boy. What a ride, so much greatness. Ed Wood would be proud.

The Legend of Hercules. This caustic comedy doesn't start at the minute 0 of the movie. The movie in itself is just the tip of the iceberg, to fully understand all the implications and subtlety of this story you have to be familiar with the background. This is NOT an easy movie. Just like Citizen Kane it's a movie you need to DESERVE, as it will not give itself to you too easily.

It all starts in a rocking chair next to a swimming-pool. Summer is shining, life is good, whiskey's on the rocks. Some old guy with sun glasses is on the phone, talking while playing Candy Crush.

"I'm telling you, people want a gladiator movie. Just like Gladiator, something like that! (Sweet.) Just freaking do something like the series Spartacus, or Rome, I don't (Tasty!) give a damn. I want the script in one week. (Sugar crush.)"

One week later 10 screenwriters come up with 10 different scripts. For a movie 10 times better, the guy in the rocking chair decides the movie will be a blend of the 10 scripts.

He puts 70 million dollars on the table.

The movie is now shot and it's kind of very bad, just how it was supposed to be. It doesn't matter anyway because people just have to go to the cinema once, it's alright if they don't like it and don't come a second time! HA!

Worried, some guy calls the money-guy in the rocking chair.

"-Hey, I've been thinking, we should use a famous name from the mythology in the title! It will bring more people!

-Asklepios?

-Eeeehhh, well to be honest I was thinking Hercules...

-Oh, alright then."

And so The Legend Of Hercules was born. This movie is not a story, it's money invested and hope for a return. If you make a bad movie but you hit some landmarks: Hercules, mythology, gladiators, somewhat-famous actors, then you'll probably make money.

You have to understand the true, deep nature of this movie. The Legend of Hercules is a cry for help, a poetry, a game-changer. The actual purpose of this movie is to impact the global industry, to make producers realize that, no, bad movies actually DON'T WORK, and they are not easy money.

A simple, honest, gladiator movie with no fake big name like Hercules, with no fake romance, with just a guy fighting and living in the roman empire would have made more money. It is time to leave the path of using the same recipe over and over again. This is the one and only message this movie conveys, successfully.

I hope you'll appreciate The Legend of Hercules as fully as I did.

This isn't Gladiator and this isn't Spartacus either (whaever Spartacus you're thinking about ... it's not)! And we also have to say, it isn't Hercules either. Well not really, apart from the name in the title. But this takes liberties in story telling and it also does takes liberties towards the end, with a scene that is almost ridiculous, but also insanely funny.

So while Kellan Lutz cannot even remotely be as amazing a Hercules as Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson is (will be, haven't watched the "real" Hercules movie yet), this can be fun to watch. The movie never pretends to be more than it actually is. But if you're not down with that, you might as well just skip this. It can be a fun party movie with some friends though ...

Step aside, Kevin Sorbo, we have a new man for the role of Hercules and his name is Kellan Lutz. If you have no idea who Mr Lutz is, check out his appearances in the Twilight instalments.

Anyway back to The Legend of Hercules. As the title suggests, this is an origin story that sets up the demigod character. Despised by his father King Amphitryon (Scott Adkins) since the day he was born, Hercules - the son of Zeus and Queen Alcmene (Roxanne McKee) - is sent to war after failing to elope with his true love, Princess Hebe (Gaia Weiss). King Amphitryon favors his elder son, Iphicles (Liam Garrigan); unfortunately he is not warrior material let alone lead a kingdom and winning the heart of Princess Hebe. As fate would have it, Hercules survived the war and returns to reclaim his love and kingdom from the wrath of King Amphitryon.

The poster reads From the director of Cliffhanger and Die Hard 2 - it's unfortunate they forgot to add in the fact that both were movies from more than twenty years ago, and Renny Harlin's directing career has long been sunk by a certain Cutthroat Island. Let's face it; The Legend of Hercules isn't going to resurrect Harlin's status in Hollywood anytime soon.

While similarly themed movies such as 300, Immortals and Clash of the Titans are known more for their visual aesthetics than storytelling, The Legend of Hercules failed miserably on both accounts. Filmed entirely in Eastern Europe because of cheaper costs and taxes, Harlin's movie mimics the feel and look of its predecessors while pretending to strip down to the grittiness of that era. However every single set piece looks like a cheap knock-off, right down to the CG extensions - case in point, one seriously fake looking puppeteer lion looks even worse than that in cable series Spartacus and Rome.

Written by at least four credited writers (one of them from the terrible Conan the Barbarian remake and Harlin himself), it is such a shame that the supposedly mythology-inspired story instead resembles Ridley Scott's Gladiator more than anything - if you recall, Maximus, was also betrayed and sold to slavery but made a comeback for revenge. We didn't realize that the legendary Greek hero Hercules actually ventures on the same path until now.

Unimaginative plotting aside, the movie suffers from incredible clunky, modernized dialogue peppered with a variety of British and American accents and awful delivery from the actors. With the exception of McKee and Adkins (surprisingly turning in a solid performance), most of the cast members - especially Lutz - needs to sign up for advanced acting classes. Minus off all the disemboweling, limb and head severing and bloodshed you normally would have expect from such a theme (an obvious attempt to lure in younger audiences), The Legend of Hercules quickly dissolves into a predictable yawn fest.

It's a tad disappointing that a movie about a demigod with incredible strength fares without emotion and plays like generally a mere paint-by- number adventure. Comparing to the 1997 animated feature by Disney, this one is hardly worth the time.

This is probably why we do not see many quality swords and sandals flicks, most Hollywood producers are worried about the "badassness" of the film rather than a quality experience. Unfortunately, the drawing rooms are most likely filled with ideas about actors in costume jumping in slow motion to attack the bad guy and other senseless special effects a la Transformers.

I guess what I am saying is that newer technology and more special effects are not always a good thing, specially with a swords and sandals movie, Hollywood will continue losing money on movie tickets because they are missing the point, sometimes less is more.

This movie really was awful, I hope The Rock's Thracian Wars will give us a more realistic feel of what a Hercules movie should be.

This has to be one of the worst movies of the year. A lot of times a bad movie's saving grace is the special effects, but they were terrible in this. What was all the slo-mo about? From the very opening scene with cgi soldiers instead of real people to the horrible lion to Hercules swinging around 2 huge stones. All of it looked so fake. Another thing, a movie like this needs all the blood and gore and since this was pg-13 everything like that was not shown on screen. When someone put a knife in a chest, there wasn't blood squirting everywhere. Let's not forget how bad the acting was. I'm not sure whom was worse, Kellen or Gaia.

FINAL VERDICT: Avoid at all costs.

It's not particularly good either.

I consider myself to be rather generous when it comes to what I watch. Typically finding something to enjoy/something good about anything I watch.

This is no different. There's a lot to enjoy about this movie. The acting is actually pretty solid throughout most of the movie, with the odd wobbly moment here and there.

The set pieces are beautiful. The fight scenes actually well choreographed with gratuitous (perhaps sometimes too much) slo-mo.

And the script has some real gems in it, that seem to come out of no where with how good some lines were.

However, one of the bits I could not shake that absolutely took me right out of the movie, was when the actors were in front of a green screen.

Particularly if it was supposed to be alot of motion involved.

It's not melodramatic when I say ten-year old, wannabe streamers, do it better.

Overall it's an enjoyable watch... if you don't think too hard about it.

Nicely done Herc legend (about 2000X better than the Dwayne Johnson version) done by the incomparable and unpredictable Renny Harlin, starring (if you know your casting) Hercules and Spartacus both, with Scott Adkins in one of his only decent performances since Undefeated 2 and 3 --- and it gets a low rating?

What were you expecting?

Star Wars?

Good entertainment, nice pacing, a fun way to spend a few hours on a rainy afternoon.

And if you are bored you can run the name Renny Harlin through the IMDb database and find out why he deserves your respect

Finnish director Renny Harlin continues to disgrace himself with this ultra-cheesy version of the Greek story which is frankly an embarrassment and stain on the career of all involved. THE LEGEND OF HERCULES is one of three similarly-themed films that came out around the same time; one is a B-movie with Sean Astin and the other a Hollywood blockbuster with Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. The other two will need to be pretty bad to equal the poor quality of this one.

THE LEGEND OF HERCULES feels and looks like a cheap cash-in copy of 300 for the most part. Scott Adkins, who plays the stock villain in the film, is even dressed up to look like King Leonidas in his early scenes. The hero is played by Kellan Lutz, who played in support in THE EXPENDABLES 3 but has no discernible talent for his leading role here. In fact, he's dreadful. He may have a huge, Schwarzenegger-style physique, but he makes Schwarzenegger's acting style look like Laurence Olivier's by comparison.

It doesn't help that the below-par script was written by Sean Hood among others; Hood similarly fumbled the recent CONAN THE BARBARIAN remake, although that was better than this. There's little story and instead plenty of CGI-enhanced action including war scenes and fights with dodgy-looking lions. Some of the fight scenes aren't too bad, but they're overly stylised and feature silly scenes of characters doing superhuman jumps through the air and messing around instead of finishing off their opponents quickly.

All that was left for me to do was to sit back and count the appearances by actors from no less than four TV shows. Gaia Weiss, from VIKINGS, is the love interest, and Roxanne McKee (GAME OF THRONES) plays Hercules's mum, although of course she's far too young for the part. Kenneth Cranham (ROME) shows up as a slave trader. Best of all is Liam McIntyre (SPARTACUS) playing Hercules's friend and ally. I was amused to see that McIntyre is given an ugly fringe haircut so that he doesn't distract from Lutz's appearance. Anyone who has watched and enjoyed SPARTACUS will know McIntyre would have been far better in the lead role.

One standout reason: Scott Adkins! Adkin's multitude fighting disciplines, acquired over a lifetime, really show through in this film. OK, he's not the main character, but Adkins prefers to play 'bad guys'.

I think you can watch this film from different aspects. If you want a Hercules story, you can watch that -- along with his very lovely on-screen soulmate. You can watch it for the scenery. Or, as I did, Scott Adkins just seems to take over every scene he's in.

If you want story, I think that's good too. The other actors do their jobs quite well; but Adkins' performance is superb -- if you appreciate martial-arts at all.

Worth your time to watch!